{"id":291801,"date":"2025-04-27T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/even-pro-golfers-have-turned-to-remote-learning\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T19:18:08","slug":"even-pro-golfers-have-turned-to-remote-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/even-pro-golfers-have-turned-to-remote-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Even pro golfers have turned to remote learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It has been well over a year since Lucas Herbert, the Australian golfer who won the Irish Open last week and is playing in this week\u2019s Scottish Open, regularly hit balls in front of his swing coach, Dominic Azzopardi. The coronavirus<\/a> pandemic has been the reason for their separation, but it has not stopped the work they do.<\/p>\n

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With Herbert living in Orlando, Florida, and Azzopardi in Queensland, traveling has not been possible, particularly with a strict quarantine for people entering Australia.<\/p>\n

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Instead, the men went virtual last summer, using the golf teaching app Skillest during the lockdown to film Herbert\u2019s swings, send annotated feedback from coach to player and even have live sessions \u2014 albeit early morning for Herbert and late night for Azzopardi. The men, who missed working side-by-side, said the system had worked surprisingly well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 10:30 p.m. in the evening here, and Lucas is about to go and practice at 8:30 a.m., so the time zones make it so different,\u201d Azzopardi said. \u201cInstead, I wake up and see his swings, view them, draw lines on them and do a voice-over. It\u2019s just been a really easy way to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbert said not having his coach on the range or caddying for him was different at first. But the connection through the app has worked well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite visual,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cI like to see what I want to change, what\u2019s going well, in front of me. The app is good for that. I can put a picture to my mind to see and a voice to guide me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Teaching apps to connect pros with their coaches \u2014 but also average golfers with experienced teachers \u2014 had been growing in popularity for a few years before the pandemic. But in lockdown, players searched for ways to get better. Because players were stuck indoors, away from other golfers and nowhere near a coach, this teaching technology slowly boomed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tripled in size in the past 12 months,\u201d said Baden Schaff, co-founder and director of instruction of Skillest. \u201cI\u2019ve always known that it was right for the elite players in the game. They\u2019ve always interacted to a degree like this with their coaches. What\u2019s more exciting is the average person has more interaction with their coach and is getting what elite players have always had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaff, who has been a teaching professional in England, Singapore and Australia, said elite players sought regular coaching weekly, if not daily, so the stay-at-home orders in the pandemic forced them to seek other ways to keep that feedback going in a remote way.