Get to Know Team GolfForever!
Meet Matt Kies, Senior Business Development Manager
You joined the GolfForever team in February 2024. Can you share a bit about your professional journey, what led you here, and what your role entails?
I started my career in the financial services industry, and in 2015 I experienced a life event—losing a close friend and colleague of mine. It caused me to take a step back and ask myself if I was doing what I really wanted to do. Ultimately, I decided I wasn’t, and I set out to combine my career with my passion for golf. In 2016, I began my golf career at IMG Academy, recruiting junior golfers from all over the world for the full-time boarding school program.
In 2019, I joined Global Golf Management (now SPORTFIVE) to help build a Korn Ferry Tour event in Sarasota, FL, through sponsor and partnership acquisition, and in 2021 became the Director of Partnerships and Business Development for David Leadbetter’s group, managing the relationships with Leadbetter Golf Academy licensees and planting new golf academies around the world. This is where I met Nicole Hage and began my relationship with GolfForever, where we secured a partnership to support the academy at Leadbetter’s world headquarters in Orlando, FL.
After experiencing the GolfForever program for myself and the benefits for my body and golf game, I wanted to join the movement. In my role, I focus on working with golf facilities, indoor franchises, and golf management groups to integrate GolfForever into their player development processes and support their health and wellness initiatives for their members and clients.
What inspired you to join GolfForever? Was there a moment when you knew this was the right fit for you?As I mentioned, having the opportunity to experience GolfForever for myself really helped me understand how the program was built to improve strength, mobility, and balance for individuals—vital components of the dynamic movement that is the golf swing.
For me personally, I’ve always struggled with poor hip mobility and loading properly, have experienced post-round soreness and stiffness, and never truly grasped how to utilize the ground to generate more power and stability in the swing. GolfForever has helped me learn and improve in these areas, and I wanted to be a part of bringing that experience to more golfers who struggle with the same.
Your role in business development is all about growing GolfForever’s reach and impact. What excites you most about expanding GolfForever into new spaces?What’s exciting about what I get to do in growing GolfForever is knowing that every golfer has some type of movement, strength, or balance limitation—from World #1 and our great ambassador Scottie Scheffler to a weekend warrior or novice golfer.
There are so many new growth areas in the game, and I’ll hone in on the indoor space as an example. I recently executed a partnership agreement with Five Iron Golf, a leader in the indoor golf entertainment space—on the surface, that is. In working with the team at Five Iron, it became very clear that they had a keen interest in not only offering an engaging indoor golf experience but also elevating their player development programs. We will be supporting their team in these efforts by certifying all of their golf instructors, bringing GolfForever to each facility, and integrating GolfForever’s movement assessment into the player evaluation process. So now, instructors will not only be assessing technical swing flaws, but also evaluating the player’s body, and GolfForever will help get their players’ bodies right so they can focus on cleaning up their technique.
What current or future innovations or initiatives at GolfForever are you particularly excited about or working on?I’m really excited about what is to come soon to enhance the GolfForever experience. The team has really taken the time to listen to our members and learn how to improve the experience and engagement of the program, which will have a great impact for our users. In addition, the business development team has been dialing in how we structure partnerships that align with the key initiatives at the top of the house for our partners and trickle down to the execution level at their individual facilities, making a real impact on how they are able to help their clients reach their golf goals and potential.
What do you find most rewarding about your role?Bobby Jones said, “Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots, you get good breaks from bad shots, but you have to play the ball where it lies.” So when you get down to it, what’s most rewarding to me is knowing that I’m helping golfers improve their game, their bodies, and ultimately giving them the opportunity to play better golf for longer—building skills that will help them be more successful in life. Integrity, grit, preparation, defeat, hard work, patience, resilience, discipline, health, and commitment.
Is there a particular book, mentor, or experience that has greatly influenced your leadership and business mindset?I feel like there is so much information at our fingertips in this current era that we can use to mold and shape our mindset. I’m not sure I can pick just one book or mentor that has been the leading influence, but what I try to do is pay attention to people that have been successful and particularly try to understand why.
I choose to listen to a lot of podcasts in the personal development and business space with people like Ed Mylett, Tim Grover, Andy Frisella, David Goggins, Ben Newman, Inky Johnson, etc., and pull nuggets from them that I can apply in my own life. Experience-wise, in 2019 I started using a program called 75Hard to train my discipline and mental toughness and have cycled through the program at least once per year to build those muscles and reset my foundation.
Beyond business, you prioritize your own health and fitness. How do you incorporate movement and training into your daily life?As a father of a 3-year-old, there is no shortage of movement in my day-to-day. As a family, we really try to be intentional about living an active lifestyle.
In terms of my training—which mainly centers around golf—I focus on strength in movement and mobility work, fairly low impact but effective in maintaining strength and flexibility.
What’s your golf background? How has your relationship with the game evolved over time?I grew up in a golf family, so the game has always been a part of my life, and I have had a club in my hand since I could walk. My grandfather purchased a golf course when my dad was about 10 years old, and he developed a love for the game that he passed along to me. I’ve grown to appreciate what I described earlier—that golf is so parallel to life—and it has taught me so many lessons that have helped me strive to become the best version of myself on and off the course. I love to work on different shots, develop and refine different parts of my game, and compete.
How do you personally use the GolfForever Training System?I use GolfForever in multiple ways, and it has become a very integral and necessary part of my life. There are over 1,500 drills and exercises in the program on the app that I can pull from and add to my workout routine, and I also lean into the Today’s Workout that populates for me each day.
Additionally, I have developed a warmup routine with GolfForever that I use before every practice session or round that helps prepare and activate my body for a full range of motion and mobility in my swing.
Do you have a go-to GolfForever warmup or workout?My warmup routine is one that remains fairly consistent, even though I may swap a move here and there. Typically, it consists of a simple rotation in good posture from both sides, press squats, standing row with an extension of the inside arm from both sides, Scottie’s split-stance rotational drill, an impact move, and a backswing move with the left hand down and right hand up to really feel that movement that is the golf swing.
If you had to pick just one, what’s your favorite GolfForever move?My favorite move is the last one I just described in my warmup routine. It allows me to get good extension with my left arm and set the club properly while also emphasizing how the right arm folds at the top of the backswing—not letting that right elbow fly out. Simultaneously, you’re engaging your core—the engine of the golf swing—as well as feeling balance and stability, working against the ground and really pushing into your lead side to load properly into your trail hip.
What’s your favorite sport to watch and/or play outside of golf?My favorite sport outside of golf to play was baseball. It’s not one I play anymore, but I loved playing and have a lot of great memories of the game and even coached for several years after college. I’m super competitive and, if challenged, would jump into just about any sport, but I tend to spend the majority of my time on golf. Ironically, with baseball being my favorite sport to play, I’m not a huge fan of watching it and tend to lean toward a college football or basketball game as a viewer.
What’s your go-to snack on the course?I tend to snack on a mixture of things on the course, ranging from fruit, KIND bars, trail mix, beef jerky, and an electrolyte packet. Nutrition is definitely a big part of performing on the course, so I always have a variety of snacks in my golf bag.