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Challenge

"Your entire team at CapTech enabled us to provide a great experience at the PGA Merchandise Show. The Stand Alone App will be of tremendous benefit to coaches and, most importantly, be an important tool in our mission to bring more children into our great game."

- John Bryan

Vice President, Coaches Institute

U.S. Kids Golf (USKG) was among the first in the business to create golf clubs and hold tournaments for kids. From there, it quickly branched into coaching by creating a proprietary curriculum called Player Pathway with an associated certification for junior golf coaches.

With the desire to bring their brand solidly into the digital landscape, USKG came to CapTech for a solution that would empower its coaches with tools to manage jobs more seamlessly, improve workflow, and allow them to spend more time teaching.

A digital experience for coaches would also open the opportunity to start collecting student data, which could be used to generate recommendations for equipment needs, classes, and tournaments.

Approach

Driving Toward Coaching Success

First, CapTech’s Customer Experience team conducted an initial review of current assets, as well as near-term and long-term opportunities for the organization. Competitive research provided a view into other junior golf programs, while user interviews and job shadowing uncovered current pain points.

The research confirmed disparate systems existed, along with experiences for different touchpoints, and validated that coaches wanted to use USKG to help market, manage, and grow their own businesses. User personas and journey maps helped guide a larger digital strategy by visualizing and explaining current state opportunities, outlining desires and pain points, and demonstrating how to deliver tools and services to improve their USKG experience.

To bring it all together, CapTech presented a multi-year digital roadmap that informed how USKG could create a unified brand and digital experience across all channels — a single place that allows parents to engage with USKG and provides coaches tools for managing their business.

Results

On Par for a Digital Transformation

Focused on a digital transformation, CapTech partnered with USKG to develop a standalone mobile application for Player Pathway, which was previously only available in pamphlets and booklets. The app gives coaches the ability to:

  • Add students to a roster
  • Track student notes
  • Track progress on Player Pathway
  • Access content from Player Pathway
  • Store parent information to enable efficient communications

Now, coaches can track their students’ progress toward earning skill- and technique-specific pins in real time, digitally, instead of using pen and paper. Additionally, the app includes a companion website that helps coaches share awards and accomplishments for each student with parents at the end of every class.

Tools like these help coaches focus more of their time on teaching and fulfilling USKG’s vision of instilling in young players a lifelong passion for the game of golf.

Accolades from Golf Digest for Innovative Technology: The U.S. Kids Golf app (Android and iOS) successfully debuted at the PGA show in early 2020, and Golf Digest featured it in the article, “One of the 7 New Ways Golf Instruction is Embracing Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Technology.”

Jon Bradway

Jon Bradway

Principal, Sports, Media & Entertainment Lead

As lead of CapTech's sports practice, Jon partners with leagues, media companies, and technology firms to create the next generation of competition and fan experience.

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Bree Basham

Bree Basham

Principal, CX Practice Area Lead

Bree leads our Customer Experience practice, creating digital strategies and solutions using modern technologies to deliver meaningful and measurable experiences for our customers. She has served as a Creative Director for many omnichannel experiences within the retail space, as well as for a number of other industries that CapTech serves.

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