Ava Klips Uses Personalized Performance Insights to Find More in Her Game and Prepare for Her Freshman College Golf Season
AVA Golf™, the first platform designed to transform golf performance data into a personalized improvement plan, is documenting the real-world impact of its platform through its first sponsored athlete and short-term player improvement case study.
Ava Klips, a competitive golfer just beginning her freshman season at Indiana University Southeast, used AVA Golf throughout a competitive summer to better understand her performance, practice with greater intention and work toward her goal of becoming a 4 or 5 handicap by the end of the year.
Klips entered the summer with an official USGA handicap of 6.8, though she felt her playing handicap was closer to 8 or 10 after taking some time away from competition. She knew she was confident with her driver and comfortable around the greens, but also knew she needed to improve her iron consistency, putting and understanding of what to practice between lessons.
“I want to know what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it,” Klips said.
That objective made Klips an ideal first sponsored athlete for AVA Golf. Rather than a traditional endorsement, the partnership is designed to document improvement as it happens, provide ongoing product feedback and demonstrate how connected performance data can help golfers make better decisions about their practice and performance.
Beginning in July, Klips used AVA Golf while competing across Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina. The platform analyzed her performance data and translated it into personalized visualizations and short instructional videos designed around her game.
The biggest opportunity quickly emerged in her approach play and overall game from 150 yards and in. Before using AVA Golf, Klips was missing greens in regulation and giving away strokes she knew she could not afford. AVA Golf’s approach visualizations helped her see those misses in a new way and identify where her approach shots were actually finishing.
“The graphic showing where my approach shots finish gave me a clear visual of exactly where my misses were going,” Klips said. “It introduced me to practicing targeted shots so I could understand how far I actually hit certain yardages versus what I thought.”
The platform’s personalized instructional videos then helped turn those insights into action. Klips particularly valued their short, focused format and said the recommendations evolved as she added more rounds and performance data.
The impact became especially tangible the day before she shot a personal-best 77. After reviewing her AVA Golf instructional videos, Klips practiced the recommendations in her garage before heading into competition the following day.
“I genuinely love the instructional videos,” she said. “They’ve done so much for my mental and physical game.”
The 77 was only the beginning. In her first collegiate tournament, Klips shot another personal-best 76, giving her two new career-low scores in roughly two months.
Klips said AVA Golf helped validate some of the concerns she already had about her game while uncovering others she had never recognized.
“It wasn’t just telling me what I knew about my game,” she said. “It taught me things I didn’t know needed as much work.”
As part of the partnership, Klips has also provided feedback that is helping shape AVA Golf’s product development, including preferences for heatmaps, more intuitive strokes gained and club-gapping visualizations, enhanced putting analytics and trend-based skill visualizations.
“Ava’s experience is exactly what we hoped this partnership could demonstrate,” said JR Charles, Founder and CEO of AVA Golf. “The goal isn’t simply to show golfers data. It’s to help them understand what that data means, identify what matters most and turn those insights into more productive practice and better performance.”
As Klips begins her freshman season, she plans to continue using AVA Golf alongside tournament play, range sessions, at-home practice and work with her swing coach.
“Practicing with intention is crucial, especially with college golf starting,” Klips said. “AVA Golf makes those practice sessions much easier because you know what you should be working on. You still have to put in the work, but having that information makes a huge difference.”
Golfers can learn more about AVA Golf at avagolf.com.