CC Collier Concierge Physical Therapy & Performance

September 9, 2026

What a TPI assessment tells you that a lesson cannot

A golf pro works on your technique. A TPI medical assessment works on the body that has to execute it. Here is where the line sits.

By Brian Bolin, PT, DPT, Cert. DN

Golfers who have taken a lot of lessons and still fight the same fault tend to assume they are doing something wrong. Often they are doing the only thing available to them.

The division of labour

A golf professional works on what you do: grip, setup, sequencing, the path of the club, where your weight goes.

A TPI medical assessment works on what your body is able to do. Whether the lead hip can internally rotate. Whether the thoracic spine can turn independently of the pelvis. Whether the ankle has enough dorsiflexion. Whether the shoulders can get where the swing wants them to go.

Both matter. They are different questions.

Where lessons stall

If a coach asks you to stop sliding and instead rotate into your lead hip, that instruction assumes the hip has rotation available. If it does not, you will produce something that looks vaguely like the requested move for a few swings while you concentrate, and then revert.

Reverting is not a discipline failure. Under speed and fatigue, the body uses what it has. A restriction will be compensated for every single time, because the alternative is not physically available.

This is the honest explanation for why the same fault clears up in three weeks for one player and survives five years of lessons for another.

What the screen actually is

A series of movements that isolate each part of the chain a golf swing loads, scored consistently, so that “tight hips” becomes a specific finding on a specific side rather than a general impression.

The Titleist Performance Institute certification pathway starts with Level 1, which covers this screen, and branches into medical, fitness, junior and coaching tracks. Medical Level 2 is the clinical branch, taken by licensed providers who treat injuries rather than teach the swing.

The practical difference is that the person running the screen can also treat what it finds and is licensed to manage the injury underneath it.

Linking the screen to the swing

The screen predicts things. Limited thoracic rotation predicts a particular set of compensations. Limited lead hip internal rotation predicts another. Poor ankle mobility shows up in yet another.

Putting the screen findings next to your swing on video is where it becomes concrete, because you stop hearing an abstract observation about mobility and start seeing the connection between a measurement taken ten minutes ago and something you have felt for years.

What you do with the result

If the finding is a mobility restriction, it gets treated and then loaded, so your body starts using the range rather than reverting to the old pattern.

If the finding is stability or motor control rather than mobility, the work is different and stretching will not help. Those two look similar from the outside and need opposite treatment, which is a common and expensive thing to guess wrong about.

Then, ideally, your coach hears what was found. A coach who knows your lead hip has 15 degrees less internal rotation than the other side can work with that instead of around it.

The timing that matters here

In Naples, play volume goes from very little over the summer to several rounds a week from November. The injuries follow six to eight weeks later, with tedious predictability.

An assessment in October is a different proposition from an assessment in January. One shapes a season and the other rescues one.


Brian Bolin is TPI Certified at Level 1 and Medical Level 2, and SFMA Level 1 certified. His TPI listing is public at mytpi.com.

Common questions

Do I have to choose between a coach and an assessment?

No, and the best results usually come from having both. They address different halves of the same problem, and a coach who knows what your body cannot currently do can coach far more effectively.

I am not injured. Is there any point?

Yes. A significant share of assessments are done by players in no pain at all who have hit a ceiling on distance or consistency and want to know which physical restriction is causing it.

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Questions about your own situation?

General articles cannot assess you. An evaluation can, and it ends with a plan and your first treatment. Mon to Fri 6AM to 8PM · Sat 7AM to 2PM.