By Scott Kramer, Contributing Equipment Editor
T
here are many good training aids on the market these days. And if your facility isn’t selling them, you’re leaving sales revenue on the table. At its four golf facilities in Sacramento, Morton Golf, LLC incorporates training aids into its lessons and into its merchandise.
“Our PGA of America Professionals use four key training aids a lot in their instruction,” says Ken Morton Jr., the company’s Vice President of Retail and Marketing. “Alignment sticks are universally used by all of our professionals, along with Orange Whips to help their students warm up prior to the lesson starting.
“Several of our golf professionals also utilize WhyGolf’s Pressure Plate. And although probably looked at fairly unconventionally as a teaching aid, we promote and sell hundreds of copies of the book ‘Be a Player: A Breakthrough Approach to Playing Better on the Golf Course’ by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott.
“We find working simultaneously on the physical and mental parts of the game is the best approach for many of our students.”
While Morton Golf does not leave the training aids physically out on the range – as many courses do, in an effort to merchandise them – they do consider the aids “essential tools for customers looking to improve their golf game because they provide targeted, consistent feedback that helps develop specific skills,” says Morton.
“They allow players to focus on areas such as swing mechanics, alignment, ball striking and putting, offering immediate visual or physical reinforcement to correct habits and build muscle memory. By using these tools in practice, golfers can efficiently enhance their performance, better understand their techniques and make measurable progress. This ultimately leads to increased confidence on the course and a more enjoyable overall experience, fostering long-term engagement with the game.
“We merchandise all of them on one gondola inside our Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop. It’s a large H-shaped slatwall floor fixture on wheels and allows us to merchandise the various aids we have by brand and by collection. It houses everything from hitting mats to swing weights and more.”
At Pine Oaks Golf Course and Joe & Leigh’s Golf Performance Center in South Easton, Massachusetts, PGA of America Director of Instruction Gary Cardoza has a slew of training aids available during lessons – everything from low-tech impact bags, pool noodles and alignment sticks to more high-tech Blast Golf swing analyzers, HackMotion wrist sensors, launch monitors like Trackman, Foresight GC Quad, a Flightscope X3, and even some Tour Striker Smart Balls.
“Making them available to players to use does to some degree create additional sales,” explains Cardoza. “There have been plenty of occasions where I’ve had players take one with them to use for a week and that has proven really effective in creating additional sales opportunities, as they come back to buy them.
“The more tools at our disposal to help train proper movements and feel in the golf swing, the better. But the training aid has to be something that actually trains with appropriate feedback and isn’t something that serves as a Band-Aid.
“We tend to showcase training aids in a few different ways. We leave our putting mats or putting trainers near our indoor test green where we have our putters. Our Orange Whips and other full swing aids may be centrally located near the drivers or fairways woods.”
• Divot Board ($100) is a 6”x21” mat that’s just ⅜” thick and has pointed nubs underneath that hold it in place. It provides immediate feedback of impact position, is well made, durable and portable.
• GOLFFOREVER’s Swing Trainer ($200) is the tool that’s helped Scottie Scheffler and many other PGA TOUR and LPGA professionals. The at-home, cord-driven training device doubles as an optimized weighted warm-up club.
• The classic Impact Bag by Gary Wiren, PGA ($55) is a heavy-duty sack that can be filled with towels, shirts or other cloth material. Swinging into the bag quickly develops a strong left side while turning into the ball – helping minimize inconsistencies brought on by left wrist collapse while reinforcing a proper square impact position.
• IZZO Golf’s Home Range ($400) lets golfers hit balls indoors or out. It features a strong, easy setup-and-takedown net that handles 190 mph ball speeds, and has reinforced fiberglass framing and a sturdy stainless steel base.
• The Key ($40) pre-bent wrist brace correctly positions the dominant hand – helping build distance and accuracy by delaying that hand’s release until the perfect time in a swing. It also discourages fat and thin iron shots.
• Orange Whip’s 35.5-inch Compact ($120) weighs 1.6 pounds and can sharpen rhythm and tempo, improve balance, increase clubhead speed, and help develop lag and load. Designed for indoor use and travel.
• Power Package Golf ($80) helps fix common swing flaws. Essentially, it fastens to the base of a grip and then guides a golfer’s arms into cups – letting them know where to be at the top of the backswing and during the follow-through.
• Power SwingFan ($100) helps to boost distance and control, using air resistance. It’s a lightweight club with four fins on it instead of a clubhead.
• The Putting Arc MS-3D ($90) is a lightweight, slightly curved guide that lays on the green. Move a putter head along the aid’s edges to develop a proper inside-to-square-to-inside putting arc.
• The neoprene-padded Right Angle 2 ($80) elbow brace helps keep the swing arc wide and powerful. It’s particularly useful on shots inside 100 yards, preventing a big backswing.
•The portable Striker 3000 ($40) compression board has a cutout for a swing path through impact – helping golfers monitor ball position, swing path and attack angle into the ball. Helps eliminate outside-in swing paths.
• The lightweight Swingyde ($36) strives to correct various swing positions, particularly the correct hinge position at the top of a backswing. It also remedies any clubface alignment issues throughout the swing.
• The popular Tour Striker 7-iron ($107) from PGA of America Golf Professional Martin Chuck is ideal for intermediate and advanced golfers wanting to improve ball contact on full swings. It also aims to help gain shot control from within 100 yards.
• Invented by UK PGA Golf Professional Dan Frost, Sure-Set ($100) helps golfers match up their arms and turn. It encourages a proper and powerful backswing, and loading the club properly with the right swing width, plane and angles.