COLLEGE STATION, Texas — To all the golfers out there: Have you ever wished you could have someone look at your golf swing and let you know exactly how to improve?
Well, three exceptional aggies and their team of engineers are working on the answer to that.
From professionals to armatures, everyone has a distinct way of moving.
“I have a different body type, you have a different body type. If I ask anyone to take a swing like Tiger Woods, it wont work,” said Nishat Varma, the Chief Data Scientist for CTRL.
Back in 2017, engineering student Ian Cash and his class group came up with a project to help athletes improve their form.
“It was not the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen," he said.
"It was just a big piece of plastic that you had to wear around your wrist that was super cumbersome. There was no way you were taking a golf swing with that.”
For what started as a senior project, Ian’s team had to conduct customer interviews, and one day fate swung him in the right direction.
His friend connected him with a professional golfer and member of the PGA.
The two sat down for a "short interview" that turned into a two hour conversation.
After that, Ian felt it was obvious his team's project belonged in golf at least to start.
From then on, Ian’s senior project turned into CNTRL, a business with Cesar Fuentes and Nashant Varma joining Ian’s team through the process.
Their bulky plastic cover evolved into a sleek breathable sleeve that will grab numerical data from a golf swing, send it to an app on a phone and tell the user what they can do to improve.
“So far, we’ve gotten really good reviews on it," Fuentes, the company's CPO said.
"People are very excited. They're excited there is now a personalized golf product on the market.”
Through hits and misses in their journey, this group of Aggies know they have got a hole in one.
These exceptional Aggies say that golf is just the beginning.
They plan on expanding their reach to other sports and expect their first official product launch to happen early next year.