The winters can be particularly harsh in Minnesota, which is why Chris Foley, one of the state’s most respected teachers, moves his work inside into two simulator bays at Cragun’s Legacy Golf Courses. “Most of my players will not get to play any golf outside between now and probably April,” he explains. “For most of them it will just be lessons and practice inside.” Find out more at chrisfoleygolf.com.

Adam Kolloff is the owner and Director of Instruction at PureDrive Golf. He has seven professional tournament victories to his name and was mentored by the great Jim McLean before becoming Head of Instruction at Liberty National, venue for the 2022 President’s Cup. 

Adam is one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America. He works out of an indoor performance facility in the Greater Boston area. Find out more at puredrivegolf.com.

Dean Saunders works with players of all abilities who share one thing in common:  a dedication to getting better. A former PGA Assistant Pro of the Year, he manages Dean Saunders Golf Performance across three counties in the UK. Find out more at deansaunders.com.

With each pointer, we offer a Clippd Tip in the form of a quick reminder of how you can use the platform to capture, learn and improve from these different activities. Make sure you’re ready to hit the course again. And be sure to look out for Part 2 next week!

1. Record everything you do for your golf

Dean Saunders: “If you’re looking to get better and you’re not recording data, you’re crazy.”

Chris Foley: “Right. Rarely does somebody ever truly know where their game stands if they're not using a game analysis tool like Clippd."

Dean Saunders: “Clippd is such a powerful platform. I call it 'the coach in your pocket'. You can put everything into it, your scores, your lessons, your TrackMan data, your strength and conditioning work. When that’s all put together it will show patterns that can give players an edge.”

Clippd Tip: A straightforward one to begin with. If you haven’t done so already, sign up to Clippd. And then hit the + button to start recording your activities!

2. Identify your physical limitations

Adam Kolloff: “Work with a fitness professional and go through an assessment to identify your physical limitations. The winter is a great time to improve your fitness. When you identify physical limitations and put together a program to improve upon them, you’ll find your swing becomes more consistent and you’re at less risk of getting injured.”

Clippd Tip: Hit the + button in Clippd, select Add Activity and then select the type of activity from the dropdown menu at the top. The last three options are Cardio, Mobility and Strength. Be sure to record what you did and any important metrics in the Description field and then add your reflections in the Notes field further down. You find these activities at a later date by searching by keyword.

‍3. Record your simulator rounds

Chris Foley: “Players in my full winter programme get 12 lessons over the winter as well as some practise time in our simulators. When they do play in the simulator, I ask them to record their rounds using Clippd Capture."

Dean Saunders: “If there are certain shots you find hard to hit, try them on the simulator, TrackMan or on TopTracer at a smart range. The winter is the perfect time to work on your weaknesses.”

Clippd Tip: It’s easy to record your simulator rounds using Clippd Capture. Hit the + button and select Record a Round. Find the course you're playing on the sim and select it in Clippd. Select the tees you're playing from and remember to title it as a simulator round. All your yardages will be accurate, which means you can get all information you require to enter a round. After you've finished entering your round, you can view the results in Round Insights and see the impact on your Player Quality. Note: we are currently looking at limiting the impact of simulator rounds on your Player Quality, particularly putting.

‍4. Get to know your tendencies

Chris Foley: “You have to be aware of your individual tendencies because you’re going to fall back into those errors when you’re not playing well. As golfers, we don't make a lot of different errors, we make the same errors. We fall back into our habits. If you have that awareness, it's much easier to get back on track.”

Dean Saunders: “I teach a very good junior golfer. Using Clippd we identified his miss with the driver. If you had asked him where it was he’d always say left. Clippd told us otherwise. His miss was right and since then we’ve been taking holes from random courses that have right-to-left doglegs and we’ve structured his coaching sessions around the data.

"His trend has gone from a low-30s fairways hit percentage with 40 percent of his drives missing right, to 65-70% of fairways hit and he’s only missing a very small percentage right. We can see that in the graphs on Clippd. Using Clippd to show players what they’re doing is very powerful, but so too is being able to see the shift away from that.”

Clippd Tip: Your Player Quality rings immediately identify the weakest parts of your game, which can give you clarity on the all-important long-term work you want to do over winter. Click on a coloured Player Quality ring to get deeper information. You can check your distance categories and then click into What To Work On and sort your priority list. We recommend sorting by either Shot Quality or Opportunity to highlight the areas of your game that are weak relative to others but also those where you might see the quickest gains with a little bit of focused practice.

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5. Work on developing more speed

Adam Kolloff: The winter is a great time to practise gaining more clubhead speed because there is less time to play and more time to practise. It’s proven that gaining five more mph of clubhead speed with your driver could potentially translate into 15 more yards off the tee. Combined with more distance from your irons, you’re looking at potentially a two to three-club difference on approach shots. That is substantial and will have a dramatic affect on your ability to shoot lower scores.

"There’s a lot of products out there that can help you develop clubhead speed. Make sure you choose a reputable product that has good reviews and a step by step programme you can follow. This will keep you accountable and produce the best results."

Clippd Tip: Use the + button in Clippd and select Add Activity. Record what you’re doing, the speed training tool you’re using and for how long you are doing the work. See the impact of this speed training on your clubhead and ball speed by doing a TrackMan Test or Combine.

It’s very easy: copy the link URL of your Trackman Combine or Test report on mytrackman.com > open Clippd and tap Menu (mobile) or your avatar (desktop) > Settings > Data Integrations > TrackMan Link and follow the instructions. Once your report has been uploaded, you can explore the Shot Quality scores for every shot you hit in TrackMan Combines and Tests (see below), as well as seeing how your speed training is impacting your clubhead speed and ball speed. 

Follow our coaches on Instagram: @akolloff, @deansaundersgolfperformance and @chrisfoleygolf

Read Part 2 of the story: 5 MORE ways to train smarter this winter