When most people think of golf, they underestimate how prepared professional golfers need to be to make it through a tournament, which usually take about four days to complete. While they may not be running around as much as other athletes, they do spend immense amounts of time outside, usually in not-so-practical weather.
In the past decade or so, fitness has become more prominent in golf and we have started to see golfers hitting the gym and focusing on their health. One of these golfers is 22-year-old Jordan Spieth. In an effort to get better and train smarter, Spieth recently teamed up with Under Armour’s Golf and Connected Fitness teams to track his health and fitness leading up to the 2016 Open. Some of the variables that they included in the research were his daily numbers for sleep, fitness, overall daily activity (number of steps taken) and nutrition using Under Armour’s fitness platform, UA Record.
While this image shows that Spieth recorded a total of 13,541 steps during one round of 18 holes, it was reported in an article by Fortune that he took a total of about 54,000 during the four-day tournament. To track these steps, Spieth didn’t use your usual fitness wristband. Since professional golfers aren’t allowed to wear the bands, Under Armour created their first-ever, customized smart golf shoe. The shoes Spieth sported housed the same technology as the Speedform Gemini 2 Record Equipped, the company’s first smart shoe. The data was collected through a motion sensor that is inserted into the midsole of the shoe.
Under Armour only recently started selling golf shoes back in April, but bringing “smart shoes” into the mix could potentially help their organization stand out, especially in the golf industry.
Since January of 2015, Under Armour and Spieth have been partnered in a 10-year endorsement deal so they have plenty of time ahead of them to continue developing new ways for golfers to improve themselves and their game through connected fitness and equipment.