As exercise professionals, we understand golf and the physical requirements for improving your performance. If you’re one of those people who loves the game and has the desire to improve, we’ve got something for you. Saratoga Health & Wellness has teamed with local golf and medical professionals, all certified by the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI), to create a program with one goal in mind: Improve your golf game and feel better doing it.

Why are there so many different swing styles on the golf course? Why don’t all the pros swing the same way? Have you ever compared the swings styles of Jim Furyk and Miguel Angel Jimenez? Both have vastly different swings, and both have had very successful PGA careers. Perhaps Mr. Furyk’s and Mr. Jimenez’s swing shapes are not a product of years of practicing “bad” habits, but more likely, their swings are the only way they can efficiently swing based upon their physical limitations.

So how does this relate to you and your golf swing? We have all seen the commercials for the latest golf ball promising greater distance or the latest club promising better accuracy, but what if you had control of the best golf tool of all-your body. Ask yourself one question, “Could a tour professional hit my clubs or my ball further than I can?” and the answer is yes, maybe it’s not the clubs or the ball, maybe it’s your body! Our TPI certified staff understands how your body should move during the golf swing and can improve how you use your body to more effectively strike the ball.

So, how do we gauge what you can physically do? Our Titleist Performance Institute physical screening assesses your body’s movement patterns as they relate to golf. During the first consultation, our TPI certified exercise physiologists will discuss the details of your golf game and perform a comprehensive 11 point physical golf screening. This thorough intake will help identify weaknesses and movement deficiencies that, once targeted, can improve your game. 

The screening is focused on these key movement patterns necessary in an efficient golf swing:

• Posture and pelvic tilting
• Rotational pelvic movement
• Torso rotation
• Ability to perform a deep overhead squat
• Hamstring mobility and hip flexion
• Shoulder mobility
• Balance
• Lat. mobility
• Internal and external hip rotation
• Trunk rotation
• Glute strength

We use the 11-point TPI golf screening to outline the individual’s physical strengths and weaknesses. In order to improve your golf swing, we need to improve your physical limitations or the golfer’s biggest weaknesses. During the second appointment the exercise physiologist will outline an exercise plan targeting your biggest physical weaknesses, discuss how these physical weaknesses can affect your golf swing, and give you the exercises to improve on those limitations.

Our Titleist Performance Institute certified experts get the best out of any golfer with the team approach. Nearly every tour playing professional has a team assisting him or her, and now this same attention has trickled down to the amateur golfer. Sure the staff at Saratoga Health and Wellness is the best at prescribing exercises which will enhance your golf game, but that is only one part of the three part system. The TPI team includes the golf fitness professional (that’s us), the PGA teaching professional (Anders Mattson Golf), and the medical professional (LaMarco Physical Therapy). The teaching pro uses the TPI philosophy to improve your swing based on your physical capabilities, and the medical professional treats old injuries that may hinder the swing or injuries that may occur in the future. Because all three professionals are TPI certified, they all speak the same language and can share data to ultimately improve your game.