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Devan Bonebrake has made a leap that only the best golf instructors achieve.
These days, it's hard to pinpoint exactly who Bonebrake is, because he's wearing so many hats. He's part TV personality, business owner, influencer and, yes, still a golf instructor.
Bonebrake, who grew up in Portland, Oregon, launched his teaching career under mentor Jim McLean after playing collegiate golf in southern California. When he isn't filming episodes for the popular GolfPass series The Golf Fix, he's busy giving lessons and overseeing his new business, Studio Golf Club, a modern take on the golf training center.
Amid business meetings and competing in events like the Good Good Midwest Open, he's still an instructor at heart. The day after I met him in Los Angeles, he had nine lessons scheduled.
"I still want to teach," he said.
Launching Studio Golf Club
The first Studio Golf Club has already opened in El Paso, Texas, with locations coming to San Diego, Los Angeles and Scottsdale soon. Bonebrake and his partners hope to eventually take them nationwide to every major city.
"What we are trying to create are these really cool, modern golf training centers where people get better at a significant rate but also really enjoy just being there," he said. "The way we have kind of built them out is you really want to hang out there just like you want to hang out at a cool hotel lobby bar."
Bonebrake said he got the idea after five years as the director of instruction at Rolling Hills Country Club.
"What I've found, especially being at Rolling Hills is, it doesn't matter how great of a coach you are, no matter how great your drills are, if people don't do them correctly or don't understand the ballflight and what's happening, they will tend to revert back [to old habits]," Bonebrake said. "We're creating learning-centric facilities where the coach can set parameters and say, 'Okay, this is the lesson. You got so much better. This is what you did.'
"When you come back in on your own, because you're a member now, the next 3 to 5 sessions, these are the only numbers I want you to care about. These are the only numbers I want you to put on the (Trackman) screen. If you can't reach these numbers, then you know that you are not doing this movement right and here are the drills to fix it."
All Studio Golf Clubs will feature Trackman, SportsboxAI and PuttView technology with hitting/instruction bays where Bonebrake and his teachers can give lessons or club-fittings, along with large video kiosks where GolfPass videos provide golfers the proper drills to work on.
"I've found that the learning process is expedited so much. It's important that the coach is good and super knowledgeable. But it's also important that the person who is practicing has the right feedback. This makes the feel and real come together," he said.
The flagship location near El Segundo, Calif., will be roughly 10,000 square feet, including nine bays, a members lounge serving beer and wine, a fitness area, a cold plunge pool and sauna and expansive putting green. For more information, visit the Studio Golf Club website.
How Bonebrake's creativity keeps 'The Golf Fix' fresh
The Golf Fix has been the most popular video series on GolfPass for several years running. Bonebrake's big break hosting the show came after filming instruction videos for Revolution Golf, a precursor to GolfPass. That led to multiple appearances on Golf Channel's original Morning Drive shows.
Replacing Michael Breed, the popular original host of The Golf Fix, wasn't easy. "I was definitely stressed the first two seasons," Bonebrake said with a laugh. “I had watched Michael Breed forever. Growing up I watched Golf Channel a lot - like, too much. It was cool…I kind of manifested it. That’s what I wanted to do and it was cool to see it happen.”
Play
Bonebrake takes a two-pronged approach preparing new ideas for each 20-episode season: His everyday teaching duties provide plenty of content fodder, but he also often writes most of the episodes within a month of filming to keep the vision fresh in his head.
“There is a struggle with being creative and unique without being so obtuse and unusual that realistically no one would ever do it that way," he said. "It might be entertaining for TV but not practical to using a tool [in the show] that nobody ever has.”
He also practices what he preaches. He keeps his game and body in shape by eating right, working out and practicing. He's doing his part to helping golfers everywhere get better.
“I’ve had so many really good coaches reach out unsolicited and tell me they saw my videos and they're asking me questions about how I got this idea or that one," he said. "That has been very rewarding. I'm just trying to get more golfers to hit it better and have better overall games."
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