IN THE SWING
A WHOLE NEW GAME
BETTER TECHNOLOGY, BETTER INSTRUCTION AND BETTER
ATHLETES HAVE CHANGED THE WAY GOLF IS PLAYED AT ALL LEVELS.
SECTION BY CHRIS CHANEY
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Athletes stay equipped and in shape with the help of the Sea Island Golf Performance Center and its staff.
itting a golf ball takes less than
five seconds. That hasn’t changed
for hundreds of years. Fewer than
10 minutes per round is spent in
an act of pure athleticism—swinging a club
and striking the ball. Yet, the crux of what differentiates modern golfers from their predecessors is what goes into the other 23 hours
and 50 minutes of the day.
Today’s player can move from a gym for
golf-specific workouts, to a range equipped
with a launch monitor that precisely quantifies the performance of their equipment, to a
facility with a 3-D motion-capture system that
shows them a computer-generated avatar of
their swing—all before lunch.
“Two things come to mind immediately
when comparing golfers of previous generations to my own,” says Zach Johnson, 11-time
PGA TOUR winner and 2007 Masters champion. “The first would be the increase of
information and resources in the game. And
the second is the overall fitness aspect, which
has changed dramatically.”
Initially prompted by aging athletes’ desire
to increase longevity, the golf fitness revolution has since been embraced by all golfers
looking to improve. Randy Myers, director
of fitness at the Sea Island Golf Performance
Center, notes that most of the breakdowns
in golfers toward the end of the 20th century were a result of asymmetrical muscular
makeup in problem areas such as the back,
neck and shoulders.
Johnson, who turned pro in 1998, rode that
same wave of enlightenment. “When I first got
on tour in 2004, not a lot of people were working out,” he explains. “I had always worked
out, but nothing like I do today. … I had no real
plan, no goals and no real guidance. Today, I
have some of the top people involved overseeing that aspect of my career. To be my best, I
have to put in time in the gym. To sustain a
career and have longevity in this game, I have
to keep that as a focus.”
The advancement of fitness information
and increased dedication to keeping top physical form led to an arms race in equipment
technology as well as instruction.
“Better athletes demand better equipment,”
Myers says. “As the equipment got better and
the athletes were able to work longer, harder
and more efficiently, the instruction improved.”
The information available at all levels
allows a player to diagnose, fix and improve
each aspect of their game.
“Technology, education, information—call
it what you will—there are more people
involved in so many different aspects giving
us information to improve all parts of our
game that prior generations didn’t have,”
Johnson says. “The game has evolved and no
stone has been left unturned.” m
18 SEA ISL AND LIFE | SPRING/SUMMER 2015
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