Matt Reagan

Matt has over 15 years of experience in the golf industry as a coach, head professional, and entrepreneur.  He is a 10-year PGA member and holds a Bachelors of Business Administration with a Major in Marketing, from Campbell University. 95% of his Professional career, Matt has been focused on coaching and developing what is now Operation 36 today.

Matt started playing golf later than most Professionals.  He joined his High School golf team in upstate NY when he was 16. The sport hooked Matt to a point that it became a daily activity.  Under the direction of his High School Golf Coach, Steve Thompson, Matt was able to go from not finishing a hole in a high school match, to being able to break even par for 9 holes by the time he was a senior in high school.  

His passion for the sport led him to pursue a career in golf at Campbell Universities PGA Golf Management Program in 2007.  This is where Matt met Ryan Dailey, the Assistant Director of the PGA Golf Management Program.  Ryan was instrumental in helping guide Matt in his professional development. He really helped sparked Matt’s interest in coaching and learning more about the golf swing.  

Along the journey at Campbell and through multiple internships it became clear to Matt that he wanted to be a golf coach that specialized in developing junior golfers.  Matt always felt that there could be a better plan to take someone from never playing and get them excited and skilled enough to play golf. There seemed to be a curriculum and development plan for juniors in every other sport, but not in golf.

While at school, Ryan and Matt had been researching junior golf development together through multiple certifications and educational seminars.  In 2010, Ryan had an opportunity to start a junior golf program at Keith Hills Golf Club, Campbell University’s Golf Club.  Because of their shared interests, Ryan invited Matt to team up with him to begin the program. They got their first 3 students to sign up and began the partnership that led to what is Operation 36 Golf today.

After Matt graduated from Campbell a year later, he took the Head Professional job at Keith Hills Golf Club.  Matt ran normal golf operations in the morning, and then would transition to coach and develop the Operation 36 Program in the afternoons with Ryan.

In 2013, Matt left the Head Professional position to focus full-time on Operation 36.  In the years that followed he continued to develop the program with Ryan and started the program at 3 other locations in the Raleigh area where he would coach daily. 

In 2016 they began licensing Operation 36 to other Golf Professionals.  At this time, Matt stepped away from coaching and focused his full efforts on working with Ryan to develop the Operation 36 technology, curriculum, marketing, products and team that now service over 650 program locations and over 100,000 golfers around the world.  

At his core, Matt loves solving problems and coaching others. He resides in North Carolina with his wife Kelsey and two children. He continues to co-lead the program with Ryan and is driven to accomplish the goal of introducing 1,000,000 new golfers to playing their first 9 holes with Operation 36.