Bryson DeChambeau completes big-money acquisition of a new AI golf coach

AI has already made great strides in helping shape the way modern golfers play the game. Artificial intelligence is used in everything from the research and development of equipment to the way you book a tee time.

An untapped area for the rapidly advancing tech space, however, is in that of coaching. And while some of the best golf apps do now host tools and features that make novel use of AI, a golf-based service truly harnessing the power of big tech is yet to emerge.

That, however, might soon be set to change. And naturally, one of golf's most scientific minds is behind it in the form of Bryson DeChambeau, who this morning led the acquisition Sportsbox AI, a company developing a Gemini-based motion capture and coaching platform for athletes co-founded by former LPGA Tour player Jeehae Lee. 

Speaking as part of the Voices for Impact series SalesForce's DreamForce conference last year, DeChambeau revealed he was working with Google on a way to harness its Gemini AI system for coaching purposes, giving people instant insights into their game and swing without the need to book expensive coaches. 

“From a teaching perspective, giving people the opportunity to get a lot better at the game of golf a lot faster is what I’m focused on and excited about for the future of AI and what it can do for each and every individual," he said.

“AI can provide better insights than any professional coach out there. For a human to process twenty five hundred metrics in less than thirty seconds is impossible. But AI can do that and tell you exactly what you need to know at that exact moment because day to day it could change.

"“It can teach people how to get better from a beginner all the way to a professional. It can teach me how to get better from a golf swing perspective. It can give me a better club fit if my equipment is not right. 

"And from that knowledge, me needing to know over twenty five hundred metrics in less than thirty seconds, it can dive down and say, ‘here’s the five greatest deviators in your golf swing of why you’re not hitting it that great’. In less than thirty seconds it can tell you what was wrong.

“Whether you’re hitting it good one day, or feel off the next day, it doesn’t matter. It will tailor to what you need for that exact day. Which is a great thing about it.”

DeChambeau ventured further into the AI space earlier this year, announcing a partnership with the aforementioned Sportsbox outfit that he's now invested in, declaring that both he and his coach Dana Dahlquist have been actively assisting the development of what's now known as the Sportsbox AI Motion Intelligence (SAMI) AI Assistant, reported a new AI feature within the Sportsbox app set to debut later this year. 

To use the feature, golfers will simply have to record a golf swing using their smartphone, after which Google Cloud’s Gemini models to turn the into a 3D model and generate immediate performance insights.