Director of Golf Instruction
Phone:
919-499-5121 x2
Email:
[email protected]
“Coach André” started his career at “The Golf School” at Mount Snow, Vermont in 1988 overseeing the driving range operations. Working beside/for 23 PGA golf professionals, 7 days a week over that summer, he fell in love with the game, and decided that he wanted to be a professional himself. Within those three summer months of total immersion, long days of work, dedicated practice and playing with those pros, André attained a 3 handicap. This handicap met his goal and allowed him to play in both, The New England Open and his first US Open Qualifier. Before long, André was shooting scores under par, and moved to Florida to play professionally.
Between the years of 1990 and 2000 André competed against some of the best PGA Professionals in New England, and in Florida. André enjoyed competing on the North Florida PGA circuit, U.S. Open qualifiers and PGA sectional events, but endured back and elbow complications which had him choose to turn to teaching, get married, and start a family. André was married in 2001, had his first born in 2002 and twins in 2006.
André was heavily engaged in PGA education. Between 1995 in 2005, André personally spent intimate group time and one-on-one time learning from many of the World’s most notable teachers to include David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Butch Harmon, Mike McLean, Mike Bender, Craig Shankland, Rick Smith, Randy Smith, Dr. Jim Suttie, and Dr. Bob Rotella. André was personally mentored by Mike McGetrick for attaining his PGA Master Professional credential. At that time, only 54 professionals in the United States had accomplished that level of PGA Teaching Certification.
After being awarded a PGA Master Professional in 2003, André decided to take his degree in psychology to the next level and attended graduate school to focus further on Sport Psychology. This led to his idea, contribution and development of the first reliable Golf IQ assessment. Shortly after forming IQ4Golf, LLC, André contributed to PGA education by being an educator for the PGA of America. He conducted educational seminars on a sectional and national level at the PGA education center in Port St. Lucie Florida for fellow PGA professionals and was then honored to be invited as a guest speaker at North Florida’s Teaching and Coaching Summit. During these days in early 2000, his PGA peers awarded him multiple times as Teacher of the Year (NFSWC), Junior Golf Leader, Horton Smith Award (for education), and North Florida Bill Strausbaugh Award (recognizes PGA Professionals for integrity, character, distinguished service, and mentoring of other golf professionals). In 2006, André received another honor by being in the company of Bob Toski and Hank Haney when he was selected by Golf Range Magazine as a Top 50 Teacher in the United States.
For the past 23 years, André has dedicated himself to teaching all levels of golf.
Today, Andre owns and operates Triangle Golf Academy, with locations in North Carolina and Florida.
