For golfers who want to improve their swing the Swingbyte Inc. may be an on par, but less expensive option than hiring a coach.

Swingbyte is a Bluetooth-connected device a golfer puts on his club to analyze his swing. Golfers download the Swingbyte app and then pair the device to their smartphone via Bluetooth. The device records and sends a 3-D animation of the golfer’s swing to the app, so he can play back his stroke and view data points about it, such as the club head speed and the angle at which his club hits the ball.

The device, which is about the size of a thumb and weighs less than an ounce, contains an accelerator, a Bluetooth chip and a gyro sensor, which can detect the angle of motion of a club. The device takes less than 10 seconds to put on a club, says Mike Crisanti, a golf instructor at Plane Truth Golf Institute LLC.

The product costs $169. The app has more than 100,000 downloads, which is roughly the number of Swingbytes that have sold, says Alex Pedenko, CEO and co-founder of Swingbyte. Swingbyte says about half of the app users, or about 50,000 golfers, use the product several times per week, Pedenko says.

The product launched in 2012, and this October the company introduced a Virtual Coach feature in the app that analyzes the data that the device provides. Swingbyte worked with Plane Truth Golf and golf instructor Jim Hardy to develop the coaching tool. 10 employees on Swingbyte’s development team produced the Virtual Coach over the course of a year, Pedenko says.

Swingbyte has always been able to tell a golfer that his club face is five degrees open, but he might not know what that means or how to correct it, Pendenko says. With the Virtual Coach feature, the app will tell the golfer that his club face is five degrees open, and that he is moving his head too much behind the ball.

 “It tells you what the data means in human terms,” Pedenko says.

Without the Virtual Coach, the device is good for veteran and more skilled golfers, but the new feature makes the product more useful to all levels of golfers, Pedenko says. Since the launch, use of Swingbyte has more than doubled, with golfers using it more often and longer, says Pedenko without providing specifics.

The Virtual Coach can detect 100 flaws in a golf swing, and for each problem there are 10 to 15 drills or video lessons that a golfer can watch in the app to correct or improve the swing flaw. The app has a machine learning algorithm that can guess what the problem is with accuracy, Pedenko says. For example, a flaw could be that the ball is moving too far to the left. The Swingbyte knows that 85% of the time that is caused by a golfer gripping her club too tightly, and the Virtual Coach will suggest drills to correct this problem.

Pedenko says several customers have told him the device has taken several strokes off their game. Cristani says the device is helpful to point out mistakes, especially ones that are tough to feel or see.

“To most golfers, their swing feels ‘normal,’ but the mistakes have already been ingrained,” he says. “The Virtual Coach provides independent validation that the mistake is there and forces golfers to make small changes that feel dramatic to them.”

Since the device is meant as a practice and record-keeping tool, golfers mainly use it when they are working on their swings at the driving range, Pedenko and Crisanti say.

“This device is best used in practice when you want feedback and (to help you) make adjustments based on the feedback,” Crisanti says.

The company sells its device through its own website and at retailer Golf Galaxy, part of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. The company also works with instructors to get them to use it as a teaching tool, Pedenko says. Crisanti uses Swingbyte with more than half of the golfers he works with.

“It is best for those that either enjoy and respond well to technology, and for those who don’t believe the mistakes they are making and want actual quantifiable proof of what I am saying to them,” he says.

Right now the coaching is a free upgrade in the app, but eventually consumers will have to pay for it. Swingbyte is promoting the feature through online marketing, search engine marketing and social media, Pedenko says.

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