Golf Academy at PGA West
Inside the 1,800-square-foot Performance Lab at PGA WEST in La Quinta, Calif., data becomes insight into a golf player’s performance. From force plates measuring golfers swing to motion-captured cameras collecting every degree of rotation in a players body, the space creates an environment that feels comfortable for Tour level players and those picking up a golf club for the first time.
“The Performance Lab is for anybody who is looking to get better when they go into this space and learn valuable tools,” says Bryan Lebedevitch, Director of Instruction of PGA WEST who has been with the club for 29 seasons.
Lebedevitch and the lab’s philosophy centers on customization. Allowing novice players a small peak behind the curtain of technology while letting experienced players run wild with all the offerings.
The Performance Lab, which opened in June after a construction period starting in January, was repurposed from a previously used real estate office into an area pushing forward the future of golf instruction.
Lebedevitch says himself, Jim Hinckley, Century Golf Partners Founder & CEO, and Ben Dobbs, executive director of PGA WEST, and Jeff Mueller, General Manager, researched technology options for the space, and together they narrowed it down to the current setup.
Lebedevitch equipped the space with putting stages at different lengths and landed on a 16-foot by eight-foot design.
“The main reason why we chose this putting platform was the ability for it to tilt in different directions at the same time,” says Lebedevitch.
The club also invested in a swing stage that allows PGA WEST to tilt the ground in different ways to simulate lies from on-course situations, as well as tilting the ground in different manners to expedite the learning process for somebody who might be struggling with a specific type of swing flow and providing real-life scenarios for practice, he explains.
“The force plate technology is awesome, and it measures input from right post, left post, and some force of both, and it gives us 3D force as well,” he says.
From there, Lebedevitch says the club invested in 3D motion capture to analyze a golfer’s swing through analysis of body movement, rotation, and speed.
“We might use some of that technology or all of it, depending upon the skill level of the person using it,” he says.
And anyone can use this technology – not just PGA WEST members.
“We’ve got clients that are Tour Players and playing tournament golf on a regular basis, right down to almost beginner level,” Lebedevitch says.
“We can cater the environment to the individual. So, if I am teaching a beginner lesson in that space, I don’t have to show them everything under the curtain. I can choose what they see and cater it to their ability level to not overwhelm them. That’s kind of what our specialty is, being able to customize the learning environment to the student that’s there.”
For example, Lebedevitch says a more comfortable player may want specific data like movement in their right knee when they swing. The technology allows Lebedevitch and his team to measure everything that a player is doing and give them the information they’re looking for.
Lebedevitch says both men and women are interested and are utilizing these technologies and the flexibility allows both groups to get the most out of their time spent in the Performance Lab.
Although PGA WEST doesn’t have a high junior membership, junior golfers from the area have interest in trying out the new technology offer, Lebedevitch explains.
The Performance Lab can be utilized in small groups or one-on-one training, but students can’t just rent it out on their own. There must always be a PGA WEST staff member working the technology for them.
And there are three dedicated spaces in this Performance Lab – two hitting bays that are the same size and the putting lot.
The putting space features a launch monitor for putting that tells the student everything the putter head tells the ball and what the putter head is doing. In addition, an indoor overhead system projects a dynamic grid onto the green, tracing the ball’s path with light to help students visualize breaks and improve their reads on breaking putts.
Plus, there are cameras in space that give video recordings of what the golfer does when they come in.
The least tech heavy bay is what Lebedevitch calls the fitting bay, which has a ceiling-mounted launch monitor and four camera swing catalyst systems measuring two main elements: ball flight and video.
Opening the Performance Lab in June allowed the instructors time to familiarize themselves with the technology since summer is a slower time for the team.
“I think that opening this Performance Lab will help drive business for sure because nowadays, golf instruction has shifted more into being able to measure and define things versus not being able to,” says Lebedevitch on the impact the Performance Lab will have on the overall Golf Academy.
“When you have tech that can deliver answers, people are more likely to welcome that environment versus not having it. I think it will continue to push private instruction in golf schools and member involvement will go up a lot.”
