Gamifying practice: How Sepp Straka transformed his approach play
The stats say it all – from 40th to 7th on tour in Strokes Gained: Approach to green in one year.
To many amateur golfers and golf fans, watching the pros grind on the pre-tournament range might look like endless repetition of the same swing. But underneath the repetition, there’s far more going on than the same swing repeated over and over. If you watch Sepp Straka on the range leading up to the tournament, you might discover that he’s trying to replicate on-course performance when the stakes are highest.
Sepp has become one of the best players on tour when it comes to precision iron play, and the jump over the years can clearly be seen in his Strokes Gained: Approach to Green metrics. In 2024, Sepp finished 40th (+0.303 Strokes Gained average in Tour Starts), he vaulted up to 7th in 2025 (+0.677 Strokes Gained) and thus far in 2026 YTD still holds a top 10 spot (+0.610 Strokes Gained).
Sepp credits the improvements directly to his highly disciplined approach of utilizing Trackman Performance Center on a weekly basis to turn practice into a game.
Sepp’s Trackman Performance Center blueprint
To start every tour week, Sepp tests all his irons using the same process: a randomized Trackman Performance Center test with shots ranging from 130-220 yards. The randomization creates different pin positions and green structures, helping him test every iron in the bag under changing conditions.
This setup ensures that Sepp doesn’t just repeat swing after swing, but forces him to think like he would out on the golf course. Each shot requires a thought-out plan to execute, mimicking the real-life decision-making process that tour players face out on the course.
"I run the same process every single week," Sepp explains. "I start with my wedge combine which is 50–130 yards, and then I get into Performance Center from 130–220 yards which is kind of the whole bag of irons for me. Then I have a baseline, because how you feel and what grass you’re hitting off makes a difference in your carry numbers.”
Seeing the Circle: Taking Performance Center to the Fairways
The primary focus of Trackman Performance Center is carry numbers — it offers a clean environment that takes unpredictable rollout, bounce, green slopes, and shifting turf conditions out of the equation. Within the Performance Center interface, a player is presented with a visual of where to carry the ball to achieve positive strokes gained. Miss the circle and its negative strokes gained. Out on the course, the target and visual remain the same — for Sepp, the positive strokes gained circle from Performance Center becomes the exact window he visualizes during tournament approach shots.
"You almost start seeing the circle out on the golf course for your carry," says Sepp. "If it’s going to be a front pin, kind of tight, 205 yards, the circle is going to be a lot wider when you go four to five yards past the pin, so I’m just playing the percentage shot. With this 205-yard front pin, I’m looking at a 208-yard carry, which is a good full 5-iron for me right now."
In this case, Sepp executed exactly as planned what he set out to do, which in this practice scenario, left him a mere 4 feet from the pin. Trackman Performance Center revealed that on this particular shot, he almost gained a full stroke against the tour average.
"It's really nice to be able to hit different shots like you do on the golf course."
From boring swing reps to fine-tuned qualitative practice
It’s not uncommon to think that hitting ball after ball with no clear purpose or outcome can become quite monotonous, and for Sepp this is something he’s trying to avoid. Instead, Performance Center has transformed his practice sessions into a more fun and competitive experience.
"I love a game, I love competition. So it's kind of just trying to always make sure that strokes gained number is positive, and I can really see it in my last three years on tour. Ever since I started doing this, my approach numbers have just gotten way better. I think it’s a direct result of practicing this way every day."
Before Sepp switched to this data-driven routine, he relied on his natural ball-striking abilities but mentions that he sometimes struggled with distance control.
"I've always been a pretty good ball striker, but I was not very good at controlling my numbers. I didn't hit it out of the middle of the face and used to hit it a lot farther than I do now. But in the last two years I’ve felt like my distance control has become a huge strength, and it’s really paid off. At courses like this week [Muirfield Village] at the Memorial, you gotta hit your numbers, and this game has really helped me do that."
At the end of the day, Trackman Performance Center has helped Sepp turn practice into something he genuinely enjoys while elevating him into the top tier of tour players in distance control — now one of the biggest weapons in his game.
Try Performance Center for yourself
Trackman Performance Center is available in the Trackman Golf Pro App and in TPS. Head to your local Trackman powered facility, load practice, Performance Center and get ready to dial in your tee shots and approach play. Adjust the fairway and green firmness, the green stimp and altitude to your preferred settings.
When you get into the setup you can choose either Tee or Approach for your Performance Center session. In the Approach tab, you choose your distance which can be fixed or an interval, the green layout which can also be randomized, as well as six to eight different pin locations for each green complex.
You can choose to compare your Strokes Gained against Tour Pro male or female or compare against handicap ranging from 0-15 hcp.
About Trackman Performance Center
A popular Trackman aid for players and coaches, Performance Center is a versatile, powerful tool for evaluating and elevating shot-making skills. Performance Center is also available in TPS with additional features, including total and carry distances, green speed and firmness settings.
Factoring in more than ever before, Performance Center on TPS maintains its Strokes Gained element to offer players unique approaches to improving their game against tour level and selected handicap. Customizable pin, green, and bunker locations mean every swing is an opportunity to optimize practice.
About the author
Written by Jonas Zacho Larsen, Content Specialist at Trackman. Responsible for the creation of tour-related social media content, from capturing photos and videos on-site at tournaments to editing, publishing, and repurposing content for Trackman’s official channels.