United States Golf Academy at Swan Lake Resort

Maximize Your Game With Unique PuttLab and TrackMan Technology.Are you ready for this? Ultrasound and 3-D launch monitors that can follow ball flight and even recommend the best golf ball for YOUR game?

Believe it. Only at the United States Golf Academy at the Indiana National Golf Club at Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth , less than two hours from Indianapolis or Chicago. And when we say “only”, we’re talking the only place outside of the club manufacturers own test sites that has the “PuttLab” and “TrackMan” technology to fit you with the right putter, clubs and even golf balls. And then they can turn you loose on two wonderful courses that are challenging and wellconditioned enough to be awarded 4-Stars by Golf Digest’s Places to Play, located at a resort with log cabins, suites, and updated rooms with flat-screen TVs, wireless internet and a great “getaway” ambience.

But first, let’s get back to the ultrasound analysis of your putter. Developed by a German company and available to European Tour players the last couple of those putts at the Ryder Cup?), “PuttLab” technology basically X-rays your putting stroke from 28 different parameters, giving you almost instant feedback on your putting strengths and weaknesses and what kind of putter will help you and your stroke make more putts.

The new TrackMan ball flight monitor years (and you wonder why they make all was developed by a company that had built missile tracking systems. It measures the complete flight of shots from 300-yard drives to short pitch shots so that you can accurately measure, and then correct, your trajectory on each shot, through swing changes and proper club fitting. In simple terms, the perfect driver ball-flight combines the highest possible launch with a descent of 40-degrees or less. And with their partnership with SMT, the maker of component parts used by most long-driving champions, they can fit the perfect driver to your swing, using 62,000 possible combinations of shafts and heads. Fitting a set of clubs using TrackMan figures out the optimal yardages you’ll hit each club, allowing you to customize a set that won’t leave any “gaps” in your game, taking away the guesswork of how to make up your bag. 

Maybe the ultimate result of a TrackMan fitting is finding you exactly the right golf ball for your swing, and your clubs. Once you get fit for the perfect ball, the United States Golf Academy will give you a couple dozen of them and discounts on buying that same ball for a year.  

Now you might think this is all a lot of technical sleight-of-hand to sell you more golf clubs. But Indiana National Director of Golf Pat Bayley says his people do as much or more retro-fitting (shaping your current clubs to meet your newly-discovered specs) than they do selling new clubs. And all of your fitting costs apply to any purchase. It just makes sense. Tiger and Vijay and Phil and all of the other pros do it, and even if you’re not going to play as well as they do, don’t you deserve to give yourself the best chance to maximize your ability?

A perfect example of how all this technology has made a difference is right on staff at the United States Golf Academy. PGA Professional Brad Fellers, who obviously brings some serious game to his teaching expertise, picked up 15 yards off the tee with his newly-fit driver and is putting more comfortably than ever. And curiously, his putter is more lofted (7- degrees) than his driver (6-degrees). Conventional wisdom would never suggest that, but don’t tell Brad.

Bayley feels the greatest benefit in all this high-tech gear is getting to the root causes of how and why you play the way you do much quicker than hours of observation by a pro, who can more quickly take the data and prescribe the kind of practice regimen that can lower your scores faster than ever before. And isn’t that what we’re all looking for? www.usgolfacademy.com has more details on this amazing technology and how it can help your game. You do still have to practice, and this is where the United States Golf Academy at Indiana National really shines. Director of Instruction Bruce Rearick (formerly of Arnold Palmer’s Latrobe Country Club) and his staff have developed a wonderful program of instruction that doesn’t offer a drastic and complicated overhaul of your swing, but, in the words of Bayley, “provide information and help you can apply to your current game that will visibly improve your performance in a weekend and teach you how to practice better, which should improve your overall golf experience, likely making you want to play (and practice) even more.”

By customizing an instruction package to meet your needs, from one and two-day schools to a unique “unlimited” lesson package that provides coaching whenever you need it throughout the year, the staff of seven professionals use their years of experience, the GASP Advanced Coaching System to create a CD of your swing that you can look at anywhere, and full-swing simulators that allow you to actually “play” renowned courses year-round in their indoor facility. This combination of golf fitting and instruction technology, the personal interaction with passionate pros dedicated to improving your game, and the lush setting of the Swan Lake Resort has made the United States Golf Academy and Indiana National a popular getaway for companies as far away as Cincinnati, who bring their employees or clients in for an opportunity to improve their games, and develop a unique camaraderie. The fabulous resort is always improving, adding more lodging options in the coming year to an already impressive array of choices that include log cabins in the woods that can sleep 8-10 with four bathrooms, flat-screen cable TV’s, Playstations and wireless internet access; small cottages and a main lodge with over 100 various- sized and recently renovated rooms and suites. Sam Snead’s Tavern and Grill surrounds visitors with memorabilia from the golf legend’s eight- decade career and a roaring fire inside, or outdoors under a canopy at water’s edge. With 33,000 square-feet of on-site meeting space, Swan Lake Resort specializes in corporate events and golf outings.The professional specialists, known as “caddie masters” are all golfers at heart and know how to best execute an event for 4 or 400, like the 2007 and 2008 NAIA Men’s National Championships.

A great getaway resort, 36 spectacular holes of golf, and the greatest technology available to the public anywhere in the U.S. are all in one place, the United States Golf Academy and Indiana National Golf Club at the Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth . For more information and the latest specials, visit their always up-to-date Web site at www.slresort.com or call (800) 582-7539 or (574) 935-5680.