Torque Golf ticks a lot of boxes – the indoor performance centre in Altrincham allows golfers to work on all aspects of their game under one roof and with that comes a team of six PGA Professionals.
From the golf swing, putting, short game, junior development and even 3D biomechanics, each PGA member of staff has their specialist area to provide the best service for visitors.
PGA Professional Oliver Barnes, who is also the Head Professional at The Mere Golf Resort, discusses the idea behind Torque Golf as well as the importance of hiring those with particular skillsets and the challenges he faced when doing so.
Torque Golf have four simulators, all with sloping lies, facilities for chipping and bunker play as well as a Zen Green Stage where you can practise different breaking putts. So, essentially, they've brought as much of the golf course indoors as possible.
What areas are most popular?
We were already an existing business at The Mere and the most popular areas are those that existed before. For example, putting sessions with Jordan Massey or looking at biomechanics which we’ve been doing for a number of years. Gareth James is our lead swing coach and he's the Welsh national coach and that's a very popular part of the business as well. So, if someone comes to see me for a 3D session, I'll pass on what I see within the data and then he'll then work on their swing to help improve those key areas. The biggest thing is having everything under one roof and you can literally work on every aspect of the game.
The tech
We have high-end technology to cover everything, such as Foresight GC Hawk, GASP Force Plates, Bull 3D Motion Capture, Swing Catalyst Swing Analysis Software, Zen Swingstage Moving Platform, SAM PuttLab and Capto. We've really invested in covering everything and we have projection systems on the chipping green where you can project all the breaks and landing zones onto the green. And we have music playing all the time and an area where you can have a coffee so it's a pretty cool place for you to spend some time in.
How did you select the Pros to specialise in these areas?
Part of it was our current team with Jordan doing putting and we had Charlie Markert who does our short game stuff. Then I just expanded that model, Gareth applied for a job through the PGA website and the physio and PT was word of mouth from some of our better golfers.
What were you looking for when hiring your team?
I was looking for PGA Professionals who have continued to develop their knowledge further and who specialise in the different areas of the game. All of our coaches have gone on to develop their knowledge further by utilising the CPD courses whilst also connecting with other PGA Professionals to help increase their knowledge in their specific areas.
Why was it so important to hire the right people with their particular skillsets?
As we know, each area of the game requires different skills. We believe that for our players to develop to the best of their abilities we needed coaches who could offer deep understanding of each of the skillsets that are required when playing golf. When choosing who to hire, it was important for us to choose coaches who have continued to develop their knowledge of coaching those specific parts.
We hire PGA Members because we know we are hiring a high-quality professional with specialist knowledge in all the important areas. We know they have gained this from great education within the training programme, from the key industry skills all the way to coaching, fitting and sports science. When hiring, we are also looking at how our coaches have utilised the further education and CPD that is offered by the PGA which we believe is a vital tool for all PGA Pros to enhance their coaching.
What have The PGA done to help accelerate the success of the business?
The PGA has helped accelerate the business as they have helped me create an understanding not only of how to coach my players but also on how to run a business. Torque Golf wouldn’t be possible without its coaches and the level of coaching wouldn’t be achievable without not only the education that the PGA offers, but also the contacts that are created through meeting other PGA Professionals. As an example of this, without the PGA I wouldn’t have met Mark Bull, who has been influential on my personal coaching journey.
When did you open?
We opened in May and it's going really well. I always hesitate to be too optimistic because you've got to keep paying your bills but, for a new company, it's been very positive especially with the overheads of the new build and equipment that's in it. We're doing over 200 hours of lessons a week at the moment and a lot of that is word of mouth through clients. But then on top of that we use Google and social media.
What does your week look like compared to six months ago?
Where it's very different is it never stops. I'll still do my eight to 10 hours of coaching a day and then the laptop's back open and we're getting ready for promotional stuff. I say to a lot of people that I'm not just a golf coach anymore, I'm head of marketing, accounts and across every aspect of the business. It's just trying to keep on top of all those things as well as continuing your day-to-day coaching work. It's a real hard balance because obviously you want to develop yourself further as a coach, but you've got to make sure the business is in the right order as well. A big help is that a lot of my clients are quite successful businesspeople so a lot of my education in business has come from a lot of people that I know really.
