Your Body Is the Problem, Not Your Swing

The Setup

Shaun Diachkoff is a TPI-certified golf fitness coach and the founder of Fairway Performance. Born and raised on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, he spent years in Sydney running a CrossFit gym before COVID accelerated his pivot into golf-specific training. Today he lives in the Cayman Islands and works remotely with a client roster that spans from college golfers and Indian Tour players to CEOs and executives in the American Northeast. His philosophy is simple: you cannot build a race car on a rusted chassis.

The Format

Shaun’s coaching is delivered entirely through a custom training app. Clients receive structured workout programs, submit form videos for feedback, and log progress over time. He uses SportsBox AI to measure swing changes, force plate data to assess balance and power, and periodic reassessments to keep programs moving forward. While most interactions are async through the app, Shaun travels several times a year to play golf and meet clients in person — currently heading to Ridgewood, Aronomink, and Arcola in New Jersey.

The Hot Takes

• Fitness comes before swing mechanics. Shaun’s “busted chassis” analogy lands hard: swing coaches are trying to tune an engine on a frame that cannot support it. Build the body first, then let the swing coach do their job.
• Walking exposes everything. Berkeley’s back-nine blowups at Harris Creek are not mental — they are physical. When your legs go, your score follows. Shaun’s prescription: start with one hole, build up.
• Remote coaching works if the client is coachable. Shaun screens prospects like a first date. If he smells a “crazy ex” in the first 15 minutes, he politely passes. His average client stays 9–12 months because they value expertise and feedback.
• The Cayman Islands will eat your golf balls. North Sound Golf Club is the only 18-hole track on the island. Water and OB on 14 of 18 holes, wind that changes direction mid-round, and an aqua driving range where caddies resell the balls that float back.
• Barnbougle Dunes is unlike anything in the United States. Tom Doke design on an old potato farm in Tasmania. Links-style fescue, wispy grass, and wind so strong Shaun hit a 2-iron as hard as he could on a 160-yard par three and did not reach the green.
• A 67-year-old with six surgeries gained 50 yards in eight months. Both knees replaced, both hips replaced, lumbar spinal fusion, triple bypass — and still added distance through the right program and consistency.
• Match play is where the mind games live. Shaun’s favorite format. He tells the story of piping a 310-yard drive on a tight par four and watching his opponent’s shoulders drop. “Living rent free in their head for the rest of the day.”

The Run-It-Back

Shaun’s model is proof that golf improvement is not always about buying new clubs or taking more lessons. Sometimes it is about squatting, deadlifting, and walking until your chassis can handle what your swing coach is asking it to do. For golfers planning trips to walking-only courses — and that is most of the world’s best layouts — the message is clear: get fit before you get on the plane.