Driving range launch monitors

[RichA]

If you're trying to get an idea of your distances, do they tell you how far you're hitting a range ball or do they estimate the distance a normal ball would have gone?
How can they tell the difference if you pick an old Pro V1 out of your bag that you found in a ditch?

 

[Imurg]

TopTracer.. some swear by them, some swear at them.
I've only used one once.
With decent Srixon range balls ot was set to recalibrate distances as if you we using a real ball.
I started hitting the balls, at the time I was carrying my 35° 7 iron about 145 on the course.
Toptracer was giving me about 135 Mmm...OK
Found a good old TopFlite in the basket and hit that, similarly to the others
148.
Had a rummage around in the bag and found a pretty old ZStar and hit that
145
Back to the range balls
135.
I haven't been back.

 

[mikejohnchapman]

I agree the figures are very different with range balls. Best use is for comparing clubs rather than judging raw distance.

 

[Neilds]

To all those people who say that launch monitors don’t work very well / aren’t accurate with range balls, I have a question:
How does the launch monitor know it is a range ball? Surely the monitor just tracks the ball for a very short distance and them does calculation so how does it know what the flight is or if it just dies out of the sky?
Genuine question, not casting doubt on people’s perception of their true hitting distance ?

 

[sweaty sock]

Most range balls ate limited flight, to stop big hitters launching them all over. Good test to see if your range uses them is to laser the 150 marker from the middle bay. If its 135 your using limited range balls....

Trackman can be set to normalise for them, but no idea about top tracer....

 

[HeftyHacker]

To all those people who say that launch monitors don’t work very well / aren’t accurate with range balls, I have a question:
How does the launch monitor know it is a range ball? Surely the monitor just tracks the ball for a very short distance and them does calculation so how does it know what the flight is or if it just dies out of the sky?
Genuine question, not casting doubt on people’s perception of their true hitting distance ?

The more advanced ones track the spin of the ball which will give a more accurate idea of ball flight I guess?

For example if a drive falls out the sky its generally because it was low spinning etc

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Does not the "real" ball fly off the face of the club at a higher speed than the range ball( for an identical clubhead speed)?
Thus the difference in distance!
I'm no,physics expert, but that is my understanding

 

[larmen]

Trackman can be set to normalise for them, but no idea about top tracer....

I think there might be an option for Toptracer.
I am going to Silvermere for about 3 years now and never seen it. Now my local range in Sunbury got a major upgrade and Toptracer and there is an option for normalising. The system will be newer, maybe there is a new option?

 

[harpo_72]

I used it at a range whilst in Sweden. It was pretty depressing so I just used my G80 instead and played virtual rounds.
I knew the distance was off because there was a flag at 180yards in front of me and I was having to work the 5 iron to get there and the hybrid was sailing over it. The driver distance was recording 190 yards but reality was a different matter .. I came back to the UK and was carrying well beyond 180-190 yards so it was a little pessimistic.

 

[RichA]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like I'm better off figuring out my distances on course using the known distances on par 3s and 150 markers. Unfortunate to have to rely on single shots. Maybe start carrying a note book with me to get an idea of an average over time.
Or just carry on guessing and hacking.
I guess this is the real benefit of Arccos type devices.

 

[HeftyHacker]

Since Arccos has been mentioned - I love the idea in principle but does anyone know what the craic is when you don't use full swings?

I ask as I play on a links course thats often quite windy - so I end up using bump and runs, little half swings with lower lofted clubs etc.

Would this then have an impact on your average distances for each club in the data recorded?
Using an 8iron 4 times at 140 yards and then a couple of times for a 30 yard bump and run is really going to skew the averages isnt it?

 

[sweaty sock]

Software discards shots significantly outside your standard deviation. Does still count shots up and down gale, or hill from good lies and bad lies. And all the other variables in a golf shot. So your relying on a large number of shots to provide an average with good error bars... like any decent statistical analysis.

 

[Junior]

Since Arccos has been mentioned - I love the idea in principle but does anyone know what the craic is when you don't use full swings?

I ask as I play on a links course thats often quite windy - so I end up using bump and runs, little half swings with lower lofted clubs etc.

Would this then have an impact on your average distances for each club in the data recorded?
Using an 8iron 4 times at 140 yards and then a couple of times for a 30 yard bump and run is really going to skew the averages isnt it?

Yes, it discards shots (not sure what %) at the top and bottom end. Ie, even if you nut an 8i 200 yards down wind on a firm fast day it will remove it from the average distance.

 

[Junior]

I've a "Trackman" range near me. Its really good.

The balls do fly 10% / 15% less distance, but, when you select "normalise" it then reads the shots as the normal distance they would ordinarily travel.

 

[HeftyHacker]

That makes sense, my worry would be that the split could be quite even some rounds. But then i'd imagine there's a way to manually discount shots.

 

[Kennysarmy]

The more advanced ones track the spin of the ball which will give a more accurate idea of ball flight I guess?

For example if a drive falls out the sky its generally because it was low spinning etc

In all my drives the ball falls out the sky - am I doing something wrong? - how do I hit it if it doesn't?

 

[Britishshooting]

They did longest drive comps at a local range to me on the top tracers and you'd find a suprising amount of Pro V's from people desperate to get any edge, winning drive usually 370-380 yards, and there were no long driver lads there. One lad I know that got 368 is a big hitter but he's looking at 320-330 max with conditions favourable.

I don't find them accurate at all personally, I set up my Flightscope Tour behind me and was getting significantly different numbers.

Top tracer must have been optimising my spin as I was hitting drive after drive 340+ yards with rollout and 5 irons 240-250 yards with rollout, lets just say my flightscope soon brought me back down to earth. I imagine it varies wildly from range to range depending on set-up and calibration etc. but I wouldn't use them for much more than good fun unless you can benchmark it against something reliable to adjust your figures.

When I did a gapping test via top tracer at one range I was basically anywhere between 1 to 2 clubs longer on that than trackman, I imagine from a marketing perspective to make people want to use it the numbers are juiced for bragging purposes as well as optimising/averaging spin which will add yards to a lot of golfers.

 

[HeftyHacker]

In all my drives the ball falls out the sky - am I doing something wrong? - how do I hit it if it doesn't?

You need to hit it more on the up and get a bit more height on it. Combined with enough ball speed you should be able to break through the earth's orbit and your ball will stop falling out the sky.

Go and see a pro if you're struggling, it might be something as simple as a set up change.

 

[Kennysarmy]

You need to hit it more on the up and get a bit more height on it. Combined with enough ball speed you should be able to break through the earth's orbit and your ball will stop falling out the sky.

Go and see a pro if you're struggling, it might be something as simple as a set up change.

That reply is out of this world!