When the wind whips across Erin Hills, even the world’s best young players can be brought to their knees. For Jack Wetzel, a senior at the University of Minnesota, that’s when he feels he has the best chance. 

“Erin was a really, really tough test,” he says of his recent top-10 at the Marquette Intercollegiate, the best finish of his collegiate career to date. “They set it up very tricky and conditions were tough. I just hung in there. Par was a good score that week. I really just grinded it out.”

Grinding is what Wetzel does best. He’s not just one of the most committed players in college golf; he’s also the most active user on Clippd, the performance platform used by college and professional golfers worldwide. 

Since his freshman year, Jack has logged over 4,000 activities: tournament rounds, practice sessions, drills, workouts, and even journal entries. That works out at more than 1,000 per year. 

“I kind of just use it as a full golf journal,” he explains. “Everything that surrounds performance and golf in general, I throw in there. It’s accountability. Am I really making the most of my time and am I being productive, working on the right things?”

Wetzel’s results have been hard-earned. A self-described “late bloomer”, he wasn’t a blue-chip recruit. “I was never like a great junior player. I never won anything big. But I differentiated myself with the work I put in. I could grind it. I could dig it out of the dirt.”

That grit is now paying off. Wetzel followed up his strong showing at Erin Hills with another quality performance at Quail Valley in Florida, where he was one of three Minnesota players to finish inside the top-20, earning the Gophers a rankings-boosting 5th place team finish. “I knew I had it in me, and the results just hadn’t quite shown yet,” he says. “It’s definitely encouraging to see that.”

Logging every shot, drill, and workout

Clippd has become Wetzel’s daily companion, a record of not just his golf but his process. “I use it for workouts, runs, cardio, mobility, strength,” he explains. “At night before I go to bed, I’ll put in all my activities for the day.” His teammates might laugh—“they give me a lot of crap because I am always putting entries in”—but he knows the payoff. “It’s just like an accountability measure: Am I putting the work in? Am I doing the right things?”

"I differentiated myself with the work I put in. I could grind it. I could dig it out of the dirt”

Jack tracks everything—from putting drills to random approach ladders that simulate pressure. “It’s a great way to test that in practice and put a little bit of pressure and simulate that playing environment, which I think is invaluable,” he says. “You’re testing your technique and seeing am I able to perform where I need to?”

For Wetzel, data is not a replacement for hard work but the structure that gives that hard work meaning. “Golf is such a very technical game and you’re not going to get to where you want to get to without practice and reps,” he states. “If you just go out and play and you don’t put much work in, you’re probably not going to get better.”

Clippd has helped Wetzel learn his tendencies in detail. “It’s definitely a thing where as you use it more, you understand it more. For me, I can see how aggressive or conservative I am with speed putting, what side of the hole I’m missing, and with approach shots—I draw it with my irons, I’m a lot more comfortable with left pins—so can I get a shot that kind of cuts or holds up into a right-to-left wind and to a right pin?”

He uses both Strokes Gained and Clippd’s Shot Quality metrics to measure progress. “After the round, I’ll look at each category,” he says. “Sometimes what you feel and what the data shows can be different. It’s so much more than traditional stats, because sometimes those can be misleading.”

His favorite Clippd feature, however, is What to Work On, which gives him a personalized priority list for practice. “It’s huge,” he says. “Right now, it’s mostly Off The Tee with driver and 180-plus yards with long irons. Those are my two categories with the most opportunity to improve.”

Jack insists on logging every shot using Clippd’s Enhanced mode. “I will never do the non-enhanced version,” he insists. “Enhanced mode is so worth that extra time. Even while you’re putting it in, you’re picking up on patterns—like, man, I’m missing a lot of iron shots left of the green. You’re picking up on tendencies while you’re reflecting.”

Indoor winters and technical work

Practicing in Minnesota means long winters, which means lots of indoor practice. “We’re definitely lucky to have this facility,” Wetzel says, showing us the indoor hitting bays. “We’ve got TrackMan and Quad—it’s great in the winter to dial the numbers in.” 

He explains the winter months are for rebuilding, sharpening technique, and staying disciplined. “Coming out of the winter, technically all my stuff is the best it ever gets. It just shows how you need that mix of working on technique and playing golf and putting it to the test.”

"Clippd shows I’ve outworked everybody. I feel like I’m more prepared than anyone so why doubt myself?"

That testing, for Wetzel, comes through Clippd’s scoring and practice tracking. “Can I get myself under a little pressure? Can I feel some nerves?” He likes how Clippd makes practice scorable, enabling him to constantly drive himself forwards. “Even the smallest thing, like knowing the score’s going up on Clippd—can I find a way to do the best I can?”

Wetzel’s humility matches his hunger. “I never really got any looks from D1 programs because I sprouted late. I just got a really lucky opportunity here at Minnesota.” 

He’s making the most of it. “I definitely struggled results-wise in my first year or two. It’s never been smooth. But I’m most proud of continuing to pursue, continuing to enjoy the grind of it, and just never giving up.”

Wetzel’s relentless work ethic hasn’t gone unnoticed. Two years ago, Robert Bell, the former Minnesota Assistant Coach, told us, “I’d never thought in my entire lifetime that anybody would outwork [former Minnesota teammate] Ben Warian [now playing on the PGA Americas tour]—but Jack Wetzel has.”

Wetzel laughs at the memory, but he knows what Bell means. “At the end of the day, what Clippd has helped me with is the accountability piece and just knowing, I’ve outworked everybody. I feel like I’m more prepared than anyone so why doubt myself?”

He sums up his approach simply: “Golf is a game where you can’t just rely on talent. You really need to supplement it with hard work and the work off the course.”

And that’s what Clippd rewards. “You’re not going to get better if you don’t put the work in,” Wetzel said. “If you really love to practice, that’s when it can get scary good.”

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