On Good Friday afternoon in April 2022, the parking lot at Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope was so full that visitors had to circle for a space. The reason was not a tournament. It was kids. The place was buzzing with young golfers, and six to eight of them worked on chips and pitches around the practice green while their coaches watched. Every one of them was enrolled in the Ryan Petty Golf Academy, a program built around a simple promise that its instructors repeat often: getting good is fun.
The academy, led by Rock Creek Director of Instruction Ryan Petty with Senior Golf Instructor Taylor Deming, has put a major focus on junior golfers through what it calls a Development and Performance Program. Its core idea is that if golf is fun, players will stay with it for life, and its structure is designed to make steady progress visible to kids and parents alike.
The Team Behind the Program
Petty serves as Director of Instruction at Rock Creek Golf Club, a golf course in Fairhope. In spring 2022, he was joined in leading the junior program by Deming, the academy’s senior instructor, who had just come off a run at qualifying for the PGA Tour.
The two made a significant investment in building what they intended to be a top-flight junior program, and their enthusiasm for it was obvious. The academy’s staff also included a mental coach, Chris Duff, and a fitness instructor, Rick Mayes, who work with the young players. That support reflects a broader trend in junior golf, where coaches increasingly treat the mental game and physical conditioning as essential parts of player development rather than extras.
The coaches keep a particular eye on late bloomers. Kids go through growth spurts at different ages, and a player who struggles at 12 may take off at 15 once strength and coordination catch up. Keeping those players engaged and interested through the awkward years is a central goal.
Operation 36: Learning the Game From the Green Back
For beginners, the academy uses a program called Operation 36, a structured curriculum used by golf facilities around the country. At Rock Creek, it serves children ages 5 to 13, including those who have never swung a club. The academy provides the equipment, so parents do not have to make a large investment before they know whether their child will stick with the sport.
Operation 36 turns the usual approach to learning golf on its head. Instead of starting on the driving range with a driver, kids start close to the hole. Here is how the progression works at Rock Creek:
- Each spring and fall, classes meet four times a month, with a choice of days and times.
- Beginners receive fundamental instruction, then play around the greens from 25 yards out.
- After learning the basics, there are two sessions in which kids play nine holes from 25 yards, with parents and grandparents serving as caddies.
- The goal is to shoot 36 for nine holes, an average of four strokes per hole.
- Once a player shoots 36, they move back to 50 yards and work to shoot 36 again, then 75 yards, then 100 yards, and so on until they are eventually playing from the tee box.
The logic is straightforward. The short game accounts for a large share of the strokes in any round, and learning to chip, pitch and putt first gives kids early success. Instead of spending months hitting balls on a range with little sense of accomplishment, young players get real scores and attainable goals from their very first sessions.
The program also includes a digital dashboard that tracks each player’s progress, offers feedback and suggestions on what to work on, and logs training time. It is designed to be simple and accessible for both players and parents. The whole approach centers on training, playing and progress, and at Rock Creek it showed. The kids on the practice green that Good Friday looked like they were having fun, not doing chores.
Two Pathways: Golf for Life or Golf as a Career
Very few amateur golfers will ever shoot 36 for nine holes from the regular tees. Petty and Deming monitor each player’s development to identify what they call a kid’s “pathway for golf.”
For most, that pathway is Golf for Life: a game to enjoy with family, friends and business associates for decades. Golf has long been a social and professional connector, and a child who learns the game well enough to enjoy it gains a skill that lasts. For a smaller group of players who demonstrate the ability and drive, there is a Pathway as a Professional, with more intensive training and competitive play.
The coaches also try to work around family schedules when selecting junior tournaments, recognizing that holidays and vacations matter too.
Partnerships With Local School Teams
Petty’s team works with several school golf programs in the coastal area. In 2022, Bayside Academy’s Youth Development League, serving grades 3 through 6, worked with Petty and Deming at Rock Creek throughout the year. Daphne High School’s golf teams, covering grades 7 through 12, practiced with the academy every Tuesday and Thursday.
Those partnerships help explain why junior golf in Baldwin County has grown so competitive. Petty summed up his view of the area’s rising young talent with a line that plays on Alabama’s area codes, with 251 covering Mobile and Baldwin counties and 205 covering the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa region: “Better polish up your golf game 205, 251 is coming after you!”
An Indoor Facility and Help for Adults
In April 2022, Petty and his team were building an indoor practice facility on the far side of the driving range at Rock Creek. The plans called for a golf simulator with full swing analytics inside, plus a bay door that would allow players to hit outdoors onto the range in any weather. Petty also does club fittings, which he sees as part of a one-stop approach to building a better game.
The academy is not just for kids. Adults can take lessons too, and Deming had already built a following among local players. The philosophy is the same at any age: learn to enjoy the game more by playing it better.
Summer Camps and Getting Started
In summer 2022, the academy scheduled golf camps Monday through Friday, with sessions for 5- to 9-year-olds from 8 a.m. to noon and for 10- to 13-year-olds from 2 to 6 p.m. Details were posted through the academy and on Instagram.
Programs, schedules and camp offerings can change from year to year, so families interested in junior golf at Rock Creek should contact the Ryan Petty Golf Academy directly for current information.
For parents weighing whether to introduce a child to golf, the academy’s model offers a few useful lessons regardless of where a family signs up:
- Look for programs that start with the short game and give kids real, achievable goals.
- Choose instruction that provides equipment for beginners, so you can test interest before buying clubs.
- Pay attention to whether kids are smiling. If the program is not fun, they will not stay with it.
- Be patient with late bloomers. Growth and coordination arrive on different schedules.
One more detail about the man behind the program: Petty speaks fluent Spanish, which is how he met his wife. It is a fitting footnote for a coach whose program depends on communication, patience and a genuine love of teaching.