Ben Strong, PGA

Instructor & Competitive Player

I grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If you don't know the UP, picture small towns, long winters, and not much in between. The nearest elite golf facility was hours away. There were no tour coaches within driving distance. No junior academies with swing labs and fitness centers. No one mapping out a development path for me. I had a set of clubs, a nine-hole course, and a grandfather who cared more about how I handled a bad hole than what my swing looked like on video.

My grandfather had a farmhouse with a huge open field and a little putting green he'd built himself. That was my training facility. Summers were spent hitting balls into that field until it got dark, then putting until I couldn't see the hole anymore. Winters were spent in the garage doing whatever I could to keep working. Nobody was filming my swing. Nobody was building me a periodized training plan or tracking my stats. I just showed up every day and worked.

For a long time, the results didn't match the effort. I wasn't very good. I was losing to kids who had better coaching, better facilities, and more experience in competitive settings. But I kept showing up. I kept grinding in that field and that garage and on that nine-hole course, and I kept getting a little better every season.

By my junior year, the game was starting to come together. I was playing really solid golf, stacking up runner-up finishes, and feeling like the skills were finally developing into something real. Then regionals came and I put up a performance that didn't reflect any of the work I'd been putting in. That round stuck with me. I made a decision right there that I would never shoot scores like that again. It wasn't anger. It was clarity. I knew what I was capable of, and I was done falling short of it.

That offseason I worked harder than I ever had. By the end of my senior year, I won six out of eight conference events and claimed the Upper Peninsula Division 1 Championship. I didn't have more resources than anyone else in the state. I didn't have better facilities or better coaching or a bigger budget. I just refused to stop working, and I taught myself to think like a competitor because nobody was doing that for me.

From there I went to Ferris State University for Professional Golf Management. It's one of the top PGM programs in the country, and it gave me four years of structured education in instruction, coaching, the business of golf, and player development methodology. I learned how to teach the game the right way, grounded in research and real coaching science. But the education that shaped me the most came through my internships and work experience. Boyne Highlands Resort, Bearpath Golf & Country Club, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, and The Golf Club of Houston. Four completely different coaching environments. Four different philosophies on how players develop. Each one added a layer to how I coach today, and I carried something from every single one of them into this program.

After earning my PGA Class A, I started competing on mini tours. Not as a box to check. As a serious pursuit. I wanted to know what professional-level preparation, pressure, and performance actually felt like from the inside. Not as a concept I could teach from a textbook. As a reality I could speak to from firsthand experience. I wanted to feel what my players would feel so I could coach them through it honestly.

I'm still pursuing competitive golf at a high level. That means every system I teach, every drill I assign, every mental game strategy I coach your player through is something I'm currently using and refining in my own preparation. I'm not teaching from memory. I'm coaching from the middle of the journey, and that changes the quality of what I can give your player.

That's why I built Strong Golfer Academy. I look back at that kid in the UP, losing tournaments, grinding alone in a field with no plan and no coach connecting the dots, and I think about how different it could have been if someone had built a real system around me. If someone had connected my swing work to my fitness to my mental game to my nutrition to my tournament strategy and managed it all as one development plan. I had to piece that together myself over 15+ years of trial and error. Your player doesn't have to. That's what this program is. The coaching system I wish I'd had, built for the next generation of competitive players who refuse to figure it out alone.

P H I L O S O P H Y

There is no one-size-fits-all.

Every player I work with is different. Different body. Different swing. Different temperament. Different goals. Different schedule. A 14-year-old trying to make varsity and a 17-year-old chasing D1 scholarships need completely different development plans, even if they have the same handicap.

That's why the program is built around the player, not around a curriculum. There's no pre-built lesson sequence that everyone goes through. I assess your game, identify what's actually holding you back, and build a development plan that addresses your specific weaknesses in the order that will produce the most improvement the fastest.

Some players need six weeks of short game work before we touch the full swing. Some need fitness and mobility work before their body can support the positions they're trying to hit. Some need a complete overhaul of how they think on the course before any technical work will stick. The program adapts to the player, not the other way around.

Cookie-cutter instruction is why most players plateau. Individualized coaching is how they break through.

Scoring Over Mechanics

A perfect swing doesn't mean anything if you can't score with it. I teach players to think strategically, manage risk, and play the game in front of them.

Systems Over Tips

Every player follows a structured development cycle. Coaching sessions, practice plans, stat tracking, and fitness all connect into one plan with measurable benchmarks.

The Body Matters

Your swing is limited by what your body can do. Rotational power, mobility, core stability, and injury prevention are part of every player's program

Mental Game Is Trainable

Pre-shot routines, pressure management, shot commitment, and emotional regulation. These are skills, not personality traits. We build them like any other part of the game.

Credentials &

Experience

Competing on mini tours has given me firsthand experience with the pressure, preparation, and mindset required to perform at the professional level. These experiences shape how I train players to think, prepare, and execute like true competitors.
As a graduate of Ferris State University’s Professional Golf Management program and now a PGA Certified Instructor, I bring together competitive playing experience and world-class golf education. My time at Ferris gave me access to top instructors, industry leaders, and internships at premier golf destinations. By blending my firsthand playing experience with the structured, research-driven training I received, I coach players with both practical wisdom and professional systems, giving them the tools to succeed at the highest level.
Growing up in a rural town, I didn’t have access to high-end coaching or elite golf facilities. That challenge became the foundation for Strong Golfer Academy. I built a private indoor training facility and an online platform to make tour-level instruction available anywhere — not just in big cities or exclusive clubs. My goal is to give juniors, adults, and aspiring professionals in all areas the same opportunity to learn with launch data, structured systems, and coaching that blends competitive playing experience with world-class education. Whether in person or online, Strong Golfer Academy is designed to close the gap for players who want to play at the highest level.
The short game is where tournaments are won and handicaps are lowered. As a specialist in putting, chipping, pitching, and wedge play, I help players sharpen the most important part of their scoring system. My coaching blends technical skill with touch, creativity, and strategy around the greens, giving golfers the tools to save strokes and perform under pressure.