Golf | The technology of swing

The TV screen shows two frames. One has my recently-captured golf swing and right next to me, Tiger Woods goes through his moves. The comparison is hard to watch. Embarrassing, actually. Though, I must quickly add that when the two swings are played out simultaneously (in slow motion), there is this bit halfway through the backswing when the world’s best golfer and I seem to be in sync. The similarity passes quickly.

I had no intention of going up against Woods. Apparently, this is what the V1 Pro golf teaching software does. You can have your golf swing recorded and then matched up against somebody very good at swinging a golf club, like Woods. Your deficiencies will show up instantly and then you can spend the rest of your life trying to duplicate the better swinger.

No two golf swings or, for that matter, body structures are identical (certainly not Woods’ and mine) but the fundamentals of striking a golf ball are universal, says Anitya Chand, head professional at the DLF Golf Academy in Gurgaon. Initiating the young into the game is his forte but the majority, by a wide margin, of golf-ball beaters at the academy are business executives—up to 80% of them, with about a dozen new entrants each month. Not surprising, given that Gurgaon is a corporate hub with an estimated golfing population of over 5,000 and growing.

The academy offers one-, three- and six-month programmes for non-members of the DLF Golf and Country Club (of which the academy is a part). Costs range from ₹ 9,000-45,000. The latter is for a six-month course with a senior professional, which includes a series of 36 lessons, eight of them with the assistance of the V1 Pro video lessons. At the end of this programme, you are more or less guaranteed the right of labelling yourself as a golfer.

The days of an aspiring golfer gingerly walking on to a golf course and relying on a caddie to put him through the paces are long gone. Back then, a poorly executed golf shot would be met by couple of standard reprimands like “Head down rakhiye (keep your head down), sir,” or “Left arm straight rakhiye (keep your left arm straight)”. Head and left arm positions may still hold good but teaching golf has evolved with highly trained teachers backed by technology.

The V1 Pro at the academy is fed by four cameras, strategically located so that no anomaly in the stroke goes undetected. A wrong twitch and you get caught out. “It’s like an X-ray of the golf swing,” says Chand.

A step up is the K-Vest, a body vest with sensors. “This is the MRI of the golf swing,” says Chand. Once you have wound up your body, ready to unleash yourself into the golf ball, this is how it is supposed to work: The hips and lower body move back towards the ball; a split second later, the shoulders move in the same direction. A split second after that, the arms start to come down, followed by the hands, which finally deliver the clubhead into the ball. Try and break down the steps involved in hitting a golf ball and you are most likely going to end up tying yourself in knots. The K-Vest monitors the sequence and speed, conveys it to the teaching pro, who then gently cajoles the golfer into the correct action.

The instrument throws up information like speed per second of hip rotation, whether you are gaining or losing energy coming into the golf ball, and if you are slacking out, at which stage that is happening. It also tells you how many seconds you take from the top of the swing to impact. Thankfully, it doesn’t make public how many beers you had the night before or advise you to cut back on your liquor intake for better golf.

Having issues on the green? Then the SAM PuttLab comes to the rescue by handing out a six-page report on your putting stroke. Was the putter face open or closed at impact? What was the path of your stroke? What was the rhythm like on your stroke? All such statistics are spewed out to help you putt better.

The popular golf saying is, “You drive for show and putt for dough”, and if bragging rights is what you are looking for, the Launch Monitor is your kind of machine. When you drive a golf ball with this beauty keeping a watch, it records your clubhead and ball speed, the launch angle and spin rate on the golf ball as it takes off. A quick tweak here can have you hitting the ball 25 yards further down the fairway. That’s two clubs longer, the difference between hitting a five-iron and a seven-iron into a green. A huge advantage.

As of now, you still have to swing the golf club yourself. Try and put that golf ball in the hole in the least number of tries. Technology doesn’t do that for you. It can only make the walk less painful.

Prabhdev Singh is the founding editor of Golf Digest India and a part-time golfer.