Trace Golf Performance has installed a Zen Swing Stage at its new premises in Oslo, bringing Zen’s Active Terrain Technology into a coaching environment designed to understand how technique, biomechanics, equipment and playing conditions combine to influence golfer performance.
Located at Skullerud Park, the 900-square-metre centre represents the culmination of an eight-year vision. The facility includes six simulator bays, a specialist golf gym, custom-fitting and club-building facilities, and dedicated areas for coaching and player analysis.
Founded by PGA professional Marius Bjone and experienced club fitter and builder Tom Horley, Trace Golf brings together their respective expertise in coaching, player development and equipment performance.
Its coaching setup combines the Zen Swing Stage with Swing Catalyst Dual Motion Plate, high-speed camera and launch-monitor technology, giving coaches different ways to examine how golfers move, interact with the ground and produce shots.
Zen’s Active Terrain Technology enables Trace Golf to create adjustable uphill, downhill and sidehill lies, allowing coaches to observe how players adapt when the ground beneath them changes.
Marius Bjone said: “We built Trace to close the gap between practice and play. A golfer’s movement, strike and decision can change when the lie changes, so a performance environment should allow us to explore those conditions rather than treat the flat mat as the whole game.”
Carl Hansen, Head of Sales and International Partnerships at Swing Catalyst, explained: “Seeing domain experts like Marius and Tom join forces to build a facility like this is just fantastic. We are very appreciative of being among their selected technologies, we know they only value the very best.
“Having our dual motion plates embedded in the swing stage gives Marius a real edge, he can quantify how slopes affect the GRF, and his students can learn faster by employing ‘learning by sensation’. We wish them the very best and we look forward to working closely with them in the future.”
Zen Golf’s Head of Education, Will Stubbs, commented: “Trace Golf is helping move indoor coaching forward by making active terrain part of its coaching toolkit. The Zen Swing Stage gives its coaches another way to build sessions around specific areas of a player’s game, then personalise the challenge using Trace’s wider coaching and performance technology. It creates a more focused practice environment where the conditions can be adapted around the individual golfer.”
See also the Premium Entry for Zen in The Golf Owners Operators and Developers Directory