Women’s golf squad adopts a high-tech strategy for achievement

While a campus tour group comprising parents and potential students walked through the entrance of Heritage Hall, admiring the trophies of Trojan icons, one level below, Kylie Chong focused on her short game.

Chong is a sophomore on the USC women’s golf squad, and on that specific Monday morning, she was honing her skills for an impending event at Stanford University using one of the golf team’s four simulators. As Chong struck her ball towards a wall-sized screen displaying a virtual course, she could monitor the ball’s projected trajectory, with various metrics appearing on the left side of the screen. What resembles an advanced game of Topgolf enables Chong to gain a complete perspective of her performance without the distractions of outdoor conditions.

“I wasn’t particularly interested in metrics and data before I arrived here, but I’ve gained a lot of insights about my game [from data],” stated Chong, a business administration student at the USC Marshall School of Business. “It’s straightforward — it reveals precisely what you need to work on and what your advantages are.”

Although both the USC men’s and women’s golf teams consider the Rolling Hills Golf Course as their venue for competitions, much of the essential practice occurs in the lower level of Heritage Hall on USC’s University Park Campus, where simulators deliver statistics and insights that the Trojans cannot attain simply by playing on a course.

“[In the simulator,] I’m capable of refining various aspects of my game that can’t be achieved outside,” Chong remarked. “Thus, it’s an ideal opportunity to collect data and understand everything I need to know about my clubs, distances, and fields before I take it to the course and implement it.”

Golf embraces technology

Often thought to be exclusive to baseball, “analytics” has turned into a trending topic in numerous sports recently, and golf is certainly no exception. When vying for a conference and national title, every single statistic or detail can be utilized to enhance one’s performance. That’s why USC women’s head golf coach Justin Silverstein mentioned that the Trojans have adopted the data.

“How we implement it has become nearly as crucial as having it initially, since almost every program has access to this, but we simply need to apply it more effectively and efficiently,” Silverstein commented. “That’s how we can keep progressing at a rapid rate.”

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The advancement in technology has been significant, particularly in the fifteen years that Silverstein has coached at the collegiate level. What was previously available only to skilled golfers is now accessible to young players at the start of their journeys, he mentioned.

“That’s the reason we are witnessing golfers improving at an earlier stage,” he remarked. “You receive the carry distance information, the curve data, the spin metrics — all of this is now readily available to you.”

The Trojan Strategy

At USC, the trio of golf simulators and putting simulator is employed to monitor the ball and assess statistics such as proximity to the hole and carry distances — the distance a golf ball moves through the air before making contact with the ground for the first time — across various clubs.

“It appears quite elementary, but from my experience over the past 15 years, even top-tier players, when entering our program, are unaware of the exact distances each club can achieve,” Silverstein stated. “Whether it’s a one, two, or three-yard variation from week to week, that makes a significant difference at this level.”

Silverstein mentioned that the technology and data accumulation assist current Trojan golfers and serve as key factors in recruiting the next wave of elite student-athletes.

“We gather and utilize more data than any women’s golf program in the nation, and I believe we do so by a substantial margin,” Silverstein noted. “We can collect data to assess skill levels weekly, monthly, and annually with our athletes — thus, we aim to attract recruits who are keen on that and wish to develop in such an environment.”

The facilities were a major deciding factor for sophomore Elise Lee, who transitioned to USC from Northwestern University earlier this year.

“To begin with, Rolling Hills is an exceptionally excellent facility,” said Lee, a communication major at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “Moreover, I appreciate that on Mondays we can practice in the simulators here, allowing us to clearly observe how much we have enhanced or what still needs improvement.”

Promoting Women’s Athletics

As a golfer, Lee expressed that having such advanced technology at her disposal benefits her game, but as a female student-athlete, she highlighted it as evidence of USC’s dedication to women’s sports.

“The new technology implemented makes us feel extremely supported,” she stated. “We can analyze different aspects of our game with great accuracy, which I believe fosters greater confidence in our play.”

Chong shared similar sentiments, noting that in a school renowned for its football and baseball programs, it’s refreshing to see an equal focus on women’s athletics.

“It demonstrates the extent of their support for us and indicates that women’s sports are evolving and have an audience,” Chong stated. “I truly feel that there is nothing I cannot do, learn, or improve upon while I’m here.”