PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The biggest question for any professional athlete - how do you gain an advantage? Gone are the days when PGA Tour players can casually train for competition.
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Now there are analytics and personal trainers - anything to be the best. Golfers have more of a conscious effort towards their physical fitness, which correlates to better performance on the course.
“The players now you can see they’re better and better athletes,” director of athletic performance Alex Bennett said. “Being able to compete now they’re realizing they have to add more speed. They really have to prepare their bodies for a long season too. The season’s much longer. The Tour has cut down cards. Now you got to finish top-100 to keep your job. It’s just become so much more competitive. The players are looking for every advantage to be able to keep their job and keep playing on the PGA Tour.”
The PGA Tour took note and built a one-of-a-kind performance center at TPC Sawgrass where players can workout and warmup instead of using the usual makeshift gym in a trailer, which is at other tournaments.
“The game has changed a lot like the players really treat their body like a true athlete,” Bennett said. “They’re really prepping and they like to lift weights. It used to be a little different where players used to just like stretch or show up to the range. These guys are getting full workouts in before they play and with this facility they can do basically anything they want. We also have the technology where they can do assessments, they can kind of see where their body is a quarter of the way through the season, which is a huge advantage. It’s a lot different than just going on the trailer and going through their normal warmup or early in the week they can really take advantage of the technology we have.”
Bennett said almost every player has taken advantage of the gym. In In 2024 during Tuesday’s practice round, 47 golfers were using the facility at once.
“We worked hard to get this facility built and to see it come to fruition and then see the players really enjoy it, I definitely take a lot of pride,” Bennett said.
The Performance Center opened last year. Many local PGA Tour players train at the facility year-round, but anyone in the public can train with Bennett and his staff. Bennett works with fitness specialist Kyle Vassallo and sports performance and rehab specialist Sophie Bargeron.