Image credit – Aug 7, 2014; Louisville, KY, USA; PGA golfer Tiger Woods tees off the first hole during the first round of the 2014 PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club. Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
For much of the past two seasons, professional golf has been without its biggest star. Tiger Woods is looking for a fresh start after a four month hiatus recovering from back surgery. With a club finally back in his hands, Woods has been hard at work developing a new swing with consultant Chris Como in hopes to reduce strain on his body and prevent future injury.
Woods is taking advantage of the latest technology to adjust his swing. A new optical motion capture system analyzes the biomechanics of Woods’ swing and creates 17,000 columns of data in just milliseconds. Como is then able to see the behavior of each joint and recommend adjustments that will reduce the joint stress.
“I was very surprised and very excited with what he thought my swing should look like,” Woods told the Golf Channel.
“My ideas aligned with Chris’.”
Happy to have Chris Como consulting and working with me on my swing. I’m excited to be back competing.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) November 22, 2014
Standing on a pressure-sensitive plate allows for further in-depth biometric analysis. Data and visuals are created by software, showing how weight is transferred across Woods’ lower limbs. So far the results have been promising. His first tournament back may not have been as high of a finish as he expected, but experts saw major improvement in Woods’ swing.
His former coach Hank Haney praised the new swing on Twitter last week saying, “I don’t care what Tiger shot today, some of his swings were his best in 5 years.”
Technology will continue to make a huge impact on the game of golf. Tour professionals hope motion capture and other systems will allow them to not only hit the ball farther with greater accuracy, but also keep them in the game for longer by reducing injury. Expect several younger professionals, like Rory McIlory and Jordan Spieth, to take advantage of this game-boosting tech, as Tiger Woods hopes it will rejuvenate his career.
To see a video of the swing-analyzing technology in use, point your browser to this Sky Sports article.