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Why Three of Four Beginners Quit Episode 289

Why Three of Four Beginners Quit

· 01:32:12

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Nineteen million Americans have tried golf since 2020. About one in four of them stayed.

In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Matthew Reagan, PGA (co-founder and general manager of Operation 36) to talk about why golf keeps losing the beginners it works so hard to attract — and what changed the day he stopped teaching the swing first and started people 25 yards from the hole.

The conversation dives into:
  • The year-four gut punch: a junior program running at 95% retention that still lost forty golfers, and the single thing the kids who stayed all had in common
  • A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds, a drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that turned into Operation 36 — start at 25 yards, shoot 36, back up
  • Why the environment around a beginner matters more than the technical ability of the coach, and what that says about how golf picks its heroes
  • The women who told him they had always wanted to play but had never been given permission to start that close to the green
  • Opening the app to everyone in 2027 — couch to course, course to coach — and what an app should refuse to pretend it can replace
Connect with our guests
Matthew Reagan, PGA — co-founder and general manager, Operation 36 — 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-reagan-op36/

Join the NewClub community

Links & Partners
🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com
🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.com

Listen to The Bag Drop

Connect with Matt & The Professor
🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/
📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/
🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: thebagdrop@newclub.golf

Chapters
00:00 Cold open: the moment Operation 36 got its name
00:52 Welcome, and a fall morning in Athens
01:20 Ten kids under eight: not rested, but refreshed
03:35 Unplugging, the Slack away message, and the phone-off experiment
06:45 New York, Mumford and Sons, and whether you could live there
08:37 Today's guest: Matthew Reagan and Operation 36
10:10 What Op36 did to Athens Country Club
11:19 Scotland as the barometer: beginners go straight to the course
12:00 Professor's teaching: sampling versus early specialization
15:13 Ad read: Titleist AIM Enhanced and seeing the ball go in
17:18 Matthew joins The Bag Drop
18:16 Sixteen, upstate New York, and a course you could play for free
20:25 Campbell, Ryan Dailey, and deciding to coach
21:46 What actually turned him into a golfer, and it was not technique
25:28 Gamification, variability, and why golf hooks you
28:58 Three juniors at Keith Hills, and a program that grew to eighty
30:01 Ten levels, bag tags, and making a three-footer fun for an hour
32:19 Year four: forty golfers do not come back
33:59 North Carolina Long Term Athlete Development LLC
34:43 The one thing the kids who stayed had in common
36:09 A year of three-hour nine-hole rounds
38:08 The drive to Pinehurst, and the flip that became Operation 36
40:08 Teaching calculus to a seventh grader
42:01 Narrative, and the data nobody else in golf has
44:16 One in four: this is not a junior golf story anymore
45:42 Bootstrapping, licensing, and taking the junior out of the brand
49:15 Shrinking the variables until clarity becomes motivation
51:06 Competence, relatedness, autonomy
52:40 The women who never had permission to start close
55:33 The cultural headwind: America starts on the range
57:05 Aligning a club top to bottom, and Op36 at St Andrews
1:02:41 The ego of the young coach, and a $400-a-month membership
1:05:25 A gymnastics gym on every corner, and not a golf program
1:08:55 What a club needs before this works
1:12:23 If a recession comes, which programs survive
1:15:46 Opening the app in 2027: couch to course, course to coach
1:18:22 Golf Genius, and learning to run an engineering team
1:24:56 One thing you can do to make somebody's first nine better
1:31:07 Close: reviews, Titleist AIM Enhanced, and thanks

What is NewClub?
Founded in 2017, NewClub is the premier private golf society in the United States. It blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, as well as signature trips and exclusive perks. NewClub is revolutionizing golf membership, making the game more meaningful for those who love it.

What is The Bag Drop?
The Bag Drop features weekly stories from the culture, community, and characters shaping golf today. Produced by NewClub Golf Society, each episode blends authenticity and expert insights for passionate golfers at all levels. Special guests from clubs, courses and every corner of the changing landscape join us for thoughtful, in‑depth discussions on all things golf.

View episode transcript


Creators and Guests

Matt Considine
Host
Matt Considine
Founder of NewClub and our resident feel player. Matt’s junior golf career led him to the University of Akron where he met our co-host. During his junior year, Matt Studied abroad in Ireland and discovered golf societies. Subsequent trips to Scotland fed his passion for the history, ideals, and culture of accessible, affordable, and sustainable golf, a concept he would later bring to the U.S. with NewClub. Known for his interviewing style, quick wit, and compelling storytelling, Matt brings thoughtful, reflective conversations to The Bag Drop. His professional journey before NewClub included multiple leadership positions in growth-stage startups, where he managed teams responsible for more than $250 million in revenue. Matt actively gives back to the game as a Board Member of the First Tee of Akron and past chair of the Evans Scholar Foundation. Proudly based in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, Matt finds inspiration in family life with his wife, their three children, and their golf dog, Gypsy.
The Professor
Host
The Professor
NewClub's Chief Ambassador and every golf sicko's favorite educator. Kevin is a thoughtful and deeply curious host. His studied, constructivist approach adds intellectual enrichment and balance to the show. As a professor of Math Education at the University of Georgia, Kevin's background in applied mathematics and cognitive psychology uniquely informs his insights on golf strategy and performance. Originally from Ohio, Kevin was a Division I collegiate golfer at the University of Akron, where his passion for understanding mathematical thinking began. After earning his doctorate from Arizona State University, he combined his analytical expertise with his love for golf by co-founding Golf Blueprint, an organization aimed at helping golfers optimize their games through data-driven strategies. Kevin enjoys balancing deep philosophical discussions with simple pleasures, such as indulging his sweet tooth, cheering on college football, and spending relaxed evenings with his friends, his wife, and their beloved dog, Nole.

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