Ryan Dailey

Ryan has over 20 years of experience in the golf industry as a coach, educator and entrepreneur.  He is a 18-year PGA member and holds two degrees, a Bachelors of Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration, both  from Campbell University.

His first experience in golf would have left most players looking for another sport. He stepped onto the local nine-hole course in Ray Brook, N.Y., at the age of 15 and proceeded to miss the ball multiple times, lose more than a dozen golf balls and shot close to 80… for nine holes.  However, he was hooked, and each time he went out, he got a little better, and the more he trained, the better he got. 

Never good enough to make the college team as a walk-on at Campbell University, Ryan pursued a playing career after college in Dallas, Texas. After two years of rather dismal results, he turned his career towards teaching the game. He taught at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in McKinney, Texas and at GolfTEC in North Dallas.  He met David Orr at a seminar in North Carolina and wanted to learn as much as he could from him. David encouraged him to apply for an open position to work alongside him at Campbell University’s PGA Golf Management Program.  

Ryan spent 10 years as a full-time faculty member and the Assistant Director of the PGA Golf Management Program at his alma mater, Campbell University. He mentored over 300 future PGA professionals, delivering the PGA Education in the classroom and at the course.

While at Campbell, his hunger for learning led him to attend as many continuing education seminars taught by some of the brightest minds in golf coaching around the world as possible. Great information was passed on in these seminars, but no deliverable programs were shared that were simple to run. Frustrated by this, Ryan feverishly took notes in hopes of someday being able to combine all of this great information into a simple program that anyone could run. From those early notes in 2006, Operation 36 was born.

Ryan teamed up with Matt in 2010 to start to create a deliverable program at the University golf course, Keith Hills Golf Club.  They worked day and night over the next 13 years to refine, test and then refine again a program that would someday be used by coaches and students around the world. They continue this cycle of improving the program now with a staff of over 15 employees, some who have been with them since 2014.  

The goal of Operation 36 is now to create 1,000,000 new golfers and transform the introduction to the game of golf forever.  

Ryan lives in North Carolina with his wife, Melissa and three children. He caddies for his kids on a regular basis in the Operation 36 nine-hole events and enjoys seeing them learn from this great game. He has lived the material in this book for 13-plus years, not only helping students and coaches around the world, but also creating three golfers in his home.