After years of hard work and dedication through a winding road, CU Boulder alumnus Mackenzie “Mac” Todd finds success as founder and CEO of Urban Golf Performance
By virtue of Todd’s leadership, the Los Angeles-based golf performance company is quickly becoming the premier training destination for amateur and professional golfers alike
Mackenzie “Mac” Todd’s (Psyc’08) life has always revolved around the game of golf. His passion started young, growing up in the backyard of the El Paso Country Club.
As a teenager, he found success competing in junior golf tournaments in the region of west Texas. Todd became a ranked junior and attended the prestigious IMG Academy as a junior in high school to further his craft and pursue his goals of collegiate and professional golf.
Todd continued to dedicate his life toward golf, but at many points in his life he didn’t find himself in the fairway. His on-the-course ebbs and flows never discouraged his love for the game of golf and his success manifested itself in a different way. His journey put him on course to create Urban Golf Performance, a frontrunner in the golf industry.
Ultimately, Todd’s time at IMG Academy didn’t work well. He battled with injuries and a form of instruction that didn’t cater to his own game. After one year in the program, he walked out a worse golfer than when he walked in. He struggled and didn’t know if he would ever be able to reach his dreams in golf. At that point, Todd stopped taking the game as seriously as he once did but still received interest from division one programs his senior year of high school. He declined and opted to head to CU Boulder for his college education.
“I can’t believe after all these years that I’m not going to play college golf,” Todd said, yearning for something more as a first-year student. “I saw some student athletes walking around on campus. I’m missing that camaraderie and being a part of something special.”
Todd talked to CU’s Mark Simpson, a previous head coach of the men’s golf team, who invited him to walk on for the team in 2003. Todd shot well in the initial qualifying rounds, but struggled as the golf season approached, not making the team. He felt as if he lost his identity and his academics suffered.
After his freshman year at Boulder, Todd returned to El Paso for the summer, rekindling his relationship with competitive golf. He opted to stay in Texas, spending his sophomore year at the University of Texas El Paso. He didn’t make the golf team but did well in his academics. He was recruited to play at the University of North Texas, but the roster was full when he got on campus. Again, he focused on his studies.
“As soon as that year was done, I wanted to finish school where I started. I wanted to go to Boulder,” Todd reflected. “I was able to see these two Texas schools and realize how much better Boulder was. So I went and finished my senior year in Boulder.”
Todd graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2008 with a Bachelor’s of Science in psychology and a background of neuroscience intending to follow his family’s legacy as public health doctors on the border of the United States and Mexico. After giving it a shot, he realized he was unhappy. Golf was always his passion and something that he didn’t want to give up on.
Despite Todd’s resume, the great recession of 2008 and 2009 made it nearly impossible for him to find a job in the golf industry. He hit rock bottom. Todd found himself in debt and on welfare while trying to support his family with his first child on the way. Eventually, he got his foot in the door at the Austin Golf Club. Leveraging that experience, he also began working at the Barton Creek Country Club and slowly worked his way to manage a driving range in south Austin. At this point, he was also accumulating all of his previous golf experiences, culminating ideas for what would eventually become Urban Golf Performance.
Even with the immense workload, Todd found happiness in being back in the game of golf. But, the financial strain still loomed with him and his new family.
“My wife said, ‘look if we’re gonna be broke, I want to be back in LA. I can’t live here. I need my Mom and I need help. I’m leaving,’” Todd said.
Todd left Austin to restart in Los Angeles with his wife. He earned a golf instruction job at GolfTec in Santa Monica, currently the largest golf instruction and club fitting company in the world. After working there for a year, he felt his accumulated experience could lead to something bigger. So he left to begin his own entrepreneurial journey.
While still working at GolfTec, Todd had met a husband and wife team that owned a small golf fitness training studio. That’s when the idea really clicked that everything golf performance related, such as fitness, recovery, instruction and club fitting should all be put under one roof.
He built a relationship with them and rented 300-square-feet of their building space, received a $50,000 loan to purchase an indoor golf simulator and began his own golf instruction company.
“So I had maybe 100 bucks in the bank account,” Todd recalled, “But I had my simulator and I had a corner in this gym. I started teaching out of there and I hoped that in my first month, I could bring in eight grand, that way I’d be able to pay my expenses, pay my rent at home and invest a little bit for the future. I had a very conservative plan.”
Todd was in survival mode and suddenly found success through his strong work ethic. He taught 65 lessons each week and was able to bring in his first $100,000 in 45 days. Within his first two months, he hired his first employee and realized that his vision exceeded the space he had. He was able to afford a run-down warehouse on a main street in Los Angeles, bringing his simulator and his clients.
By virtue of Todd’s leadership and trial through tribulation, the Los Angeles-based golf performance company grew quickly and became the premier training destination for amateur and professional golfers alike.
Urban Golf Performance (UGP) offers everything from coaching and instruction to fitness training and recovery. Leo Rooney, a longtime employee of Urban Golf Performance and now Chief Operating Officer of the company said they all work to execute the vision that was created by Todd.
“The UGP mindset is not just about performance,” Rooney said. “It’s about them [the client] enjoying the game more, it’s about also joining that community. We’re trying to create this culture, not just amongst our team, but also in our community where it’s all about the enjoyment of the game, and improving your fitness, health and golf game.”
One of UGP’s first clients was Joey Behrstock, an amateur golfer and Southern California native. He first met Todd in the small, 300-square-foot space. Today, he still goes to Urban Golf Performance five days out of the week.
“I was working with Mac and then he rolled out of there and started his own location down the street. That’s when the brand kind of started taking over; then the culture,” Behrstock said. “There was a lot of consistency to everything he was doing. From the logo, the colors, the service, the team, and you started to feel like, okay, this is a special place. I was hooked right from the beginning, because nothing else existed like this before for amateur golf.”
The culture has become widespread around the Los Angeles area, raising eyebrows of celebrities and investors. The company received a huge investment from client turned investor, Blake Mycoskie, the Founder and CEO of TOMS Shoes. That investment helped them get to the point where they are at now, with four locations across Southern California and over fifty employees.
Not only are celebrities, investors and amateur golfers enthralled with what Urban Golf Performance has to offer, on Mar. 3, 2022, UGP officially announced a partnership with PGA Tour Professional and current No. two ranked golfer in the world, Collin Morikawa. Morikawa placed fifth at the 2022 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia on Sunday Apr. 10.
“For the past four years I’ve been working with UGP on my training and recovery and I’m excited to announce that I’m officially a partner with them,” Morikawa said in his announcement video. “What I’ve seen Mac and Leo and everyone else at UGP do and grow over the past so many years is awesome and I can’t wait to see our community keep growing and see what the future holds for us.”
Urban Golf Performance only sees growth from here on out. They are looking to expand nationwide, with over 50 locations being projected across California, Texas, Florida, New York and potentially Colorado. Todd is also interested in expanding partnerships with players on the PGA and LPGA Tour.
Overcoming adversity on and off the course, Todd’s dedication to the game has helped him establish a successful brand in the golf industry. He built a culture and leadership team formulated around his past experiences golf to create something fresh and new in the space. The future seems bright for Urban Golf Performance under the leadership of Mackenzie “Mac” Todd, a proud University of Colorado Buffalo.
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Photos courtesy of Urban Golf Performance
