User:Williamsteckel/Drew Steckel

Drew Steckel Drew Steckel is a professional golf coach. Steckel was born June 6, 1985 in Lincoln, NE, but he spent much of his childhood in Southern California in the Valencia / Santa Clarita area. Steckel primarily coaches PGA Tour players. In 2015, Danny Lee won the Greenbrier Classic and credited Steckel with turning around his golf career and helping him achieve his first PGA Tour victory. Other PGA tour players have credited Steckel with significantly improving their results at the professional level.

Introduction to Golf While growing up in California, Drew Steckel was mainly interested in action sports such as dirt bike riding and snowboarding. After high school, Steckel embarked on a golfing career by attempting to become a professional tour player. Steckel played various mini-tours including the Moonlight Tour in Florida, the eGolf Tour in North Carolina and the Gateway Tour in Arizona. Steckel also took lessons from several coaches around the country, and he spent a significant amount of time working with Mac O'Grady.

Coaching Career Begins Drew Steckel shifted his focus toward coaching and away from playing in the summer of 2011. Steckel's first student was Web.com player Elliot Gealy, and he also assisted professional women golfers on the Symetra and LPGA tour. Working with Gealy during his Web.com seasons gave Steckel the idea that in order to coach players at the professional level, a significant amount of time must be invested with the player in a competitive setting. Steckel began traveling to tournaments and spending nearly all of his coaching time at the tournament site working with his students. This teaching method has remained an important part of Drew Steckel's coaching philosophy.

Getting Started Coaching PGA Tour Players Since 2014, Drew Steckel has been actively involved in coaching Jason Gore, Danny Lee and Pat Perez and other PGA Tour professionals.

Gore and Steckel met at TPC Valencia in California and began working together during 2014. Gore spent much of his season on the Web.com in order to regain his full playing privileges for the PGA Tour. Working with Steckel helped Gore improve his results and ultimately Jason Gore finished in the Top 25 money winners on the Web.com tour, which earned him exempt status on the PGA Tour for the 2014-15 season.

Drew Steckel and Danny Lee first established their coaching relationship in March 2014 at the Puerto Rico Open. After meeting in Puerto Rico, Steckel began coaching Lee at PGA Tour events in Florida and Texas and their coach-player relationship was cemented.

Drew Steckel began his coaching relationship with Pat Perez after Perez missed the cut in the Shriner's Classic in Las Vegas in October 2014. Perez was unhappy with his performance at the end of the previous season and the start of the 2014-15 season, so after missing the cut at the Shriner's tournament he switched coaches and began working with Steckel.

The 2014-15 Season During the 2014-15 PGA Tour season, the players coached by Drew Steckel experienced greatly improved results. Jason Gore, Danny Lee and Pat Perez were all ranked outside the top 200 players in the Official World Golf Rankings before beginning their work with Steckel. At the end of the 2014-15 PGA Tour season, Gore was ranked 144th, Perez was ranked 120th, and Lee was ranked 36th. Gore, Perez and Lee were ranked 92nd, 45th and 9th in the 2014-2015 Fed Ex Cup race. In July 2015, Danny Lee won his first PGA Tour event in a 4 man playoff at the Greenbrier Classic. Lee also recorded a tie for 2nd at the Tour Championship, 2 3rd place ties, 7 Top 10 and 12 Top 25 finishes. Perez tied for 4th at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, tied for 5th at the Crowne Plaza Invitational and has recorded 8 Top 10 and 13 Top 25 finishes. Gore finished in solo second place at the Wyndham Championship and recorded 2 Top 10 and 5 Top 25 finishes.

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