Brooks Koepka with his swing coach Claude Harmon III during the Pro Am event prior to the start of the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
GOLF Magazine has launched a new golf instruction platform for aspiring players called “Play With The Pros.” The system remotely connects users to top coaches, allowing players to get insights into their game, and to find ways to fine tune their swings.
An amateur golfer can record themselves hitting a ball using their phone’s camera and that clip will then be uploaded so that one of GOLF’s “Top 100” coaches can review it. Play With The Pros works using a platform called SwingAI, which applies artificial intelligence to process the videos before they are watched by coaches, aiming to assist the coaches’ ability to identify problems with the player’s swing.
“Play With The Pros is a personal two-way instruction experience that gives me constant communication with my students, to monitor their progress and improvement in real time,” said Kellie Stenzel, GOLF’s senior instruction advisor, in a press release. “Video can be uploaded from any smartphone, and the artificial intelligence (AI) engine helps me provide each student the most relevant information specific to improving their game.”
The service, which costs $29.99, is ultimately part of a bigger play to integrate technology into the sport. “The golf industry is going through a digital transformation that provides golfers a better user experience directly related to game improvement,” said Rick Geritz, CEO of SwingAI, in the announcement. “When players improve, they play more, buy more, and grow the entire game.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Digital technologies are rapidly transforming golf. Rickie Fowler posted a photo on Instagram ahead of this year’s Open Championship showing him using a golf simulator to get some reps on the Carnoustie course. An increasing number of the world’s most renowned, and most exclusive, courses are now being digitized, and simulators are showing up at places such as the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium. Golfers such as Charley Hoffman are using neurostimulation to hone their games, and smart balls and augmented reality glasses may soon have an impact on the sport. The most traditional part about GOLF Magazine’s new service might be that there is still a human coach at the end of the line.
