Instruction
To use video, Trackman or both?
Video analysis has indeed changed the way we practice, play and view our golf swings. With the advent of Doppler radar launch monitors like Trackman and FlightScope, teachers now understand that “position golf” isn’t the way to help many golfers play their best. In fact, there are some positions that indeed look better on camera, but the player cannot put the ball in the hole from there.
Trackman users such as myself will tell you that if you use only video you can be fooled when you draw lines, as video only represents a 2D view of your swing. Trackman and FlightScope show impact and ball data in 3D, which is more accurate. But sometimes, trying to consistently hit the “proper” numbers can be just as harmful.
Some teachers only use video, others only use Trackman or FlightScope, but the burning question remains: “What is more important to the player?”
This Trackman screen gives instructors the detailed numerical data necessary to analyze each shot hit in the utmost detail.
I have been in the instructional world teaching golf full time for more than 20 years, and I have used video and Trackman extensively. I have seen issues with BOTH technologies if not conglomerated in the correct way. Some teachers only use video, drawing lines all over the screen. They focus on each position as if it were gospel. This type of video instruction can be very detrimental to the students who possess an idiosyncratic characteristic not allowing them to hit the “key” position. On the flip side, I know Trackman-based teachers who hardly look up from their data screens. When data is an instructor’s only focus, it can also be a problem. Golfers are not robots, and no golfer is consistent to get the proper numbers every time.
So what’s the solution?
In my opinion, instructors must merge the benefits of video and Trackman/FlightScope in order to be the best teacher they can be for the student at hand. If students need a less mechanical focus, it might be best to use the Trackman/FlightScope. An instructor can have them hit a few shots trying to make the numbers move in a more positive direction. Other times, students might be too caught up in trying to make the data too perfect. So an instructor might want to flip on the video to show that just because a golfer’s angle of attack is a touch too much down, they are swinging just fine from the video perspective.
It is up to the TEACHER to figure out the personality of their students and make sure their lessons work best for each player. A learning style that helps the student is the one that should strived for, not the one that is most comfortable for the teacher!
A note for golfers: If your instructor uses a style that sways toward too much video or too much Trackman and it is frustrating you, then you must have a conversation with them. You will NOT improve using a learning style that goes against your natural style of learning!
Read More Tom Stickney II : What Flightscope and Trackman can tell you (and me)
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
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Raka Agung
Jan 17, 2014 at 7:47 pm
Great article Tom. Really love to have regular access to Trackman/Flight Scope
However for most if us here, access to that system would be expensive and difficult.
Based in your experience have you ever used sensor system that embedded in player hands or clubs, such as golfsense? Is it usefull?
Tom Stickney
Jan 17, 2014 at 9:44 pm
Great question; no I have not, but anything is better than nothing in my opinion…
Frank
Jan 16, 2014 at 12:05 am
This is why I like instructors like Mark Crossfield on You Tube. He works in both spectrum. I have learned more from his posts than any instructor that I have paid money to learn from. By using the drills he teaches and advice he give, I have bettered my game by 6-8 strokes a round and had a record year for myself.
Tom Stickney
Jan 16, 2014 at 12:47 am
Each of us have our strengths for sure.
J
Jan 15, 2014 at 10:21 pm
Flightscope is garbage compared to Trackman. I don’t get why this article talks about video vs trackman because trackman has video built in. If you have access to trackman and refuse to use it your ignorance is more like stupidity. Both student and teacher need to be held accountable at all times.
Tom Stickney
Jan 16, 2014 at 12:47 am
My article speaks about video and tm because some students don’t have access to both. The student should use the tools that work best for their game.
Nick
Jan 14, 2014 at 11:48 pm
Great article, Tom. It should be required reading for every teaching professional.
Tom Stickney
Jan 15, 2014 at 12:51 am
Thx!
Paul
Jan 14, 2014 at 11:14 am
Great article, and that aoa is crazy tom! you get alot out of that 100mph swing!
For me personally, I feel like I can learn more by seeing the data (with trackman) as opposed to someone telling me that “x” is happening and you need to do “y”. With my instructor, for example, I have a slight ott move, and just by being in a room by myself with trackman for the first time I fiddled with my swing to try to manipulate my path. For me, I learn best when I can see the data and interpret it, as opposed to listening, digesting the info, and trying to implement it. He will come in every 20 mins or so and check up on things and discuss what I am doing and offer advice, but it is a much easier way to learn cause and effect.
Tom Stickney
Jan 14, 2014 at 1:55 pm
I set it for 14,000 feet so it goes farther…makes me look better! Ha. Seriously, it’s nice to experiment with feels to see what works best.
Ben
Jan 14, 2014 at 10:32 am
What if your local option is on-range instruction with no video or trackman/flightscope? What do you recommend then?
Tom Stickney
Jan 14, 2014 at 1:56 pm
You must always do best with what tools you have available. They are not a necessity but they are nice to have.
Graeme
Jan 14, 2014 at 8:53 am
I practiced position golf all my junior days and even though it looked good, I hit a brick wall when I got to 3 handicap at 15yrs old. Now with better knowledge with thanks to technology like Trackman Ive now recently reduced my handicap to +2. I’d personally rather stay away from video technology but do understand that for those that like visual learning it can be of some benefit to see the before & after but apart from that, video gets a big thumbs down from me.
Todd Dugan
Jan 14, 2014 at 8:14 am
Radar and video are simply tools which allow the skilled user to diagnose and prescribe better. In the hands of the unskilled, they are of little use.
Tom Stickney
Jan 14, 2014 at 9:13 am
All technology is only as good as the operator using it for sure…thx.
Johnny Appelseed
Jan 14, 2014 at 6:00 am
Ben Hogan didnt need this and neither do it. Its a ball and a stick. Get up there and hit it
Ian
Jan 14, 2014 at 12:33 pm
That’s laughable… If Hogan had access to track man he would’ve been all over it.
jmplautz
Jan 14, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Hogan was a big proponent of using video analysis. Was a very early adopter. If he was willing to use that, it’s not a big stretch to think that he would use modern technologies.
Andrew Cooper
Jan 15, 2014 at 3:38 am
No question Hogan would have used the new technology (and was an early video user) but would it have made him a better golfer?
Russel Johnson
Jan 14, 2014 at 1:10 am
Tom,
Another great article…. I believe in Trackman and all that it has too offer. I like you have a long history of teaching without this technology. Now true knowledge can be brought to the fore front and our thoughts can be validated numerically. I believe marrying the two styles is the best way to get the give info without that is confusing. Establishing a baseline with the Trackman then using that to help solve the cause and effect. I have found that to be a very effective way to balance old and new teachings.
Tom Stickney
Jan 14, 2014 at 2:28 am
That’s how I try and use my v1 system and trackman daily…you’re spot on sir. Thx.