There‘s a lot of cool gear in the golf world that doesn’t always fit into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.
What We Tried
Core Golf—a practice app with video drills and the ability to track your progress.
Your Reviewer
John Kennedy, a casual golfer who really only has one skill (hit ball hard) and needs to refine every other part of his game.
Core Golf Basics
Core Golf’s boldest claim is that “it’s like having a golf coach in your pocket.” Broadly speaking, it is, without the logistical and safety implications of having a tiny, squishy human stuffed into your clothes.
I mean, how many times have you accidentally sat on your phone? All you have to decide is if the app is better for you than an actual coach.
Right now, Core Golf is only available on devices running iOS 13 or newer, but the company says it plans to launch an Android version in the next couple of years. The app features golf drills with simple video and text instructions, customizable practice plans and detailed progress tracking.
The drills were created by Shauheen Nakhjavani, a PGA Tour coach based in Montreal, and he’s featured in the videos.
If you’re wondering about developer pedigree, Core Golf was made by Stat Track Technologies Lda., the Portuguese company behind Hole19, a highly-rated golf GPS and scoring app.
Drills
For now, there are 100 drills split among five skill areas: off the tee, approach, short game, putting and recovery. They’re best suited for outdoor spaces like a practice facility or driving range, but you can also use a golf simulator like I did. There aren’t many drills you can do in a small, non-golf space like an apartment, which makes sense—golf isn’t played in a cluttered, 800-square-foot box.
Each drill includes a short explanatory video where Nakhjavani explains what to do and shows you how to do it. There’s also a simplified text explanation under the clip so you don’t have to rewatch it every time you want to refresh your memory. You’ll also see information about how long the drill should take, the ideal location (like a driving range, chipping green or putting green), the equipment required and how many balls you’ll need.
After you’ve completed a drill at least once, you’ll see your last score, the goal for you to beat next time and a chart tracking your performance. If you like a drill a lot, you can hit the star in the top right corner to favorite it and it’ll go right into your collection of Favorite Drills for quick access.
As with any practice regimen, you probably won’t see immediate progress, though you may see sparks of improvement as you’re starting out. For example, the simulator was tracking my swing speed at about 95 mph before I tried the first “developing speed” drill for drives. When I followed Nakhjavani’s directions and used his recommended form instead of my usual “baseball guy trying to play golf” approach, my swing speed immediately jumped over 100 mph.
Plans
Core Golf currently has nine pre-made plans with names like beginner basics, pre-round warmup, finding fairways and throwing darts that target various areas of your golf game. Each plan includes a selection of relevant drills, and you can see how long it should take you to run through them all.
If you need something more personalized, you can tap Create Plan in the top right corner of the main plans page. There you can choose three to 10 drills you want to work on, how many practice sessions you want to run with this plan and give it a name.
Progress Tracking
Finding time to practice is hard. When you’re only accountable to yourself, it can be easy to put it off until you’ve lost all progress. Core Golf aims to keep you accountable by offering performance and activity tracking that shows exactly how frequently you’re putting in work.
There’s practice discipline—measured on a scale from “slacking” to “grinding”—and you only need to log one drill each week to avoid losing overall discipline. The app also tracks discipline for each game area, and it works the same way—do one drill for each focus each week and it won’t think you’re slacking.
Core Golf also tracks your scores, and you can only increase your progress by completing drills successfully. If you finish a drill but fail to reach your goal, your progress stays the same. The only way to lose progress is if your discipline in a given skill area drops below 25 percent. As long as you’re doing drills, your stats won’t regress.
Price
You can use Core Golf for free, but can’t do much—you’re limited to the first drill in each skill group. To test the app, you’ll need to start its seven-day free trial, which unlocks all features after you provide payment information.
There are two subscription options: monthly and annual. The former is $4.49 a month and the latter is $27.49 per year. That means if you pay monthly for six months, you’ve saved money compared to the annual fee. Seven months or more and you’re overpaying.
Core Golf correctly notes that this is “a fraction of the price of a golf coach,” as private lessons can exceed $100 for an hour of the pro’s time.
Final Thoughts
If you’re someone who doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on golf lessons and wants easy access to a variety of drills created and explained by a knowledgeable expert, Core Golf is worth trying.
I do recommend thinking about how often you’re going to use the app each year. If you aren’t going to be able to practice for a large chunk of time, maybe the monthly plan is more cost-effective—just remember to cancel before you spend too much. And if you really don’t have enough time or space to practice regularly, this app may not be for you. Progress depends on consistency, and you won’t get your money’s worth if you’re not working on your skills.
Beyond that, the drills are easy to understand and replicate, though determining whether you actually achieved a goal can be subjective, especially when you’re asked to imagine something like an obstacle or the width of a fairway.
As someone who likes to practice on his own, I also appreciated the variety of drills and practice plans available. Sure, I could’ve spent hours online digging up drills and building my own plan, but it would’ve eaten up way more than $30 of my time and there’s no guarantee it would’ve been put together well.
It’s likely that beginner golfers will see the most dramatic benefits, and that you may one day reach a point where in-person lessons become more effective than Core Golf’s drills. Only you can make that call.
For now, give the app a shot. Even if you don’t see progress within the free trial period, you will be able to fairly assess whether it’ll be useful for you long-term.
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