Featured Coaches
Larry Zhou’s numbers game: less guesswork, more golf
At Alameda Precision Golf, Larry Zhou brings an athlete’s enthusiasm and a data professional’s curiosity to the swing. The goal: give golfers something they can see, understand, and take back to the range.
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Meet the coach
Larry Zhou · Alameda Precision Golf · Alameda, CA
Larry Zhou is an Alameda golf coach who uses video and data to make the swing easier to understand — and practice easier to focus.
Golf has a remarkable ability to make a reasonably coordinated adult feel as if they have borrowed someone else’s arms. One swing feels terrific. The next sends the ball into a different ZIP code. Both, somehow, felt exactly the same.
Larry Zhou loves getting into that gap.
Zhou, who teaches at Alameda Precision Golf, has a data professional’s brain, a former college swimmer’s competitive streak, and a soft spot for the moment a student finally gets it. Give him swing video and ball-flight numbers and he has plenty to dig into.
The assignment he wants you to take home is mercifully short: two or three things to practice.
Even in a sport capable of eating an entire Saturday, there is something deeply appealing about knowing where to start.
Tiger, a broken collarbone, and a teaching bug
Like plenty of golfers who came of age during the Tiger era, Zhou caught the bug early. He has been playing for more than 20 years.
His competitive golf ambitions took a hit in high school, when a broken collarbone helped send him toward another sport. He turned his attention to swimming and competed through college.
Golf found its way back into the picture at New York University. Zhou began teaching introductory lessons through the school. One season was enough. He was hooked on helping other people figure this game out.
“I love seeing my students unlock that ah-ha moment in their swing,” he says.
That little breakthrough is one of golf’s great pleasures. A movement that felt impossible starts to make sense. Suddenly, you want another bucket.
Zhou later stepped away from coaching. When he returned over the last few years, golf’s toolbox had expanded. High-speed cameras, ball data, and body-motion analysis had become much more accessible.
For someone who describes himself as a data person professionally, that was an invitation to go deep.
There is an athlete in there, too. Ask which part of the game he loves helping golfers improve and he goes straight to driver and swing speed. He enjoys connecting the physical work of training with the prospect of more distance.
