Most readers will be familiar with the St Andrews Golf Academy at the links driving range, but many won't know there are also 3 Trackman-4 bays tucked away in the Bassaguard Business Park in town. If you've driven into St Andrews from Guardbridge, then you will have undoubtedly seen their advertising and some of you may have even used the bays for practice. Originally known as St Andrews Indoor Golf Centre, they rebranded in March '24 as the Centre of Golf Excellence, St Andrews. As well as offering the bays for general practice sessions, you can also book lessons with one of their professionals, experience custom fitting for Wilson clubs or bring your own clubs in for assessment, repair or alteration.
Why did I come to GolfCX today?
While I've had several lessons in recent years and I'm generally happy with my game, I'm keen to understand more about the biomechanics of my swing. In particular, I wanted to look at how I transition from backswing to downswing. Do I load correctly into my lead side? Do I rotate in the correct sequence? Am I maximising my potential, or am I losing power somewhere in the swing?
GolfCX are the only facility I know of locally that offers lessons with Sportsbox AI 3D Motion Capture (https://www.golfcx.co.uk/golf-lessons) and it appeared to be the ideal tool to help me with my questions.
The lesson
Today my lesson was with Freddie Lawrence, a professional player on the Tartan Tour and fellow member of the New Golf Club. Lessons are also available with their other professionals (see link above), along with remote lessons too. Remote lessons can also utilise Sportsbox through uploading student videos.
We started with a general overview of my setup and a conversation about what I wanted to work on today. I then hit some balls to warm up and we got into the lesson. First, we looked at my full swing (with 6i) using Trackman.
Trackman input
Freddie was interested to explore my swing thoughts and what I "feel" at the point of impact. We talked about my "bad" shot, which is generally a thin where I catch a bit of ground first, and what that implies about my impact position. Trackman shows that my club path is consistent (averaged 2.9°), explaining my natural draw tendency, but my angle of attack can get too shallow (averaged -3°). This starts to explain my issue with low point control and thin shots. Freddie asked me how I cope on windy days and how I alter my shot selection. If my stock 6i carry distance is 165 yards, can I hit it 140, 130, 120? Swinging slower takes spin off and helps with wind, but what was most interesting with this exercise was that the quality of strike improved considerably when swinging with less effort. So what is happening in my "full" swing to cause a poorer quality strike and how can I improve my angle of attack while working on low point control?
To investigate further, Freddie demonstrated what impact should look like and had me repeat the position. From there, he asked me to push/launch the ball without using my hands. This would help me feel what my body needs to do. I know "feels" are a bit intangible, but the golf swing is part art and part science and I learn better with feelings and visuals!
We then returned to the full swing to see if I could translate/repeat those feelings. I found that the easiest way to move my low point was to visualise/imagine the club head hitting the ground about an inch in front of the ball (without moving the ball back in my stance). This helped with my weight transition to my lead side, produced a steeper angle of attack and improved the strike quality (better face location and compression). It will take a while to get comfortable and there's plenty to work on in practice.
Sportsbox AI 3DMotion Capture
While the first part of the session was interesting, what helped pull everything together was when we moved on to use Sportsbox. Using an iPad, Freddie took a face-on video of my swing which the software translates into a 3D model. This lets us look in more detail at the kinematic sequence of my swing and how it compares to the ideal motion. I found the avatar, rather than the image of me, made it much easier to interpret.
In transition, the ideal kinematic sequence is pelvis, chest, arms, club. A good analogy is to think of your club and swing like a waterskier being pulled behind a boat. As the boat makes a turn, the skier initially lags behind and then gets whipped round. The boat is your pelvis and chest, the rope is your arms and the skier is the club. If the skier moves too soon, they reduce the tension in the rope and lose power. The same happens if you move your hands too soon and "overtake" the arms and chest. I've been concerned that I've not been rotating my pelvis correctly, but the initial review demonstrated it was the only thing I was getting right! I was pelvis, arms+hands together then chest. Not ideal, so how do we try to improve?
Improving my kinematic sequence
Sportsbox allows you to look at your swing from various angles and helps you better understand your source of motion. When we stepped through the swing, I could easily see my hands moving early - the classic amateur golfer move. The green bars in the pictures above show that most of my swing is pretty good (as you would hope at my current handicap), so it's the chest, arms, club relationship I need to work on.
The "padded" bay was the ideal place to work on this as I didn't need to worry about potentially hitting my club against the wall (not just because it was driving me mad). You could also use a training club/alignment aid to practice this as you are not taking a swing, rather just working on positions and feel. Grip down the club and go to the top of the backswing. Then follow the pelvis, chest, arms part of the sequence and drive the butt end of the club into the wall. This should help prevent the early release of my hands and keep my shoulders and arms in the classic "triangle" shape. It's like learning to do a lat pulldown at the gym. Your hands are just there to hold the bar, and you should start the pull with your back muscles.
Did it work?
After practicing the feeling, we returned to Trackman and hit a few full shots. Knowing I have been moving my pelvis correctly allowed me to ignore that part of my swing and focus purely on my chest, arms and hands. The easiest way I found to do that was to think about turning my left shoulder and let my hands come along for the ride, keeping the water skier image in my head. There was a definite improvement in my sequence, but I'm still a bit too quick with my hands. It's going to take time and practice.
While still a work in progress, we saw immediate improvements in my club speed, strike, ball speed and distance. I picked up over 10 yards of additional carry compared to the previous swings. What was most noticeable was the different sound/feel at impact, reflecting a better angle of attack and more compression. A good start.
To finish, we wanted to see if I could translate any of this into my driver swing. If you read the review of my recent SGGT fitting (link), you will know that the best swings I got that day were around 94mph. Today, we averaged 96mph, with a couple over 98mph too, which is getting closer to my 100mph target. I was happy with that given how many balls I'd already hit and I now know there is more to access as I work on my sequencing.
Do I recommend Centre of Golf Excellence?
Absolutely, both for lessons and as a practice facility, but especially for the extra insights I got using Sportsbox AI 3D Motion Capture. Lesson prices compare favourably with other options in St Andrews and the cost of hiring the Trackman bay for an hour also compares well with buying balls at a driving range. The benefit here is that you will use your own choice of ball and get better, more relevant, data. That's great if you're looking at gapping through your set for example.
Freddie was an accomplished amateur golfer and caddie before turning professional in 2024. He plays on the Tartan Tour and hopes to attend European Tour Qualifying School later this year. I have also had a playing lesson with Freddie where insights from his experiences playing, caddying and his own lessons have helped me considerably with course management and strategy. Today's lesson at GolfCX left me with a much improved understanding of my swing sequence and a few drills to work on to keep improving, and that's exactly what I wanted to get from the day.
GolfCX is a well-invested facility with three Trackman 4 bays, recently improved projectors and good hitting mats. It's a nice environment to have a lesson and the packages offered cover everything you may need whether you are a beginner or a more advanced player. Lessons will be followed up with an emailed report and action plans so you don't need to remember everything.
Click HERE to learn more about what's on offer at Centre of Golf Excellence.
Click HERE to learn more about Sportsbox AI 3D Motion Capture
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