If I had a dollar for every newfangled golf device that’s supposed to help improve golfers’ swings…alas, a rich man I would be. Yet that same dollar for things that actually worked — I’d still be writing for paltry sums (I can almost hear Tevya singing in the background, but more on sound later). And then here comes Sonic Golf.
If results are any indication, and they are often the only true barometer of success, Sonic may have found golf’s Holy Grail. The Woodbridge, Conn.-based company has developed a technology for perfecting tempo in a golf swing that none other than Vijay Singh claims is one of the reasons he has won three of the last five PGA Tour events. Yes, after not winning during the previous seventeen months, Singh, using this device in practice for a little over two months, has won the Bridgestone Invitational, The Barclays, and now the Deutsche Bank Championship. This Tigeresque run has vaulted Vijay into first place in the FedEx Cup points and the lead of the PGA Tour money list.
Singh first started using Sonic Golf’s System-1 (S-1) in June. Since that time he has incorporated the technology into his training routine to fine-tune his tempo, rhythm and timing. When asked about the new device at the press conference after his latest win Monday, Vijay said:
"I think I started using it at the U.S. Open this year, and that’s when my rhythm started getting better. I think it’s helped me tremendously. I always had a good rhythm, but I never had a consistent rhythm. That’s making my swing a lot more consistent, not just with the driver but the whole game. It’s one rhythm for the whole game instead of a having a quicker rhythm for irons or slower rhythm for the driver."
Which brings me back to sound, for this is essentially how the system works. The S-1 uses electronics that are inserted into the shaft of a golf club. These electronics measure the speed of the club in real time and send a signal to a small receiver attached to the user’s waist. This receiver plays a note through headphones, telling the user when his swing speed has the best tempo and timing.
Sonic Golf’s founder, Robert Grober, is a professor of applied physics at Yale and has combined his professional experience with his passion for golf to create a device that literally helps you get into the swing of things.
"When you can hear your motion, that turns out to be a very useful thing," Grober says. He’s been developing the device since 2003, but it wasn’t until this summer that his prototypes were ready. Besides Singh, he has sold several of his pre-production units to other Tour players including Rich Beem, Fred Funk and Grant Waite.
Professor Grober hopes to have his first commercial product available for sale by mid-October, priced between $350 and $400, and Singh predicts success for the S-1 similar to his own. "Even when I take it off, I remember the humming sound in my head," Singh says. "Once it gets on the market, I think it’s going to be one of the best teaching devices ever. It’s a great tool." — Rico Williams
