The incredible addition of our Bear's Den Learning Center and a very talented group of Golf Professionals has led Elk River to be home to one of the most elite golf instructional programs in the country.  

Our Director of Instruction, Jeff Pierce has been a huge asset to the success we've had involving golf instruction at Elk River. Jeff has also had some incredible successes this year with his students who play at the highest level, on the PGA Tour.  

Last week at the BMW Championship, Jeff's student and Elk River's new Honorary Member and PGA Tour Ambassador Roberto Castro, placed in 3rd.  This finish secured his spot at the Tour Championship at East Lake in his home town of Atlanta.  Dustin Johnson, also a student of Jeff's, won the event, adding to his already strong 2016 performance and placing him atop the FedEx cup points list heading into the Tour Championship.    

We are proud of Jeff's accomplishments and pleased to share how well our Elk River Member, Roberto, and Jeff's other players are doing on Tour.  Below you will find a synopsis of Jeff's year on tour with some of the world's best players.   

Current List of Jeff Pierce’s PGA Tour students:
Dustin Johnson
Brooks Koepka
Roberto Castro
Si Woo Kim
Brett Stegmaier
Derek Fathauer
Chesson Hadley

Highlights of each of Jeff's Students: 

Dustin Johnson 
      I began Working with DJ at the 2015 PGA championship at Whistling Straights on putting. We showed significant improvement immediately and began a very touch and go relationship involving periodic session over the remainder of the year. Monday of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, DJ reached out for a little more steady help and we spent the next couple of days getting back on track with the putter. Consequently DJ won the U.S. Open, followed next by winning the World Golf Championship at Firestone in his next event. Following back to back wins, Dustin finished 9th at the British Open, 2nd in the RBC Canadian, 18th at Barclays. 8th at Deutsche Bank Championship, and winning again at BMW championship. Prior to his victory last weekend, we spent all evening Monday on SAM Putt Lab discussing the eventual putter change. Dustin led putting last week to go on to a 3 shot victory and record setting performance for the event. 

      Dustin, currently 2nd in world ranking is leading FedEx cup points heading into the last event of the season, the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta Georgia. DJ will also be heading up the American Ryder Cup team in two weeks at Hazeltine National.

Brooks Koepka
      Brooks and I have been working together since 2013 during his rise from the European Challenge tour, European tour, and now makes the PGA tour his home. Brooks, fighting some injuries this year managed a very successful season including 7 top 10s, a playoff loss at AT&T Byron Nelson in May, and a 2nd place finish the next week at FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. An ankle injury following the U.S. Open removed Brooks from playing in the World Golf Championship at Firestone along with the British Open, two venues that have historically proven to be successful events for him. Upon returning from the Injury, the PGA Championship at Baltusrol was his first event back in which he made a fantastic showing finishing 4th. The next week at Travelers Championship Brooks played well again finishing 9th. 

      Brooks, currently 22nd in world ranking narrowly missed the tour championship due to the limited schedule affected by the injury. However his great play during the season landed him 5th in Ryder Cup points earning him a place on the USA team at Hazeltine. 

Roberto Castro
      Roberto reached out to me following a poor short game performance at the Shell Houston Open in April. Statistically one of the weaker putters on tour he knew he needed to make short game improvements to compete and win at the highest level. We began work the week after the Masters, and again had immediately improvement and success. Roberto Lost in a playoff at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in May, jumping his world ranking from 210 down to 105. He took that confidence and the work we continued onto a fantastic second half of the season including 11th at the Memorial, 11th at Barbasol Championship, and a 3rd last week at BMW Championship earning him a spot in the Tour Championship Next week in Atlanta. 

      Roberto, currently 70th in world ranking and 21st in FedEx points will certainly be someone to watch at East Lake, a home course advantage from his days at Georgia Tech. (Go Jackets!) 

Si Woo Kim
      After a few attempts of our very own Mike Mayhew to connect me with Si Woo's caddy, a close friend of Mike's, we were finally able to connect at the Barbasol Championship in mid July. Si Woo, statistically one of the best ball strikers and short game players on tour was one of the worst putters on tour at the time. We spent 2 days making significant setup changes and mechanical changes the week of the event which he went on to have his best putting performance of his season consequently losing in a playoff to Aaron Baddeley. Again with immediate success the work continued eventually earning Si Woo the Wyndham Championship victory in Greensboro leading into the playoffs.

      Si Woo, currently 58th in world ranking and 18th in FedEx points will enjoy his first trip to the Tour Championship at East Lake next week.

Derek Fathauer and Brett Stegmaier
      Both players reached the playoffs at the Barclays Championship earning the their playing privileges for the 2016-2017 PGA tour season. Both players carded a few top tens but will certainly be looking to be more competitive next year. 

C hesson Hadley
      Chesson finished 156th on the official money list giving him limited PGA tour status. He is currently competing in the web.com playoffs looking to earn full status again on the PGA tour for next year.