The Strongest Yard

Want to fix your swing? Sea Island resort’s new performance center wants to fix your body first.

- John Paul Newport

Inside the new multimillion-dollar Golf Performance Center at Sea Island, Ga., I’m standing on one leg, arms folded across my chest, trying to rotate my upper body without toppling over. I can manage a few turns with my eyes open, but it’s hopeless when they’re closed.

Randy Myers, Sea Island’s director of fitness, isn’t surprised. Balance, he tells me, is the biggest physical difference between the pros and me. Almost all the PGA Tour players Myers has worked with—more than 70, including Dustin Johnson and Davis Love III—can not only make full-speed swings on one leg with their eyes closed, they can also do it while standing on top of an inflatable Bosu Balance Trainer ball.

Luckily, Myers isn’t trying to turn me into a tour pro. Today he’s merely assessing my physical limitations so he can customize an exercise regimen that will help me improve a notch or two. I’ve been stuck at the same level for years, and my shoulder surgery over the winter has kept me off the tees for five months.

Sea Island is already one of my favorite golf destinations. In addition to playing the luxurious resort’s three courses—or exploring the many non-golf activities, such as deep-sea fishing and skeet shooting—visitors can sign up for clinics and individualized lessons with an all-star teaching staff that includes Phil Kenyon (putting whisperer to Justin Rose and Francesco Molinari); mental game expert Morris Pickens (who’s coached three major champions); LPGA standout instructor Gale Peterson; and master club fitter Craig Allan. The instructors consult with one another about a person’s needs and progress, then prescribe plans that golfers take home to work on with their local instructors. “Many clients come back every year for what amounts to annual checkups,” Allan says.