This episode’s guest, John Brooks aka Brooksz, has had a profound impact on many collegiate golfers.

John played college golf and was an NAIA All American at the University of North Florida, where he became the men’s team head coach while pursuing his MBA. In 7 years, John took the program from the NAIA league to NCAA Division 1. He remained head coach for 14 years total, during which John oversaw tremendous growth and change in the program, coached 19 All-Americans, and he coordinate the funding, design, and construction of a $2.5m training center on campus. Today, North Florida remains one of the top-25 men’s golf programs in the country.

In 2003, John left coaching to establish his consulting business, Red Numbers Golf, to assist junior golfers and their families navigating tournament golf and college selection. I worked closely with John throughout high school, when he helped me institute effective practice routines and goals, organize my national tournament schedules, pinpoint colleges where I could have fulfillment both on and off the golf course, and ultimately he guided me through the recruiting process at UVA. He’s worked with over 600 players and their families in his 18 year span as a consultant, is an Advisory Board Member for the Titleist Performance Institute aka TPI, and is an advisor to the American Junior Golf Association.

John identified a need and built a product to cater to a demographic. John and I discuss that, along with how he started down the path of coaching and why, approaching his coaching career as a business development opportunity, and what it’s like to work with players during the formative years of their lives to set them up for long term success in life beyond golf.