On a packed Good Friday afternoon at Rock Creek Golf Club, the chipping green below the clubhouse patio held six to eight kids working on their short games, and every one of them knew what they were doing. The parking lot was so full that a visitor circled three times for a space. This, in miniature, is the ambition of the Ryan Petty Golf Academy: a junior golf program built on the belief that if golf is fun, kids stay interested for life.
Petty, the director of instruction at Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope, runs the academy with senior golf instructor Taylor Deming, who was fresh off a qualifying run at the PGA Tour Card when the program’s junior development efforts were in full swing. Their Development and Performance Program represents a serious investment in building a top-flight instruction operation on the Eastern Shore, and its philosophy fits on a T-shirt: “Getting good is fun.”
Operation 36: Start at 25 Yards
The academy’s beginner pipeline runs through Operation 36, a nationally recognized junior program that flips the usual order of learning golf. Instead of starting kids on the tee box, where failure comes fast, beginners start with fundamental instruction and then play on the course from 25 yards from the pin. The goal is simple: play nine holes from 25 yards and shoot 36. Once a junior hits that mark, they move back to 50 yards, then 75, then 100, and eventually to the tee box, building a complete game yard by yard.
Operation 36 classes run four times a month in spring and fall sessions, with different days and times to fit family schedules. The academy provides equipment, so parents of 5-to-13-year-olds do not have to invest in clubs before their child has fallen in love with the game. Along the way, juniors get two sessions playing nine holes with parents and grandparents carrying the bag.
A digital dashboard tracks each player’s progress, offering feedback, focus suggestions and practice logging that both players and parents can access. Petty and Deming also watch each kid’s trajectory. Is this a Golf for Life player, the kind who will carry the game through family outings and business deals? Or does the skill set point toward the professional pathway? Few amateurs will ever shoot 36 from the championship tees, and the program is built to make both outcomes feel like winning.
Beyond the Lesson Tee
The academy’s reach extends well past its own students. Petty and his team work with local school golf teams across the coastal area: Bayside Academy’s Youth Development League, grades 3 through 6, trains at Rock Creek throughout the year, and Daphne High School’s golf teams, grades 7 through 12, work with the instructors every Tuesday and Thursday. Scheduling for junior tournaments deliberately works around family holidays and vacations.
The staff goes beyond swing mechanics. The academy brings in mental coach Chris Duff and fitness instructor Rick Mayes to work with the kids, with particular attention to late bloomers whose games can jump once growth spurts end. An indoor practice facility on the far side of Rock Creek’s driving range has been in the works, designed with hitting bays that can open to the range in any weather and simulator bays inside with full swing analytics. Petty also handles club fittings, making the operation a one-stop shop for a better game, for kids and adults alike.
Summer Camps and a Coming Challenge
Each summer, the academy runs Monday-through-Friday golf camps, with morning sessions for 5-to-9-year-olds from 8 a.m. to noon and afternoon sessions for 10-to-13-year-olds from 2 to 6 p.m. Adults are not forgotten; lessons and fittings are available to duffers of any age, as the many converts of Taylor Deming’s teaching can attest.
Petty’s confidence in the region’s junior golf is summed up in his favorite line, aimed at the Birmingham area code: “Better polish up your golf game, 205. 251 is coming after you.” On a crowded Friday at Rock Creek, with the chipping green full and every kid smiling, the claim did not sound like a joke.