Yardage/Gap Testing Tonight

[Orikoru]

So tonight I have an hour with a golf simulator at North London Golf Academy. Trackman 4 apparently. Never done one of these before, looking forward to it and I'm currently bored at work, so I'm just thinking about how to go about it. Is it best to start on the wedges and work your way up so you're warmed up by the time you get to the longer clubs? I was planning to bring my Titleist Velocitys to hit, turns out I only have 5 of them left at the moment but that should be enough. Would you just hit 5 or 6 shots with each club until you've got 3 or 4 decent strikes to take an average of and then move on? I don't want to be hitting 8-10 and then find I run out of time to finish the bag... Might go back and do half-swings with the wedges at the end if I have time.

They said on email that I can register my email address at the start and then just send the numbers/stats directly to my email so I won't need to take notes or screenshots or anything presumably.


Edit: Full results and feedback here: https://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/threads/yardage-gap-testing-tonight.104216/post-2114816

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I think you have nailed it. Warm up with the sort stuff first and move up the bag. Then go 5 shots with each. If you have a mare with a particular club that gives you the chance to take more and then take out the duffers. You can always hit more at the end if you have time.

Looking forward to hearing your experience.

 

[Springveldt]

When I did mine last year I did a little warm up then started from wedge up to driver. I was after 3 good strikes, so the wedges and shorter irons only took 3-4 swings but it gave me time to filter out a few duffers in the longer irons/woods.

I took a photo of each club after the 3 swings (and deleted the duffers) to get an average. If it's Trackman and you create a trackman account you can probably get all the data upload to your account. My last lesson on Trackman even had a video of all the swings to go with the data.

 

[robinthehood]

Hit everything as hard as you can and take the best shot from each club as your average.

 

[Orikoru]

Hit everything as hard as you can and take the best shot from each club as your average.

Good plan, I'll tee them all up as well as set the machine to 'downwind'.

 

[Springveldt]

Good plan, I'll tee them all up as well as set the machine to 'downwind'.

I'd recommend setting the altitude to at least 15,000 feet as well if you want to hit an internet average distance.

 

[robinthehood]

I'd recommend setting the altitude to at least 15,000 feet as well if you want to hit an internet average distance.

And include roll.

 

[larmen]

Hit everything as hard as you can and take the best shot from each club as your average.

That’s for forum purposes, on the course use proper yardages.

Crossfield did a video on gap testing just a short while ago, gave a look at YouTube

 

[duncan mackie]

Run the odd number clubs first, then go back and run the evens (or the other way round!).

This helps to avoid inferences from having warmed up, tuned in etc distorting the underlying club specific data - everything's only going to be relative anyway IMO, but you might as well do it the best it can be done.

 

[User20204]

The email you'll get will be absolutely fascinating to you if you're a geek, quite extraordinary amount of info on it, I still go back and look at mine from a couple years back.

Another thing is, don't be to disappointed when you see your averages, it's a bit of a wake up call, particularly on the long clubs.

 

[Orikoru]

Run the odd number clubs first, then go back and run the evens (or the other way round!).

This helps to avoid inferences from having warmed up, tuned in etc distorting the underlying club specific data - everything's only going to be relative anyway IMO, but you might as well do it the best it can be done.

That's interesting, my mildly OCD brain only thought of doing them in order, ha. Good tip.

The email you'll get will be absolutely fascinating to you if you're a geek, quite extraordinary amount of info on it, I still go back and look at mine from a couple years back.

Another thing is, don't be to disappointed when you see your averages, it's a bit of a wake up call, particularly on the long clubs.

Ah don't worry, I'm fully prepared for disappointment after the driver fitting I did last year, haha.

 

[Orikoru]

Ok so here is the report attached, no wool over the eyes because I didn't delete a single shot before he sent it - I didn't realise he'd send it as a PDF I guess, but I'll fish the proper numbers out of it tomorrow. Just thought I'd post it, warts and all for you lot - absolutely no accusations of 'forum distances'.

Some things to clarify:
- Yes I hit like four shanks as you can see on page 3. In my defence, I burped half way through my swing for two of them.
- "Sand Wedge" was actually my 46°, not a sand wedge at all.
- "60°" was just some half swings with different wedges I did for the last 5 minutes, I didn't actually hit a 60°.
- For some reason the 8 iron was messing me about and it took my ages to hit any decent strikes with it, had to come back to it hence why I hit that one more than the others.
- I hit a few 6 irons just to prove I was right to take it out of the bag... and I think it will be staying out of the bag.

What I may do to get some more usable averages is remove the best one if it's an outlier (like that drive that went 20 yards further than all the others - God knows what I did there), then take the next best five as a 'decent strike' average for each club.


As for the experience itself, I quite enjoyed it although I am bloody knackered now. Giulio quickly set me up and showed me how to select clubs on the screen and away I went. Although I brought my own balls to use, he said I couldn't as I'd already marked them play and he says that tends to mark the screen, so he gave me a couple of Srixon Z-Stars to hit instead.


Right, to anyone who knows what they're talking about - feel free to tell me what any of the other numbers on the report mean.

 

[User20204]

Just had a very quick look and it just shows how averages can be very deceptive. When I first seen your driver ftp I thought it was very good but when you look at the actual individual numbers they are all over the place (that's not a criticism of you btw)

Your launch angle is pretty good though and decent carry given you're only swinging it at 83mph.

I think the 7 iron averages is something many players should look at. In the past everyone just seen a 7 iron as 150, yet when I was on our range with a guy I used to play with, that's what he thought, I was lasering his 7, his best was 135

 

[Wolf]

Ok so here is the report attached, no wool over the eyes because I didn't delete a single shot before he sent it - I didn't realise he'd send it as a PDF I guess, but I'll fish the proper numbers out of it tomorrow. Just thought I'd post it, warts and all for you lot - absolutely no accusations of 'forum distances'.

Some things to clarify:
- Yes I hit like four shanks as you can see on page 3. In my defence, I burped half way through my swing for two of them.
- "Sand Wedge" was actually my 46°, not a sand wedge at all.
- "60°" was just some half swings with different wedges I did for the last 5 minutes, I didn't actually hit a 60°.
- For some reason the 8 iron was messing me about and it took my ages to hit any decent strikes with it, had to come back to it hence why I hit that one more than the others.
- I hit a few 6 irons just to prove I was right to take it out of the bag... and I think it will be staying out of the bag.

What I may do to get some more usable averages is remove the best one if it's an outlier (like that drive that went 20 yards further than all the others - God knows what I did there), then take the next best five as a 'decent strike' average for each club.


As for the experience itself, I quite enjoyed it although I am bloody knackered now. Giulio quickly set me up and showed me how to select clubs on the screen and away I went. Although I brought my own balls to use, he said I couldn't as I'd already marked them play and he says that tends to mark the screen, so he gave me a couple of Srixon Z-Stars to hit instead.


Right, to anyone who knows what they're talking about - feel free to tell me what any of the other numbers on the report mean.

Makes for interesting reading... And based on your average swing speed the distance is pretty good for 83mph..

The stand outs I see without sitting there really studying the numbers is..
1) you're right you are terrible with a 6 iron? do you know of anything you do differently when swinging the club.
2) your 3 Hybrid based on average carry and roll out also seems a somewhat redundant club as you're getting more carry with your 4H and only a yard shorter with it on overall distance..

Is there a difference in brand or shaft because the 4H seems better suited based on a quick glance.

 

[User20204]

These figures will give you a decent baseline for distances, unfortunately your inconsistency will mean you'll not always hit these numbers but deffo something to go on, good work.

One question though, why hit so many with the 8 ?

 

[garyinderry]

I told you about 5 and 6 irons a long time ago.



Glad you listened.

 

[Orikoru]

Just had a very quick look and it just shows how averages can be very deceptive. When I first seen your driver ftp I thought it was very good but when you look at the actual individual numbers they are all over the place (that's not a criticism of you btw)

Your launch angle is pretty good though and decent carry given you're only swinging it at 83mph.

I think the 7 iron averages is something many players should look at. In the past everyone just seen a 7 iron as 150, yet when I was on our range with a guy I used to play with, that's what he thought, I was lasering his 7, his best was 135

Yeah I know what you mean. I still find it a bit weird swinging driver indoors though.. don't know if I'd feel a bit freer out on the course or not. Anything that's decent in there might be in part just praise for the G410 to be honest, haha. I was fitted for it in October so perhaps it's doing the business.

Agree, I also think of my 7 iron as 'about' 150 - variable by summer (longer) and winter (shorter). On the report there you can see I hit the two longest ones later on, to be fair I'd obviously warmed up more and went back to it, hitting it further. Still the last one going nearly 159 total was a surprise...

 

[Orikoru]

Makes for interesting reading... And based on your average swing speed the distance is pretty good for 83mph..

The stand outs I see without sitting there really studying the numbers is..
1) you're right you are terrible with a 6 iron? do you know of anything you do differently when swinging the club.
2) your 3 Hybrid based on average carry and roll out also seems a somewhat redundant club as you're getting more carry with your 4H and only a yard shorter with it on overall distance..

Is there a difference in brand or shaft because the 4H seems better suited based on a quick glance.

6 iron: honestly it just feels like crap to swing for some reason. I always used to rack my brains thinking what is so different between that and the 7 iron which I hit fairly well. My irons are fairly strong in loft so the 6 is 26° while the 7 is 30°.... so in a lot of sets that 6 iron would be a 5 iron perhaps. Eventually I just gave up and sacked it off, getting the 27° 5-hybrid instead.

3 hybrid: you have to look at the numbers in more detail for that. There were two early duffed ones at 130-something bringing the average down. Obviously with the longer clubs I'm less consistent - but once warmed up I hit a few of the 3H in the 190s whereas the 4H was firmly in the 170s on the good strikes.

 

[garyinderry]

I'm no trackman expert. I could have this completely wrong but I believe the bit where it says low point and and figure followed by a B is how many inches you hit behind the ball.

I dont know if that was explained to you.

Number one thing to improve would be try to move that low point forward. Easier said than done.

 

[Orikoru]

These figures will give you a decent baseline for distances, unfortunately your inconsistency will mean you'll not always hit these numbers but deffo something to go on, good work.

One question though, why hit so many with the 8 ?

I explained it in the post... basically I just randomly didn't hit any good strikes with it for some reason. I had to go back to it later and hit more.

I told you about 5 and 6 irons a long time ago.



Glad you listened.

Yeah, as I say the 6 iron hasn't been in the bag, I just took it to this to reinforce what I already knew about it really. But I'm still not sure the 5 hybrid I have is going quite as far as it should. I might look at different options there. Will have to look at it in more detail once I remove some of the shocking ones, lol.