Seven GOLFTEC Coaches Named to Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers in America List

When Golf Digest's editors went looking for the best instructors under 40 in the country for their 2027-2028 Best Young Teachers in America list, they found seven of them that help golfers improve from a GOLFTEC bay.

Josh Troyer, Connie Chen and Bryan Collins, all based in Englewood, Colo., where GOLFTEC is headquartered, return to the list, as does Jacob Babcock from the Mequon, Wis., center. Three others earned the recognition for the first time. Zach Estridge teaches in Eagan, Minn., Mike Ray in San Antonio and Eric Jordan in Durham, N.C.

The magazine was specific about what it wanted. The new class, the editors wrote, personifies "the game's transition from analog to digital," and while its members still recognize the value of traditional methods, they "embrace how technology has transformed the game—and how golfers learn it." Most of them also place "a major emphasis on reaching as many amateur golfers as possible through their creative use of social media," which the editors called a point of emphasis in deciding who made the cut.

That description could pass for a GOLFTEC job posting. Every lesson in a GOLFTEC center is built on motion measurement and video, so a student sees exactly what the body and club are doing instead of taking the coach's word for it, and leaves with that video to review before the next session. The coaches on this list are the ones who have figured out how to turn all that data into a clear plan for a golfer who just wants to stop slicing it.

Troyer, 37, is GOLFTEC's director of teaching quality, the coach responsible for making sure a lesson in Durham holds up to one in Englewood. He was also named the 2026 Colorado PGA Section Teacher of the Year, and golfers who follow GOLFTEC on YouTube know him from "Score Killers," a short-form series on the mistakes that cost amateurs the most strokes. Chen, 33, is the youngest GOLFTEC coach on the list.

Estridge, 38, Ray, 36, and Jordan, 37, built their reputations one student at a time in centers a long way from headquarters. Babcock, 39, has now made the list again from a suburb north of Milwaukee.

GOLFTEC employs more than 1,000 coaches across 260 centers in the United States. Golfers who want to see what caught Golf Digest's attention can book a game evaluation at any GOLFTEC center.