Golfers Can Take a Swing At Instructional Software Programs by Alan B. Nichols At last itís May and spring is in the air. At three locations around the Washington metro area, golf balls are also in the air, as veteran hackers scour the rust off their games after a long winter, and newcomers prepare for a new sporting adventure of a lifetime. Whatís the state of your golf game? Let dozens of instructors at these locations take a look at your swing and give you a report. You may be pleasantly surprised that itís better than you think. If practice makes perfect, it makes perfect sense to take your swing to the pros at White Flint Golf Park in Rockville, Md.; East Potomac Park Golf Course and Driving Range at Hains Point in the District; or Clubgolf, an indoor facility in Gaithersburg, Md. All three locations are noted for their exceptional instruction by certified golf professionals, and all have short-game practice areas. While Clubgolf has a few hitting nets, White Flint and East Potomac have enough hitting bays to accommodate a large number of golfers. They also have a full line of golf clubs and accessories and club testing and fitting. White Flint Golf Park Immediately behind the White Flint Metro Station off Rockville Pike is a driving range that is a favorite among legions of golfers, including diplomats. White Flint Golf Park has 65 hitting bays, 12 of which are sheltered and heated. In addition, there is a short-game practice area with a putting green and sand bunker. The pro shop has all the latest equipment, and directly off the demo center is a driving platform where you can test new clubs before you buy them. White Flint has one of the largest staffs of instructors of any golf facility in the metro area. Mostly young guys with afterburner swings themselves, these certified Professional Golfersí Association of America professionals, with the aid of high-resolution digital video cameras, can provide excellent assessments of your game and get beginners started with the correct fundamentals. White Flint has recently introduced a customized digital program promising to accelerate studentsí progress. The new program is called the ìRYG (Raise Your Game) Digital Swing Academy.î Developed in partnership with Interactive Frontiers, the company that pioneered the very popular V1 Pro instructional software program, the Digital Swing Academy (DSA) takes golf students to a new level of interactive learning. The DSA is instructional software that operates on the Interactive Frontiers technology platform. Free to all White Flint students, it has video and audio components that can be viewed using a standard media player by students on their home computers or downloaded using V1 home software. The video and audio data may also be accessed by logging on to the White Flint Web site (see below), going to ìinstruction,î and then clicking on ìMy RYG Locker.î The ìlockerî is accessed using the studentís personal user ID and password. For a small additional cost, students can purchase premium software that has added diagnostic features, such as the split-screen capability by which students can see their swings in slow motion and visually compare their swings to that of Tiger Woods or other PGA Tour players. While viewing their swings online, students can listen to their instructorsí recorded comments, which may include suggested drills to strengthen good habits or correct swing flaws. The software allows students to superimpose on the screen lines to show swing planes and key swing positions. The allotment of space in the ìlockerî is ample to permit the capture of multiple swing and audio clips, allowing students to track their progress over time or to review material from previous lessons. According to Scott Zimmerman, co-owner with his brother of RYG Golf, which operates the White Flint Golf Park and a similar facility in Oregon, the Digital Swing Academy raises the bar in interactive golf instruction, giving ìus the ability to strengthen our relationship with our students.î White Flint Golf Park Web: www.whiteflintgolfpark.com Phone: (301) 230-7117 East Potomac Park Golf Course and Driving Range Hard by the Potomac River on Hains Point in the District is East Potomac Park, a part of the National Park Service system. This is the location of the golf course and driving range by the same name and home of the Capital City Golf School. The golf property includes a recently remodeled clubhouse and three golf courses, including the 18-hole par 72 Blue Course, the nine-hole par 34 White Course designed for intermediates, and the par 27 Red Course composed of short par threeís. The golf schoolís 12 instructors teach some 4,000 students a year at the rangeís 100 hitting stalls (50 of which are heated), three-hole practice course, and short-game practice area that includes several greens and a sand bunker. Most students are beginners and a majority are women. Like the other ranges, East Potomac Park is open year round. According to general manager Mike Byrd, the school offers a ìhomegrown curriculumî that features the V1 Pro video instruction program. ìWe build a roadmap for each student,î Byrd said, emphasizing that the facility gives instructors ìa unique package of products and services to meet studentsí diverse instructional needs.î For example, students can have one of the three practice course holes all to themselves for an hour for a modest fee. They can take a bucket of balls out to the hole and practice their long and short game, and when they are finished they can hit the balls again at the range. The East Potomac facility is managed by Golf Course Specialists Inc., which also manages the 18-hole Rock Creek Golf Course (no driving range) and historic Langston Golf Course, which is adjacent to RFK Stadium and has a 32-stall range. East Potomac Park Golf Course and Driving Range Web: www.Golfdc.com Phone: (202) 554-7660 Clubgolf Years ago, golf was considered a leisure game and not one that required strength and conditioning. Today, that kind of thinking is passÈ. Golfers with serious aspirations to improve their games know they cannot do so and ignore the physical condition of their bodies. Clubgolf, a golf fitness center in Gaithersburg, Md., offers a number of individualized training program packages to meet the diverse needs of the golfing market. Clients train under the expertise and watchful eyes of a professional staff, all trained by Clubgolf founder Dr. Greg Rose. A chiropractor and an undergraduate engineering major, Rose studied biomechanics in relation to the golf swing and came up with programs and training tools designed to optimize an individualís golf game. ìA key component to any playerís performance optimization is conditioning,î said Rose, who is now director of the Titleist Performance Institute in Southern California. ìPhysical factors such as strength, flexibility, endurance, stability and posture all influence swing mechanics. Too often, players develop a fitness regimen that is not directly related to their golf swing. All of our exercises and diagnostics for physical limitations are geared toward helping [golfers] reach their potential.î Clubgolf staff put new clients through a diagnostic workup to assess the physical limitations that may be contributing to their faulty swing mechanics. Then, they custom tailor a conditioning program to help improve flexibility, strength, range of motion, balance and other physical factors to the point where clients have a better chance of being able to produce an efficient and repeatable golf swing. In addition to hitting nets, a putting green and a short-game area for chipping and bunker practice, the Clubgolf facility has an extensive array of functional training equipment to enhance flexibility and the strength of specific muscle groups that show up to be weak in oneís swing and physical workup. There is also a plyometric training area with equipment such as incline-adjustable treadmills aimed at improving balance, flexibility and core strength. Clients work both on their own and in tandem with a trainer and swing coach. As intermediate goals are reached, clients may graduate to more advanced regimens as they continuously improve their physical ability to play golf at an optimal level. Close monitoring of progress and clientsí dedication to working on reaching their potential are keys to success at Clubgolf. Clubgolf Web: www.clubgolfmd.com Phone: (301) 519-1920 Alan B. Nichols is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.