Martin Chuck, PGA: A spectacular NMSU-PGM success story

While roaming the aisles of exhibitors at the 2023 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando last month, I re-connected with a PGA member I have known since his days as a student at New Mexico State University in the Professional Golf Management program.

Martin Chuck graduated from NMSU in 1992. I feel everyone should know about this remarkable success story, partly because it’s local. It’s also personal for me.

Martin developed his love for the game of golf as a kid growing up in Toronto, Canada, with inspiration from two Canadian golf legends, Moe Norman and George Knudson, his mentors. While at NMSU, Martin benefited from instruction and coaching from Herb Wimblerly, who “helped me immensely,” Martin said. In early 1992, I needed some help with my greenside chipping and Herb suggested I contact Martin.

When I interviewed Martin in Orlando, Martin said I may have been one of his first few teaching students while he was in school. My chipping is now the strength of my game, as my golfing buddies will attest.

After a few post-college years knocking around the Canadian Tour and Nationwide Tour, Martin landed a job in 1996 as the head pro at Palm Desert Country Club in California. That was a big job with lots of responsibilities, but he continued honing his teaching skills.

In 2006, Martin took his passion for golf teaching to Arrowcreek Country Club in Reno, Nevada. It was there he realized he needed a hands-on way to have novice golfers grasp the correct position of the golf club at the moment of contact with the ball in order to create an airborne flight. And that was the genesis of the Tour Striker Training Club.

Martin began crafting a clubhead with a grinder in the cart barn, and soon prototypes and patents materialized. The whole idea was to nearly force uninitiated golfers to understand the impact dynamics of the golf swing by using a training club that required hitting down to get the ball up. In December 2007, Martin and his wife, Stacy, relocated to Bend, Oregon, where he became the new Director of Golf at Tetherow Golf Club, but the Tour Striker project continued. A year later they received their first shipment of 500 Tour Striker Training Clubs.

As the couple worked tirelessly trying to grow the company, Martin and two friends took the smallest exhibition booth available at the PGA Merchandise Show in January 2009. The unique training club was an instant hit with golf industry professionals, leading to a marketing launch on The Golf Channel with the help of spokesperson Gary McCord. The 30-minute infomercial ran for more than a year and sold more than 60,000 units.

That product success enabled Martin and Stacy and their kids to relocate to Chandler, Arizona, where they opened the Tour Striker Golf Academy in 2011. The Academy is a three-day golf school for amateur golfers of all abilities at the Raven Golf Club in Phoenix, and has become one of the most successful golf teaching and coaching programs in North America.

Interestingly, one of Martin’s teaching assistants is Brett Gorney, another graduate of NMSU’s PGM program. There are 30 sessions per year. Check it out at www.tourstrikergolfacademy.com.

Over the past decade, Martin has developed more than a dozen golf training aids to help golfers improve and play their best, many of which are used by men and women tour pros.

 At this year’s PGA Show, Martin was able to debut his newest invention, the “Tour Striker Tool Box.” This clever unit is a driver-length alignment and aiming rod that comes complete with three slender aim sticks stored inside the rod, which doubles as a weighted warm-up swing speed trainer; available from www.trourstriker.com.  

Martin has been a Golf Magazine top 100 golf teacher for several years. These days, you can catch weekly three-minute golf tips from Martin online at www.golfpass.com.