When Brian Crowell accepted the honour of 2026 PGA Professional of the Year, he did something that might surprise golfers more familiar with the club pro's anonymity on the national stage. He went straight to one of the most famous instructors in the game — David Leadbetter — and asked a simple question about career longevity.
Leadbetter's answer was two words long.
"Teach kids."
In an interview published by U.S. Kids Golf, Crowell recounted the advice and echoed it with his own full-throated endorsement. For PGA professionals who are just beginning their teaching careers or veterans looking for renewed purpose, he argued, the answer lies in the junior lesson tee.
"That's what keeps you sharp," Crowell said. "That keeps you strong. It helps you to simplify your message."
It is a message that cuts against some of the more obvious economic incentives club professionals face. Adult members generally pay more per lesson, demand fewer accommodations around school schedules, and provide steadier income. Junior programs, by contrast, can be logistically demanding and require a different kind of patience — and often a different kind of teacher.
"I'm imagining an hour later, are they able to recall what the most important point of the lesson was?" he said. "Do they know what they should be working on? Did they have fun? And do they want to come back? And if they can relate all of that to their parents, I've just won. I've just won."
The emphasis on parental buy-in is striking. Juniors are not the paying customer in most cases — parents are — and Crowell's metric reflects the reality that golf is a family purchase. Lessons that fail to translate to dinner-table conversations die quickly. Lessons that do land can create lifelong players and, by extension, lifelong clients.
Crowell also framed junior coaching as the surest path to the sort of teaching reputation that builds a career.
"And that's what showing interest and passion in the next generation is all about," he said. "And that's what pays dividends for your career."
Leadbetter's advice, meanwhile, reflects a career that has spanned more than four decades at the top of the instruction world. He coached major champions including Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Michelle Wie, but his long-term perspective on the game has always included the junior ranks — where he has argued the industry's future is made or broken.
For club professionals reading the tea leaves in a post-COVID, post-LIV golf economy — where tee-time demand remains elevated but member-to-pro margins continue to squeeze — the Crowell and Leadbetter message lands with fresh weight. The prescription is not flashy. It is not a social-media strategy, a new launch monitor, or a branded short-game school.