Global Golf Post - November 22, 2010

But the buzz generated by “Avatar” and recent Masters and PGA Championship broadcasts, available on a limited basis in 3D, have greatly accelerated the interest curve. It was recently reported that by 2012 Sony, Samsung and Philips are projecting more than 50 percent of their new sales will be 3D TVs. The cutting edge, like a scalpel of progress, is about to surgically invade our living rooms.

Brad Dean, the director of instruction at
Crystal Mountain Resort, in Thompsonville,
Mich., learned about ZenoLink from Schrib-
er. Dean quickly realized something radical
was in the wind. “The golf instructor focuses
on angle and plane,” Dean said. “There’s no
set way we are taught how to teach how the
body works. ZenoLink gives us the ability to
change how the body works and integrate
swing mechanics with body motion.”
If you are wondering why you have not
seen a ZenoLink (which costs less than $200
a customer) infomercial on TV yet, it is partly
because Welch is more of a scientist than
a marketer and partly because explaining
ZenoLink doesn’t lend itself to catchy sound
bites. But that has not stopped the word
of mouth from spreading, particularly at
the junior level. And that buzz doesn’t even
begin to get into how far ZenoLink’s applica-
tions go beyond golf.

Consider the world’s fastest human, Usain Bolt. Or Washington National Stephen Strasburg, the baseball pitcher with argu-ably the world’s most “live” arm. To hear Foley and Welch tell it, neither Bolt’s records nor Strasburg’s injuries are accidents.

“Usain Bolt doesn’t get faster by practice,”
Foley says. “He gets faster by applying.”
In August, Strasburg suffered what was
described by his team as a “significant tear
of his ulnar collateral ligament.”
It abruptly ended a spectacular rookie
season during which he was blowing away
major league hitters with numbing regu-

larity. In early September, Strasburg underwent “Tommy John” surgery and isn’t expected to return to the Nationals’ active roster until 2012.

“Can you throw at those velocities and not have
severe arm damage?” Welch asks. “Yes. If you coor-
dinate effectively, you can throw at those velocities
and not completely destroy your arm. Efficiency in
movement not only produces velocity, it minimizes
the risk to joints.”
So where does the little-known Welch get off
opining on baseball players. Well, for starters,
he is currently doing initial testing for the Detroit
Tigers, who think enough of ZenoLink’s principles
to use them to protect the arms of their best young
talent.

For his part, Foley is a big believer in incorporating knowledge from other disciplines into his golf teaching. In an interview for this story he referred to Welch with unmistakable respect and affection as a “mad scientist.”