Elite Tempo vs Tour Tempo
Straight answer first: if you want one proven tempo to drill, Tour Tempo does that and has done for twenty years. It is the reason most golfers have heard of swing tempo at all. The difference is not that one is better — it is that they answer different questions.
Tour Tempo gives you a target to swing to. Elite Tempo gives you a target and a measurement of what you actually did.
Tour Tempo
A method, delivered as audio tones.
- Trains toward the 3:1 ratio, counted as frames at 30fps
- Tones for the full swing and for the short game
- Simple, repeatable, and backed by a well-known book
- You judge your own success by feel and by ear
Elite Tempo
Specific swings, plus measurement of yours.
- 16 real tour shots, hand-timed from the footage to 1/100s
- Ratios as they were actually swung — 2.02:1 to 4.26:1, not one number
- Film your swing and mark takeaway, top and impact frame by frame
- Side-by-side comparison, routine timing, and a lock-screen Live Activity
One ratio, or the real ones?
The 3:1 ratio is a good average and a genuinely useful teaching device. It comes from counting frames — 24 back, 8 down at 30 frames per second — which is easy to do and puts most golfers somewhere sensible.
What counting frames cannot show you is how much real swings differ. Timed directly against tournament footage, the shots in Elite Tempo's library run from Phil Mickelson's 2.02:1 to Cameron Young's 4.26:1. Neither of those is wrong, and neither is 3:1 — they are simply different swings. How the timing is done, including its limits.
Which one suits you
Pick Tour Tempo if
you want one tempo, drilled until it is automatic, with as little apparatus as possible. A target and your own feel is a perfectly good way to practise, and it is how a lot of good players work.
Pick Elite Tempo if
you want to know your own number. Filming a swing and getting back your exact backswing, downswing and ratio — without scrubbing through frames yourself — is the thing a tones-only trainer cannot do, and it is what tells you whether the practice is working.
Common questions
What is the difference between Elite Tempo and Tour Tempo?
Tour Tempo trains you toward a single proven ratio using audio tones — the 3:1 backswing-to-downswing relationship, counted as frames at 30fps. Elite Tempo plays sixteen specific tour swings at the ratios they were actually swung at, which range well either side of 3:1, and then lets you film your own swing and mark takeaway, top and impact on it, so you can measure what you did rather than only hear a target.
Is Tour Tempo still worth using?
Yes, if what you want is a single tempo to groove. The method has been in use since the early 2000s, it is simple to follow, and a lot of golfers have got results from it. Its strength — one number, drilled repeatedly — is also the thing some players want to go beyond.
Do I need to choose between them?
No. They do different jobs and a lot of people who care about tempo end up using more than one tool. If you already swing well to Tour Tempo's tones, the thing Elite Tempo adds is measurement of your own swing rather than a different target to swing to.
Tour Tempo is a trademark of its respective owner. Elite Tempo is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Tour Tempo. This page describes the published 3:1 method in general terms; for what Tour Tempo includes today, check their own site.
Try it against your own swing.
Free for 14 days. Film one swing and see your real ratio before you decide anything.