Launch Monitors.

[kid2]

Are they all that... I got a new 3 wood yesterday in Nevada Bobs and i hit a Ping G25, Callaway Big Bertha, Callaway Razr Fit Xtreme, TM SLDR and TM Jetspeed....

I spent the best part of an hour and a half hitting all five of these... I hit them off a tee and off the mat.... Now im always a bit sceptical about not being able to see whats happening when the ball leaves the face of the club but out of the 5 i came away with the Callaway Razr Fit.....

All the numbers that the machine was spitting out never made a whole pile of sense to me... It showed my swing speed in between 99 and 106 mph.... I was hitting in to out and pushing most shots... The norm for my push fade so at least it was nice to see the swing seemed ok...

The ironic thing is.... With the Ping i was carrying the ball 188 yards... Went to the Callaways and it showed the carry distance was 220-230.... Then went to the TM's...... These went up to i think 240 with a total distance of 254..... Iv no clue as to how it knew what the total distance was when i was knocking balls into a screen.....

Anyway most would have probably went with the TM's given the distance but this wasnt a decision i was going to make as for 1 i just didnt like the head size... They looked a little large.... And two im just not a TM fan....

I hit the Ping again just to see if it was down to a little stiffness in the swing early on but i still couldnt get anywhere near the distances of the other 4 with the Ping.... No in its defence all the shafts were stock stiff..... The Ping just seemed to be spinning up into the air and not going forward enough....


In the end i came away with the Callaway Razr Fit Xtreme.... Simply because i like the look, feel and headshape of it.....
This morning was the first time i played with it.... And it seems i made the right decision...... Its lovely to hit from anywhere..... Its mental long off the tee and its just as easy to hit off the ground....

Probably just as well i went with gut instinct rather than numbers...

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Are they all that... I got a new 3 wood yesterday in Nevada Bobs and i hit a Ping G25, Callaway Big Bertha, Callaway Razr Fit Xtreme, TM SLDR and TM Jetspeed....

I spent the best part of an hour and a half hitting all five of these... I hit them off a tee and off the mat.... Now im always a bit sceptical about not being able to see whats happening when the ball leaves the face of the club but out of the 5 i came away with the Callaway Razr Fit.....

All the numbers that the machine was spitting out never made a whole pile of sense to me... It showed my swing speed in between 99 and 106 mph.... I was hitting in to out and pushing most shots... The norm for my push fade so at least it was nice to see the swing seemed ok...

The ironic thing is.... With the Ping i was carrying the ball 188 yards... Went to the Callaways and it showed the carry distance was 220-230.... Then went to the TM's...... These went up to i think 240 with a total distance of 254..... Iv no clue as to how it knew what the total distance was when i was knocking balls into a screen.....

Anyway most would have probably went with the TM's given the distance but this wasnt a decision i was going to make as for 1 i just didnt like the head size... They looked a little large.... And two im just not a TM fan....

I hit the Ping again just to see if it was down to a little stiffness in the swing early on but i still couldnt get anywhere near the distances of the other 4 with the Ping.... No in its defence all the shafts were stock stiff..... The Ping just seemed to be spinning up into the air and not going forward enough....


In the end i came away with the Callaway Razr Fit Xtreme.... Simply because i like the look, feel and headshape of it.....
This morning was the first time i played with it.... And it seems i made the right decision...... Its lovely to hit from anywhere..... Its mental long off the tee and its just as easy to hit off the ground....

Probably just as well i went with gut instinct rather than numbers...

Nothing wrong with that

And you prob hit it well because you were happy with it and confident with it in your hands

 

[tsped83]

With regards to look and feel of clubs, I agree Kid. Had a driver fitting with all the latest technology earlier in the year which was spitting out numbers I didn't fully understand (or, for me, don't need to even entertain) and ended up with a driver that out on the course I couldn't handle. Shaft was way too stiff and despite the magic numbers produced by Trackman and all the gadgets, out on the course it never happened for me.

If I do have a fitting in future it won't be in to a simulator with gadgets. I'd want to hit the balls out of a bay, ideally on grass and let my eyes and brain do the judging. It's not all about numbers, seeing is believing.

 

[kid2]

Nothing wrong with that

And you prob hit it well because you were happy with it and confident with it in your hands

I suppose Phil..... The round this morning helped also... At least i could see the flight.....

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Personally I would never buy a club based on monitor fittings into a net. That's just me but I have to see how it flies. It sounds like the OP has got something that works for him so if the monitor and his instinct work then great. Just not how I'd buy a club. Also I'm intrigued how all these clubs can give such discrepancies. I would expect some variation but there seems to be a big gap in some of the numbers

 

[fundy]

Each to their own, have to say having used the GC2 several times with Alex at Orka that Im more than happy to have a fitting or a lesson on that. I get to see the ball flight on the simulator and based on using it several times its as realistic as they come and I happily trust the yardages it gives me too. In the perfect world youd see the full ball flight and have all the stats data but thats just not possible always and personally Id rather have the data and simulator than just outdoor ball flight

 

[kid2]

Also I'm intrigued how all these clubs can give such discrepancies. I would expect some variation but there seems to be a big gap in some of the numbers

Thats why i posted this Homer...... I went with how solid the hit was with the Callaway and how nice it looked..... Suffice to say..... It didnt leave me down today..... Its probably one of the best Fairway woods iv hit to date....

 

[LinksTurf]

Have to say I'm a little sceptical of them. Tried out a Callaway 3-wood at AG once and launch monitor/simulator told me I was hitting it same distance as I hit my my 5-iron in real life!

 

[the_coach]

Simple answer is the one no-one wants to believe because it doesn't give the answers most folks have in their heads.

But Trackman, GC2 & HMT, Flighscope give you the absolute truth as to what your swing is doing with whatever club your using.

Seeing it fly on a range, or whilst playing (other than a par 3) doesn't give someone the actual carry distance just an estimated one the eyes & brain give, your ego wants to always over estimate how far a ball's been hit.

Unless you're on a piece of land you can actual walk out & measure while hitting balls to get a firmer correct idea of distances, than either you'd ever really be able to do on a driving range (with range balls or real balls as that still just by eye) During play you simply don't have time, and there's no point in just pacing off one shot which is a Sunday best you're not likely to repeat with any consistency. Just by flight & eye won't give you the true result just one you'd like to believe.

Launch monitors are the only way to get a real definite answer, that's exactly why a lot of folks don't like them. They also give you true numbers on path, launch angle, AoA, ball speed, spin rate, spin axis, peak height, descent angle, face angle, club head lie etc, as well as true distances, it's not that difficult to understand if you just take time to work through it.

 

[LinksTurf]

But Trackman, GC2 & HMT, Flighscope give you the absolute truth as to what your swing is doing with whatever club your using.

Don't they have to be properly maintained/calibrated however? I am not macho about my iron distances.I am far from a long hitter. My distances are not imagined, but confirmed by rangefinder and GPS watch. Have to say as well, that the LM consistently predicted a draw, with both my own club and the one I was trying out and I NEVER draw it on the course. I'm sure that LM's can be very useful, but simply doubt that all of them get the care and maintenance they need.

 

[the_coach]

Don't they have to be properly maintained/calibrated however? I am not macho about my iron distances.I am far from a long hitter. My distances are not imagined, but confirmed by rangefinder and GPS watch. Have to say as well, that the LM consistently predicted a draw, with both my own club and the one I was trying out and I NEVER draw it on the course. I'm sure that LM's can be very useful, but simply doubt that all of them get the care and maintenance they need.

LM calibration are accurate they doesn't really need any maintenance as such, would always recommend trying to use one that a Pro uses to teach with rather than a store, you don't get to hit enough balls in a franchise place. Just needs to be the right distance, the monitor itself at 8' directly behind ball position, net 13' from the strike. Set up at the right height, to be fair nowhere I've seen has got any of this wrong, you get pretty detailed instruction to set one up & it's easy to do.

To know true averages you have to hit a good bunch of balls at a session, discount the furthest, discount the screw ups count to the middle of the bunch of balls if you're doing this with GPS/Rangefinder fair enough it won't be out by much could be a yard or so though, LM unlikely to be out by anything meaningful at all.

But if you're just measuring the one off shots it's not giving you a true reflection of your average, just the measurement of that particular shot.

On course maybes one of the reasons you're not hitting a draw, is often when we're more worried about the outcome of a shot relative to getting to target we are a little too tense. Pretty hard to hit a draw if you have tension particularly in your fore arms spreads to the shoulders and you don't get the full turn & release.

Into a net not worried about specific outcome to target it's a lot easier to hit a draw.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Coach

No arguments about what you've written and the numbers are important hence why I put a lot of stock into them when I was looking at my new I25's. However for me, the ability to then take these numbers and see them in action and watch the flight is very important to me too. Even if the numbers are decent, if it produced too much of a rainbow flight I wouldn't be happy. I prefer my ball flight to be more penetrating.

 

[the_coach]

Coach

No arguments about what you've written and the numbers are important hence why I put a lot of stock into them when I was looking at my new I25's. However for me, the ability to then take these numbers and see them in action and watch the flight is very important to me too. Even if the numbers are decent, if it produced too much of a rainbow flight I wouldn't be happy. I prefer my ball flight to be more penetrating.

Okay, understand that, LM's will give you factual confirmation of trajectory too though, & as a plus will even tell you your descent angle. Best way to use a LM is outside.