It’s a great truism of the game that golfers are always looking to improve. “No one will ever have golf under his thumb,” Bobby Jones said 100 years ago. And we can imagine the Scots of the Middle Ages smacking their featheries around farmlands felt the same way.

Regarding improvement, then, the futile effort to get golf under one’s thumb: What’s the best way to get better in the third millennium? Lessons with a PGA pro? Digging it out of the dirt? Scrolling through YouTube golf instruction videos until you find one that speaks to you?

Perhaps.

And while there may not be a best way to get better for all, there is a facility in New York City that has pulled out all the stops in an effort to offer those with the means the full buffet of improvement options.

Forgetting about the fact that Golf & Body is a beautiful, modern, comfortably appointed private club a block from Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan, let’s try and think back to a point of origin, likely the same point of departure for club founder, Tom Schiff, an avid golfer who retired from a successful career in the finance sector to pursue business and real estate opportunities.

Imagine, for a moment, that you wanted to offer golfers in the world’s foremost metropolis everything they needed to improve their golf games…And we’re talking about a very comprehensive variant of “everything.”

How would you do it?

Assuming we’re looking at the golfer in the holistic, team-based manner of today’s touring pros, beginning with an assessment of a golfer’s physical capabilities and limitations, overall fitness, and golf swing/game would seem to be the sensible point of departure.

Such is the approach Golf & Body takes. New members are given a comprehensive 25-test physical and assessment overseen by Director of Sports Medicine & Wellness Bradley Borne, D.C. The assessment evaluates a golfer’s strength, mobility, flexibility and potential restrictions that might impact the golf swing.

And after said assessment, what then? Well, broadly speaking, you’d likely want to implement a plan for improving the golfer’s body and his/her golf game. And to do so, you’d like to rely on industry-leading technologies whenever possible.

This, again, is Golf & Body’s approach. Golfers are given a plan for individual instruction, which is carried out by Darrell Kestner, Director of Golf, and Head Professional Ronnie McDougall, a Golf Digest Top 25 teacher in New York, and their eminently qualified staff. The facility is equipped with seven state-of-the-art simulators outfitted with TrackMan, as well as High Definition Golf. And of course, SAM PuttLab analysis is available as well, as is a comprehensive fitting center, run by True Spec Golf (which, incidentally, is accessible to non-members). 

And from the “body” standpoint? You guessed it: One-on-one personal training in a fully loaded gym setting with every variety of equipment imaginable, as well as the full spectrum of massage, chiropractic and manual therapy, pre- and post-workout bodywork, acupuncture, etc. In short, from both “golf” and “body” perspectives: It’s all there…and perhaps then some.

In a Bloomberg piece on the club, member George Zahringer, a 10-time Metropolitan Golf Association player of the year, conveyed how Golf & Body works for him.

“I use the rehab proactively. Stretching and soft-tissue work to sort of stay ahead of the curve from a preventive perspective. If there were such a thing as an Olympic training golf facility indoors, you’d be hard-pressed to think it would be much different than the Golf & Body facilities.”

High praise from a high-level amateur and an individual articulation of what the facility is after: A Tour pro-quality team to help amateurs play their best golf.

Of course, with a range of food and drink offerings at the cafe and on-site business meetings for the finance industry-heavy membership, there’s no shortage of that element of the private club experience. And while they declined to discuss initiation, dues, or membership figures when I visited last month, the same Bloomberg piece quoted above from 2014 indicated those figures are a $5,000 initiation fee and annual membership cost of $7,500. And the limited membership likely stands in the 150-to-200 range.

While what’s going on at 883 Avenue of the Americas may not be best for all golfers — and indeed, a club membership is likely outside the budget of many golfers — Golf & Body’s approach is the element of interest for casual observers.

Whether the Golf & Body model is scalable and repeatable remains to be seen (indeed, we don’t know whether Schiff and company are looking to broaden the scope of the enterprise). But what the club is putting forth is what they believe to be the best way to help golfers improve in 2016 and a means for the membership to integrate golf into a healthy, active mode of being late into life.

Such is the place’s value within the industry beyond being “Manhattan’s Premier Country Club,” as their tagline suggests: All the resources under one roof for serious golfers to pursue their goals in earnest. We’ll watch for a ripple effect among those looking to avoid injury, extend their playing days, and, of course, shave strokes off their games.