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ABOVE: THE PGA TOUR UNVEILED ONE
OF TWO NEW FITNESS CENTERS THAT
WILL EACH LOG MORE THAN 24,000
MILES IN 2019, TRAVELING TO MORE
THAN 30 PGA TOUR AND PGA TOUR
CHAMPIONS EVENTS. EACH IS SUPPLIED
WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOGYM
EQUIPMENT. OPPOSITE PAGE: PGA
TOUR MEMBER ALEX NOREN USES THE
INCREASED OPEN SPACE TO WORK
OUT IN THE NEW FITNESS CENTER FOL-
LOWING A PRACTICE ROUND AT THE
HONDA CLASSIC. PHOTOS: PGA TOUR IMAGES
IN THESE CONTENTIOUS TIMES, it’s nice to be able to put old, thorny
debates to rest. We can comfortably nix at least one: whether golf is a sport.
After all, nowadays its elite players are world-class athletes. Golfers walking
in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, after a 112-year
absence from the Games, fi t right in with their compatriots, just as surely as
Brooks Koepka might be mistaken for a strong safety, Dustin Johnson for a
shooting guard, and Rory McIlroy for an attacking midfi elder.
Thirty years ago, back when the occasional
potbelly roamed its fairways, the PGA TOUR debuted
its fi rst mobile fi tness center. Those facilities have
evolved since then, and late this winter the TOUR
unveiled two fully upgraded, state-of-the-art fi tness
centers. At approximately 950 square feet—about
200 square feet larger than their predecessors—
the new fi tness centers are trailers that travel to 62
events between the PGA TOUR and the over-50 PGA
TOUR Champions annually, each logging more than
24,000 miles across the mainland U.S. and Canada.
“When you think about today’s athletes and
today’s PGA TOUR players, they are bigger, they are
stronger, they’re faster, they’re more fl exible than
they’ve ever been before and are certainly bringing
tremendous excitement to our tournaments week in
and week out,” said TOUR commissioner Jay Mona-
han at the introduction of the new trailers during the
2019 Honda Classic. “This move will only enhance
their ability to prepare for playing professional golf at
the highest level, on the PGA TOUR.”
Each trailer has a companion wellness center dedicated to therapy and recovery; together, the
duos comprise the Player Performance Centers. The annual cost for the TOUR to provide the centers
for its members, including the staff of athletic trainers, physical therapists, and chiropractors, runs
well into the millions of dollars, but it’s an investment as sensible as it is substantial. Offering a
consistent, readily accessible, and trusted training and wellness hub keeps the talent performing at
maximum capacity.
“For the last 20-plus years, fi tness has become increasingly important to our players—you can
see it in the physiques of the athletes,” says Andy Levinson, PGA TOUR senior vice president, tourna-
ment administration. “Tiger Woods led that charge, and now it’s a part of almost every single player’s
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ATHLETICISM IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
ON THE PGA TOUR.
Survival of the Fittest
CONTENT FROM THE PGA TOUR
