Wanda Caruthers showed up for her golf lesson Wednesday at Clear Creek Golf Course and hit exactly one ball.

For the next 30 minutes she sat at a computer screen with her instructor, watching and analyzing every piece of her swing. And in those 30 minutes, Caruthers was able to decipher more about what she was doing right and wrong than most golfers learn in weeks of lessons.

Caruthers was among the first batch of golfers at Clear Creek to benefit from a new piece of technology called the ModelGolf system.

It is a computer program that takes high-speed pictures of a golfer’s swing and then compares it to a computer model of the ideal stroke based on information gleaned from hundreds of pro golfers around the world.

&#8220From what I’ve seen already, when you lay that model over a person’s body it convinces them almost immediately that this is what’s right, this is where I need to be,” said Clear Creek teaching pro Kathy Hester, whose Guaranteed Golf school is the only facility in Mississippi and Louisiana licensed to use the ModelGolf system.

The system is basically a laptop computer and the cameras. Before starting, the instructor enters information about the golfer – height, weight, average driving distance and body measurements, among others – into the computer.

From there, the program matches the golfer up to a model of the ideal swing based on information taken from nearly 150 PGA and LPGA Tour pros.

The match is based primarily on the physical attributes and gender of the golfer, allowing for a wide range of swing types. It also takes into account geographic data, such as altitude, humidity and temperature. All can affect the flight of the ball.

After the information is entered, the golfer’s swing is captured by the high-speed cameras.

Then, the computer program superimposes the model of the ideal swing over video footage of the actual swing.

The perfect swing is represented on the screen by a series of colored frames for each body part. A misaligned right leg, for example, would appear outside of a white frame. A turned heel would not be lined up with a blue triangle superimposed on the golfer’s foot. The program also analyzes what body parts are off-target and tells the user specifically what to correct.

ModelGolf has developed similar systems for baseball, football and horse racing.

&#8220It’s as simple as coloring inside the lines,” said Joey Hidock, the Director of Instruction for ModelGolf. He was at Clear Creek on Tuesday and Wednesday helping to install the system and showing Hester its nuances. &#8220He now can understand because he has something to compare it to.”

The system costs the instructor about $8,500, and goes beyond merely comparing swings. After their first lesson, golfers are given a personalized program of drills and tips, and enrolled in a subscription service that allows them to access the program online. The service, which costs $100 per year, also allows the golfer to review the video of their swing any time and offers quick lessons from professional golfers.

&#8220We’re in it to make players better. Unless a player gets better, ModelGolf doesn’t make any money,” Hidock said.

Hidock said ModelGolf.com has about 40,000 members in eight countries. All of those swings are entered into a database that continually refines the model of the ideal stroke for a variety of shots, from drives off the tee to chips from the fringe.

The latest is Caruthers, who probably won’t add any good techniques to the database yet. A beginning golfer taking her first lessons, her one 5-iron shot at this session sliced to the right and went less than 100 yards.

But as she stared at the computer screen and got pointers from Hester about the different flaws in her swing, Caruthers said the ModelGolf system was reinforcing what Hester was telling her.

&#8220You can definitely see it. They can tell you all day long what you’re doing, but it helps to see it,” Caruthers said. &#8220It’s telling you exactly what you need to do.”