JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Vijay Singh wasn’t checking the time on his wrist obsessively during Furyk & Friends at Timuquana Country Club because he had an important date after the round. Rather, he was wearing a golf swing analyzer on his wrist called deWiz, which measures swing data in real time such as length of backswing, tempo and transition.
The device, which is being used within the Rules of Golf and received approval from PGA Tour rules officials to be worn in tournament play, was used by Singh, an investor in the company, at the PGA Tour Champions event and marked the first time the wearable technology was put in play on a major global tour.
Singh, who has used the app to try to lengthen his swing, wore the device in tournament or “stealth” mode, meaning it simply collected and aggregated all the data from each swing and didn’t provide any feedback. But during practice, it syncs to an app on your mobile device and instantly sends a 3D rendering of your swing.
Quass Singh, Vijay’s son, explained that if his father hit a bad shot, for instance, at No. 10, he could call up the shot after the round and learn that his swing on that particular shot was .05 seconds faster than the previous swing.
Singh also noted the benefits for amateurs. The device features a patented learning stimuli that delivers a light electric impulse if the swing goes off key. For those masochists out there, it can be set higher to resemble an electric shock. Pick your preference and then set the swing parameters in the app and if you break those thresholds, it instantly alerts you.
“Say you’re swinging over the top. It’s tough to fix that,” Quass Singh said. “But with the device, you can teach your brain subconsciously how to not do what you don’t want it to do.”
So, what did the analysis of Vijay’s swing during a competitive tournament reveal? DeWiz officials shared some of the preliminary findings from his data:
Range vs. course
In general, Vijay was slower, longer and more over-the-top on the range vs in competition
- Start to Impact Time (seconds): Range averaged 1.24, 1.25 and 1.21 (rds 1, 2 and 3), vs 1.15, 1.17, 1.15 on the course (and 1.22 in the pro-am, which is closer to his practice range time).
- Length of Backswing (inches): Range average 62, 61.1, 61.3 (rds 1, 2 and 3) vs 60.8, 59.7, 60 on the course. (Pro-am 60.4 – so closer to competition.)
- Transition (inches): Range average 3, 3.5 and 4.5 (rds 1, 2 and 3) vs 1.5, 1.5, 2 on the course (Pro Am 2 – so closer to competition).
Misses
We also were tracking some advance data that currently is only available to our deWiz Coaches – including initial downward direction – which showed Vijay was dropping his hands more in transition on some shots deemed “misses.” We also saw that Vijay was slightly faster on his backswing on Vijay’s “misses” compared to his best shots.
Consistency
Lastly, we can see how Vijay maintained consistency with his length of backswing and tempo under pressure way better than a club golfer. Research of regular golfers using deWiz on-course shows a greater drop in length of backswing and changes in tempo. Vijay was less than two inches shorter in his LoB between course and range (which is significant), but we see club golfers are usually 6 inches less (or 10 percent) of their average LoB on the range.
The deWiz wearable technology possesses the potential to bridge the gap from the driving range to the first tee and provide full-swing analysis.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]