Mike Bender
Mike Bender, with his Golf Academy headquartered at Timacuan GC in Lake Mary, Florida, attained the highest honor that can be earned by a golf instructor when he was named the 2009 National Teacher of the Year this past September by the PGA of America. Among Bender’s more celebrated students include Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, LPGA four-time tournament winner Seon Hwa Lee, LPGA rookie sensation Vicki Hurst , as well as PGA Tour veterans such as Jonathan Byrd, Mark Hensby, Robert Damron and two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen. In all, Bender has helped more than two-dozen PGA, Champions and LPGA Tour professionals with their games.
Bender began teaching after competing three years on the PGA Tour in the late 1980s and has been headquartered at Timacuan G.C. since 1991. Recently he opened satellite academies at Stoneybrook East and Stoneybrook West in metropolitan Orlando along with Mike Bender Elite Golf Academies at Sarabande CC in Howey-in-the-Hills, FL and in Seoul, South Korea. These Elite Golf Academies are for competitive junior, collegiate and young professional players who want a world-class, full-time training program that uses Bender’s proven techniques for building champion golfers.
Bender also is well known for his creation of the MEGSA Perfect Practice Equipment, a revolutionary training station that is used by thousands of amateurs and top professionals including 2007 major winners Johnson and Morgan Pressel.