Since the inception of the PGA Tour almost 90 years ago, a divide separating professionals from everyday amateurs has gradually grown wider. For decades, this estrangement could best be seen through the availability of game-changing equipment, as well as accessibility to facilities dedicated to personalized instruction (using the most advanced swing-analysis technology), as well as club modification and customization. Recreational golfers—from weekend hackers to players with single-digit handicaps—could only fantasize about the “tour player experience,” wondering how those perks and training aids might improve their own games.
The Reynolds Kingdom of Golf presented by TaylorMade in Greensboro, Georgia., has turned those dreams into a reality. Located 70 miles from downtown Atlanta, the full-service golf facility, operated through a partnership with TaylorMade, was built in 2007 and initially served only Tour professionals. In 2013, however, the Kingdom opened its doors to the public. Since then, the facility has steadily evolved, growing more advanced and more refined each year. Today, the Kingdom of Golf provides resort guests and Reynolds Lake Oconee members with a facility dedicated to complete game improvement, one that rivals and—in some cases exceeds—the amenities that tour players enjoy at TaylorMade’s headquarters in Southern California.
The tour player experience that is provided by the Kingdom of Golf hinges on three key areas: precise club-fitting, on-site club-building, and an instructional program centered on a teaching philosophy that emphasizes a player’s unique strengths and natural, biomechanical tendencies.
A Perfect Fit
Thanks to its innovative drivers made from advanced composite materials—not to mention its strong-lofted irons that produce superior distance and high-launching ball flights—TaylorMade enjoys a spot on golf’s podium as one of the sport’s top club manufacturers. For that reason alone, golfers have made pilgrimages to the Kingdom of Golf to be fit for a custom set of clubs since it opened to the public in 2013. The facility’s allure as a premier TaylorMade outfitter is even stronger now, thanks to TaylorMade’s revolutionary new drivers, which feature the brand’s proprietary TwistFace technology.
“We learned that the most common impact locations on a driver’s face forms an ellipse; so we twisted the club face to be slightly more open with higher loft on the toe and slightly closed with lower loft in the heel,” explains Todd Beach, TaylorMade’s senior vice president of R&D and engineering. “The result allows you to hit off-center shots that go farther and straighter than they used to.”
The Kingdom’s master club builder, Jeff Hinshaw, not only concurs, he effusively praises the engineers’ achievements. “In my 40 years in the golf business, I thought I’d seen most everything,” he says. “Every 10 or 15 years, what goes around comes around. But when I saw that technology, I was blown away by it. I never saw that coming.”
While the Reynolds Kingdom of Golf connection to TaylorMade makes it a popular destination among golfers who are looking for an advantage through their equipment, the facility’s lead club-fitter, Alan Stone—who previously worked at the Kingdom at TaylorMade’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California.—explains that the Reynolds facility’s greatest asset is the facility itself. The Kingdom spans 16 acres and features a 7,600-square-foot instructional center complete with four, enclosed, heated hitting bays and three open hitting bays. “At Reynolds, we have a larger practice facility, larger range, and a larger short game area where you can hit a variety of specialty shots,” says Stone, explaining that the West Coast Kingdom lacked an environment to practice all those facets of the game. “In Carlsbad, we’d pack up and go to a nearby golf course,” he says, “but we have everything on site right here.”
Equipped with TrackMan launch monitors and Quintic putting analysis software, the Kingdom of Golf is armed with the latest technology that allows club-fitters to measure and analyze the point of impact between the club and the ball, as well as how the ball travels—from tee shots to putts. The Kingdom’s club-fitters—all of whom have worked with top-level tour players throughout their careers—are further assisted by GEARS, a full-swing, club-and-body-tracking system that produces a three-dimensional image of a player and the golf club during the swing. The system reveals players’ swing tendencies and body positions, as well as the club’s lie angle, degree of loft, orientation of the clubface, and how the shaft flexes and bends during the swing.
“I want to know what a player does,” say Stone, “and GEARS show us what they’re doing and how the club is reacting down to a tenth of a degree and a couple hundredths of a millimeter.”
GEARS is more than just the world’s most advanced motion capture solution designed specifically for golf; it’s also the most exclusive system of its kind. Only 100 facilities throughout the world use the system. “These new technologies that allow us to see better what the club is doing through the swing and at impact, they’re more and more valuable,” says Beach. “That’s how TwistFace came about. It’s important to know what your body is doing through the swing. That’s where GEARS is helpful, not only through a fitting standpoint but also a teaching standpoint. At Reynolds, they’re not only implementing a great fitting experience but also utilizing that technology into their lessons.”
