Mike Romano is the co-owner and lead trainer at New York Golf & Fitness in Kingston, New York. Check out what he and Adam have in store on their website today!
Mike Romano on the importance of growing the golf-fitness industry through relationships:
My journey through golf started as a casual golfer during my college days and as a caddie at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina shortly after graduating. I became interested in fitness while attending Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, where I studied Sport Management and Kinesiology. I moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 2005, where I started training young athletes under my own business — Maximum Results Fitness — and fell in love with helping people. I caddied at Kiawah and built my personal training business simultaneously for seven years. In 2018, I started to get serious about my golf game and put an increased focus on how my own personal training affected my golf skills. I was always a heavy lifter, which hindered the flexibility and mobility I needed to adequately swing the golf club. I developed a deeper understanding of the merits of training specifically for golf. I met my business partner and co-owner of New York Golf & Fitness, Adam Paddock, in 2022. Adam played golf in high school and junior college and worked for a local PGA of America Golf Professional throughout his teenage years. He became a client of mine, and we dove hard into the golf fitness training, understanding that just getting into better shape would improve his golf game. Focusing on golf-specific training and committing to this complete lifestyle change would take him to another level on the golf course, as well as in his daily life. 2022 was also the year I moved my business’s attention to golf-specific training. After seeing Adam’s results, as well as my own, I realized that this was an untapped market in my area. After all, athletes of all ages know the benefits of training for basketball, football and track and field, but what about a rotational sport like golf? I started teaching golf fitness classes at our local country club and training clients out of a gym in our town.
Mike Romano on the business impact of growing the golf-fitness industry through relationships:
Fast forward to the winter of 2024-2025, and Adam and I learned of an opportunity to acquire a space in the heart of our city, Kingston, New York. Combining our passions for golf and fitness, we opened New York Golf & Fitness in December of 2025, and we’ve been busy since the day we opened. We have a full gym that features state-of-the-art, custom equipment that supports functional movement, strength training and recovery, and was built specifically for our business. In addition, we offer four Uneekor golf simulators that are paired with GSPro software for an exceptional golf experience that offers accurate data, competitive opportunities and the perfect practice environment for the serious golfer. Although 40 percent of our clientele are committed to both sides of our business, the other 60 percent is pretty evenly split — half of them play golf, and the other half works out. This, of course, provides a world of opportunities for us to share all aspects of our facility with all of our customers. We can grow the game of golf among our fitness-minded customers while motivating and inspiring our golfers to not only consider their long-term health, but also the impact that fitness might have on their golf games. We have a PGA of America Associate Teaching Professional on staff and facilitate programs that marry his knowledge of the technical side of the golf swing and mine of the physical side of the body. We run these programs for adults and for kids, and can even host two groups at a time, switching them between golf and fitness to maximize time and space. Our pro, Andrew Deforest, is not only teaching golf lessons, but fitting clients for new clubs, teaching us club repair and helping us run our leagues, so we can provide a holistic menu of services. It’s a very symbiotic relationship. We are a membership-only facility with options to meet different goals and budgets, encouraging performance-minded individuals who want to improve themselves and their golf games to join our community.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email newyorkgolfandfitness@gmail.com.
