This past week I celebrated 13 years since I launched Brandi Jackson Golf. I took some time to share why I decided to launch this business….

The truth is I had no plans to ever do anything besides play professional golf, from the ripe age of about 9 years old all I wanted to do was play golf for a living, that was it. Thankfully I was a good student but never came up with a career path other than one that led to the LPGA Tour.

After 4 years of college golf at Furman University, where I finished with a successful senior year stint as the NCAA East Regional Champion and a berth to the NCAA National Championships, along with earning All-American honors and SoCon Player of the Year plus a US Womens Am Runner-Up finish, I began my pro golf career.

After a handful of Futures Tour (now the Epson Tour) events I was ready for LPGA Q-School where I managed a 3rd round 66 and held on to earn full LPGA status for the 2004 LPGA season. I would go on to make only 3 cuts as a rookie and lose that status. For the next 6 years, I would battle between the two tours to try and earn a living on the road as a professional golfer. I had some success and could get in contention, but never enough to close the deal and make a true living but even then, I was still planning to continue to play full-time.

Through a blind date with another professional athlete, I learned about an opportunity with a college recruiting company that educated athletes about the college recruiting process. They needed more currently active professional athletes in smaller sports like golf. So I began a side gig as an expert educational speaker, despite having zero experience and an extremely timid and reserved personality when it came to public speaking, making cold calls, and setting up my own speaking events at high schools, camps, and tournaments. But I was learning that getting out of my comfort zone and being forced to challenge myself with something new was actually pretty intriguing to me!

So that is where it all began….

I worked for that company for just over a year, eventually being the golf recruiting coach to work with all of their nearly 1,500 junior golf clients. As I spent more time developing my speaking, consulting, mentoring, and coaching skills, I was spending less time playing golf tournaments. By the end of 2010 I wasn’t playing much anymore and as 2011 came around I realized this golf consulting and coaching thing was something I could see myself doing long-term, but I wanted to do it on my own terms.

I knew that if I was going to make the impact that I wanted to, then I had to be able to spend more time getting to know the players better. I wanted to use my experiences, the good and the bad ones, to help other players achieve their goals. I needed to build trust and mutual relationships among the college coaches so they would take me seriously and respect my recommendations. I had to have my hand in everything that I did and everything that I put my name to. I wanted to instill growth and maturity in young athletes. I felt I could lead them to do better and be better than I was at their age. I was compelled to create something special. I knew I could make a difference. I had to make a difference.

So in April 2011, I founded Brandi Jackson Golf