Golf Coaching Franchise Has Plans for Aggressive Growth

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Most people involved in businesses built around the sport of golf realize it will take new approaches to reach young people more familiar with YouTube than Arnold Palmer.


Dewayne Sode, co-owner of four L.A. County-based locations of computer golf coaching firm GolfTEC believes he has one in his new putting analysis technology. The system allows golfers to assess and hone their putting strokes online at relatively low cost.


“The putting system will increase revenue by up to 10 percent,” said Sode, co-owner of GolfTEC locations in Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills and Pasadena, and another under construction in Westlake Village. “It is a significant advance in the technology because putting makes up 40 percent of the game.”


The company rolled out its Seva Putting System last week as a supplement to the online swing analysis technology that has been the core of its business for a decade. Basically, the system provides instant online feedback for golfers, who can measure the angle and speed of their swing as well as the position of their body and the club. It also allows a side-by-side swing comparison to their previous swings, as well as comparisons to hundreds of professional golfers that are kept in the database and can be called up at the touch of a button.


The GolfTEC computer analysis systems are found in 88 locations nationwide and have become popular with enthusiasts, particularly the younger ones, who get a 30 percent discount.


“They understand the technology and simply expect to use it, rather than taking traditional lessons,” said Sode. Custom lessons narrated by teachers are also kept online so that clients can access them at home.


The ability to apply that same technology to putting puts Sode’s firm ahead of the pack. Sode admits that convincing golfers that mastering a 6-foot putt is just as important and difficult as driving a ball 300 yards could be a tough sell, at least initially.


“Our goal is for clients to concentrate on putting during every fifth lesson,” he said.


Sode, who has a day job working as a human resource management firm Administaff, and co-owner Craig Reibenspies, who owns a sheet metal company, purchased GolfTEC’s franchise territory for northern Los Angeles three years ago. The Woodland Hills store is their largest with more than 500 clients. Sode says the company has an aggressive growth plan nationwide and expects to have 300 locations within the next few years, up from 88 currently.



Headed Home

The National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers were the best draw among AEG-owned Staples Center’s three basketball and hockey tenants during the 2006-07 season, selling out all but one of its games during the past season.


For the season, the team drew 778,415 fans, up slightly from the previous year when it recorded 33 sellouts. The Lakers played two sold-out playoff games before bowing out.


The only game that failed to fill the house was a Dec. 6, 2006, game against the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.


The Los Angeles Clippers parlayed last year’s playoff appearance into a six percent increase in home attendance. A total of 755,261 fans attended games this season, an average of 18,421 fans per game. The team more than doubled its number of sellouts with 13, up from six the previous year.


Attendance slipped as the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings skated to a near last place finish. Attendance fell by 8 percent to 675,393 for the 2006-07 season. The team sold out nine games, half the number it sold out the previous year.



Game Winner

The International Sports Sciences Association has named Brian Theiss its trainer of the year for the third consecutive year.


The founder of Westlake Village-based Theiss Institute has trained more than 15,000 clients over his 24-year career. He was chosen as the top trainer out of more than 95,000 applicants across the country.


Amgen Inc. President and Chief Executive Kevin Sharer has been a Theiss client for five years and Guitar Center Inc. President and Chief Executive Marty Albertson has been with Theiss for nearly three years.


“Executives are tough clients because they know how to evaluate what works,” Theiss said. “But once you can increase their performance, they appreciate what you do.”


He also won the institute’s award for the best business model for the sixth consecutive year.



McCourt Honored

Jamie McCourt, Dodgers vice chairwoman and president, has been named by Women’s eNews as one of its 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. She is being recognized for her efforts to bring more women into baseball and to educate women about the game.


McCourt created the Women’s Initiative and Network, a program that helps women learn and experience baseball through clinics and seminars featuring players, coaches and executives.



Staff reporter David Nusbaum can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 236, or at

[email protected]

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