Although golf fitness has just recently become an integral part of most player development programs, I have always instilled the importance of the physical aspect of golf in my students. After coaching for seven years in Maryland and a year in Hawaii, I have been at Man O’War Golf Center for almost 25 years and have built a dedicated clientele.
Striving to get ahead of the trends, I got TPI-certified back in 2007 and have applied those concepts in my coaching ever since. Most of my beginning students don’t understand the relationship between the body and the golf swing. These days, the first steps of instruction go beyond the grip, stance and posture, and delve into teaching students how to move their body efficiently and effectively to produce the proper swing sequence. In fact, it’s likely they’ve never even considered how their body affects the swing because most of their first swings are all arms.
The concept of dissociation - moving the upper and lower body independently of each other - is often understood once taught, but very difficult to apply in the golf swing. Many golfers are not physically able to perform that action. So, it is important for us as coaches to not only explain what we’re looking for, but demonstrate it and provide drills and exercises that slowly but surely help the golfer get to that point - starting at ground level and moving the energy up to the hips and to the upper body.
After coaching for more than 30 years, my student roster consists of contemporaries in the Kentucky PGA Section and many junior golfers who have aspirations of playing in high school and college. I also coach the #1-ranked high school girls’ golf team in the state and have had at least a half dozen young ladies who’ve advanced to the collegiate ranks, with several current players ready to move up.
Proper sequence in the golf swing is vital to the success of all of these golfers, but it’s up to me to analyze where they are in their games and blend the right amount of technical golf coaching and physical training. Many of my high school students and competitive golfers seek trainers during the winter to improve their strength, power, stamina, mobility, stability and balance. I emphasize the importance of these physical traits in my coaching and highlight the benefits to one’s golf game.
In addition, other forms of physical fitness and discipline are effective in golf, like Pilates, which I’ve implemented for my golf team once per week. They diligently do their own fitness workouts on other days of the week, throwing small medicine balls against the wall and utilizing tools like the GolfForever swing training system.
I also encourage them and my other students to keep their fitness regimen in place, and promote simple tools like Superspeed Sticks, alignment rods or a five-foot piece of PVC pipe for proper swing pattern that helps them with structured movements and just might increase their swing speed for greater distance.
Tennye Ohr, the 2025 Kentucky PGA Section Deacon Palmer Award winner, 1996 Section Teacher of the Year and 2022 Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame inductee, is a Quarter Century PGA Member and PGA of America Teaching Professional at Man O’ War Golf Center in Lexington, Kentucky.