Artificial intelligence (AI) is now impacting golf with an advanced sports technology application developed by IdeasLab to provide 3D enabled golf swing analysis. AI innovator IdeasLab was founded in New York, NY by Winston Yang in 2017. Yang is currently CEO and took my Zoom video call interview last week while he was in Taiwan where a good part of his disruptive applications around sports, fitness, and human motion are built. The new app uses proprietary real-time tracking (no sensors or markers needed) to analyze full swing mechanics with instant insights for both coaches and players using automated annotations, before-and-after swing comparatives, and instant numerical feedback. The Sports Techie community blog was the first media source to speak with Yang about the revised app. I was given a free 3-month trial of the new version of XView AI, to help understand the next-gen of markerless AI models for golf and its capacity for analyzing the full golf swing in real-time while playing on a course, or while practicing chips and putts at a driving range with assistance from a professional instructor. This innovative sports tech product is endorsed by PGA Tour Champion K.J. Choi, acclaimed Coach Pete Buchanan, and rising star Alexa Phung. After a first seed round of funding in February of 2025, and over a year of intensive beta testing with more than 400 coaches, athletes, and early adopters, XView AI has become the first and only app of its kind to not require the cloud and internet connection to run while tracking movement of body, skeleton, golf shaft, and golf club to provide a comprehensive full analysis. XView AI transforms complex golf swing analysis and data into actionable insights – for coaches at all levels and golf pros, to amateur golfers and young athletes, respectively. Their custom specialized AI models trained specifically for golf to track and analyze your full body, shaft, and club movement—all from a single video. No sensors. No cloud. Just real-time performance insight, right on your iPhone, and only available in the App Store at XView AI.
The Tank
Nine-time PGA Tour Champion K.J. Choi is known as ‘tank’ and is the first Korean to earn a PGA TOUR card in 1994. His son David secretly taped his dad’s swing and used the software to identify a contour failure and early extension that was later corrected. K.J. was not much of a video user before this session but after seeing the XView AI powered videos, images, annotations and metrics, it was like a lightbulb fix went off in his head. He has since served as advisor from early 2024 and was the company’s first outside investor. Yang mentioned that Choi wanted to be paid for his endorsement as is standard in the industry, however, Winston pivoted and asked him to invest instead which he did.
Combining the power of IdeasLab’s deep technology, presented in a simple and intuitive manner, is the key to disrupting and democratizing access to high-quality golf instruction. “With one video, I was able to identify and solve a problem in my swing,” said Choi. “I’ve used all kinds of technology in my golf career and was impressed by how XView AI makes something so complex (the golf swing) so simple to understand.”
Just one month after changing his swing using XView AI, K.J. became the oldest Asian born golfer to win a golf tournament, at the age of 54, at the SK Telecom Open. He also became a Major Champion winner just three weeks later, winning the PGA TOUR Champions at the 2024 Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex. “I believe XView AI is the future of golf,” Choi added.
Golfers and Pros
For golfers, IdeasLab’s technology delivers visually intuitive intelligence that leads to faster self-correction using 240fps high-fidelity motion capture. Golf pros and coaches benefit from streamlined lessons, as the AI automates tedious tasks like annotations, allowing them to focus on teaching. By making studio grade analysis portable and user-friendly, XView AI bridges the gap between high-end technology and everyday use, solving a problem of accessibility and immediacy that others in the sports sector have yet to fully address. Providing this proprietary AI analysis tool to students, enables instructors to upsell their lesson packages for added revenue.
“XView AI allowed me to tune my swing for tournaments and my Drive Chip and Putt preparation remotely in collaboration with my coach. The baseline swing that the App learns from videos of my swing helps me return to my optimal swing,” said Alexandra (Alexa) Phung (13), two-time DCP Champion, AJGA Champion, World Champion NY, and FL State Champion.
Coach Pete Buchanan, who is Director of Golf Instruction and Player Development at the famed Pete Buchanan Golf adds, “XView AI is a game changer, providing definitive answers to movement analysis for both my clients and myself. By eliminating guesswork through 3-D measurement, it offers clear insights into felt and observed movements. The live version’s ability to display real-time numerical and angular feedback empowers students to instantly visualize necessary adjustments, fostering a deeper understanding of the required changes. This immediate visual and kinesthetic connection, without a doubt, gives me a significant advantage in facilitating the growth of both my own game and my clients.”
XView AI Features:
● State-of-the-Art Technology: XView AI is built on multiple proprietary AI models trained by millions of images and videos that not only automates the mundane and necessary steps required by most existing apps but will also deliver more detailed layers of analysis and golf instruction. No other app integrates multiple AI models concurrently for instant before-and-after comparisons, a feature validated by over 400 users, including coaches and professional golfers in IdeasLab’s 2023-2024 beta program.
- Superior motion tracking at 240fps, ensuring smooth, high-fidelity analysis through their proprietary skeletal model
- Addresses the jittery or inaccurate keypoint detection seen in competitors like those using open source models such as Apple Vision
- Live AI provides real-time skeletal overlays during lessons—no recording needed (while automated AI guides simplify annotations and support newer instructors with suggested tools)
- Combination of precision, immediacy, and adaptability makes XView AI uniquely efficient and reliable
● User-Friendly Interface: Sleek and intuitive, XView AI ensures a seamless user experience, catering to both coaches and students by creating a more compelling and engaging learning experience personalized for every golfer.
● Unlocking Incredible Savings of Time, Convenience, and Money: Equipment, sensors, gear, and software typically used to analyze a golf swing can be costly, cumbersome, and time consuming. XView AI serves as a full 3D studio that fits in your pocket, replacing it all at a fraction of the price while also saving time through automation driven by AI.
For more information, please visit https://www.ideaslab.com and follow on social media @xview_golf.
Sports Techie, I’ve been around golf tech for nearly three decades and to see it come full circle with ease of use by XView AI is amazing to behold. Yang told me, “Dartfish,” (my former employer back in 2001), “was an inspiration.”
To have automated golf club views though space enabling viewers to see the golf shaft and hand movements as it moves through the swing plane, in addition to accurately tracking body biomechanics, in a 3D studio that fits in your pocket, at a fraction of the cost of more expensive analytical products, is a home run. It also addresses the jittery or inaccurate keypoint detection seen in competitors like those using open source models such as Apple Vision.
In fact, “Baseball,” says Yang, “is probably the next XView AI sport in development.” He added, “When tested, XView AI was able to identity the mechanics of a swing by seeing the bat because it thinks it’s a golf club, 70% of the time.” Analyzing tennis racket swing mechanics creates another ideal vertical for the immediate future.
Next up for XView AI is integration with golf ball shape tracking after the swing, possible gamification and a B2C element, down the development and fund-raising roads.
Asked about an exit strategy, Winston was quick to point out, “Opportunities are a case-by-case basis. Retailers are interested in the custom AI models, tracking and 3D capabilities.”
Yang, finished our interview by saying, “We’re just getting started. Golf is only the beginning.”
AI couldn’t have said it any better.
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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