Thanks to a new online course being offered by the Penn State Golf Teaching and Research Center through its PGA Professional Golf Management Program, golf professionals and enthusiasts from across the globe now have the opportunity to access the latest technologies being pioneered to help people improve their golf swing.

“Golf instruction and sport performance is moving more toward intelligent technologies that allows us to understand more through conducting research and then using those findings to collaborate with coaches and instructors to help their athletes perform at a higher level,” said GTRC director and PGM Senior Instructor, Eric Handley.

The new course came into being as a result of the numerous and frequent requests from golf professionals, instructors and coaches who were looking for greater access to the technology and expertise offered by the GTRC when they visited the center.

Through Penn State Outreach and Online Education, the new online, non-credit course called the Biomechanics of Golf makes both GTRC expertise, as well as input from the faculty leading the accredited PGA Golf Management Program, available to students anywhere in the world.

The GTRC uses 3-D motion capture technology to collect precise and detailed data on a golfer’s swing, which is then analyzed and evaluated in great detail as part of the programs golf biomechanics research. The technology also allows for better communication with the golfer.

“Instructing and coaching golf used to simply be trial and error for coaches and instructors and a particular technique may or may not lead to a golfer’s desired shot,” said Handley. “With the GTRC, we can take a look at the movements of a golfer and understand what is taking place and not taking place and why based on science.”

The first 12-week course was piloted in October, and due to its success, a second session is planned to begin on February 8. The course material which is offered online is combined with live sessions led by Handley and Mike Duffey, who is a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology and a GTRC Biomechanist.