Dalton Stevens is Associate Head Golf Coach of the women’s team at the University of Georgia. Dalton joined the Bulldogs in May of 2024, arriving in Athens with new UGA Head Coach Erika Brennan. the pair had enjoyed six successful seasons with the University of South Florida, leading the Bulls to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA regionals. 

Coach Brennan describes her No.2 a “tenacious recruiter and a proven developer” of talent. In Dalton’s first year at USF, the team rose 78 places in the rankings.

After using Clippd in Tampa, a tenure that saw Melanie Green becoming a two-time All-American, representing the United States in Curtis and Palmer Cups, and winning the 2024 Women’s British Amateur Championship, Coach Brennan and Coach Dalton are now using the AI-powered performance platform with their new team, which enters the Spring season at 63 in the National Collegiate Golf Rankings.

‍What were your initial impressions of the University of Georgia women's golf program?

Dalton Stevens: At the University of Georgia, we are blessed to have access to 3 golf courses all within 15 minutes of campus and our Boyd Golf Center only five minutes from where our student athletes live. It’s a true joy every day to walk into the Boyd Golf Center and get to see all the legacy and the tradition of Georgia Golf. That's something that Coach Erika and I are really looking to build on. 

“Clippd is very mobile friendly. We’ve got to be mindful of that as coaches”

‍You're known to be very data-driven in your approach. How does Clippd align with your coaching philosophy?

Dalton Stevens: Stats are critical. If you don't have stats, you're not able to develop practice plans, or figure out the short wins and long-term goals. Good stats help to develop a plan, which will help to identify what your strengths are, and how to grow in those strengths. In addition to identifying strengths, a good plan will also help pinpoint what your weaknesses are and see what you truly need to work on and how those skills impact your scoring.

Can you talk about your journey with Clippd and the impact it has made on your players and their performance?

Dalton Stevens: The first time we met with Clippd was during our time at University of South Florida. We knew immediately that the platform was really tailored to the younger generation. It's very mobile friendly and we’ve got to be mindful of that as coaches. We’re trying to find ways to get the junior golfers and our student athletes to buy into what they're working on, to be just as invested as we are as coaches. Clippd has really helped us not only bring that to the table, but also in being able to enter rounds and data on your cell phone. 

“The great part is that it becomes a competitive environment with Clippd”

The true testament to Clippd is the more that you put in there, the more that you'll get out of it. Our student athletes are really invested. Introducing a new platform to a new group of student athletes was a challenge of ours at the beginning but now that we're a semester in, we're collecting a lot of data and we're able to sit down with the student athletes and tailor their practices individually.

The great part is that it becomes a competitive environment with Clippd, which is what we want. It becomes a challenge to see who had the highest Shot Quality on a single shot or whose overall average Shot Quality for the course of the first round at one of our tournaments was the highest. We're able to break down leaderboards and have internal team challenges with these numbers. The more that we make it fun and competitive, the more that the students really buy into it. 

Tell us about Melanie Green and her record-breaking season at University of South Florida. 

Dalton Stevens: The story started way back in the recruiting process of Melanie Green (MG). She really never missed a beat once she stepped foot on campus as a freshman at South Florida. She was so bought in on the stats and the data entry. Every round regardless of if that was 6, 9, or 18 holes went into the app.

To go all the way from making the Curtis Cup, the Arnold Palmer Cup, to winning overseas [at the British Amateur] when she had never played overseas; to being a two time All-American at South Florida and a four-time All-Conference was truly a testament to how hard she worked on her game. She would tell you that a lot of her success is because of her buy-in and what Clippd provided her to be able to plan in her practices and continue to grow as a golfer. We still believe that her best golf is still ahead of her.

“Melanie Green was so bought in on the stats and the data entry”

‍You mentioned how Melanie Green inputted her stats into Clippd after each hole. How have your players at Georgia embraced inputting their data into Clippd?

Dalton Stevens: They’ve really embraced it with open arms, and our team this season has been very open to using Clippd. Like anything new, you’ve got to get in there and try all the different things that Clippd has to offer. From the ladder drills, putting combines, and input of trackman data, overall, the team has really enjoyed using the platform and analyzing all of the results it has to offer. 

A big feature that our student-athletes really like is that you don't have to put in 18 holes of golf. For example, you can put in three or six holes. They know that any data that they put in is going to help us coaches be better prepared to be able to plan practice to put them in a good situation to be successful. 

‍How useful is the What To Work On feature in Clippd for you as a coach?

Dalton Stevens: As a college coach we have what's called the Team Heatmap [on the Team Dashboard], which shows all the players on our roster. It shows areas where we're really improving and the areas that we need to improve on. Coach Erika and I are really diving into that while the girls are in class. 

The What To Work On section has been a huge time saver for us. If we're leaving for a tournament in two days, we can go in and look at Quick Wins and see what areas for each player we need to look at if we're only going to have two practices before we travel again. 

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If we know that we're going to have a little bit more time, we can look at the Weaknesses section on What To Work On and really develop more skills over the course of a couple of weeks if we have a gap. 

What To Work On makes it super easy for the student athlete to go in and actually have a plan and know what they need to work on. When they come to us and say, ‘Hey, I really need to improve my approach play from 140 to 180,’ there's immediate buy-in from the student athlete to the coach. It creates an environment where everybody is so bought in and on the same page.

“The What To Work On section has been a huge time saver for us”

‍Have there been examples you can share when one of your players learned from their Clippd account the need to put in more work on a specific part of their game and the results they achieved?

Dalton Stevens: We've had several student athletes over the course of our years using Clippd, but I would say the ones that really stand out are the athletes who really buy into the enhanced data on the putting.  

From your position as a successful college coach, what are the best ways in your opinion to introduce junior players to collecting their data, their stats?

Dalton Stevens: I would say it's about getting to know your DNA as a golfer and making it fun. Even if it’s as simple as fairways, greens, and total putts. Start out small and grow more into it the more that your love grows for the game.  A lot of girls on our team journal, which is data entry. You're putting all your thoughts on paper during a golf round, the highs, the lows, so you always have something to go back and reflect on.

If you don't have data, you're blindly going about trying to get better at golf. In the long run, if your goals are to play college golf and to play out on the LPGA Tour or the PGA Tour someday, the best players in the world collect data. They have numbers that are factual that they can go back to and learn from.

Want Clippd for you college program? Book a call with our team.

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