You're not a touring pro but you bought a launch monitor anyway. Well.....?

[Dan13]

2 hours ago, Krt22 said:

Ball striking skill is more like 2/3 of the equation (SG Driving+SG Approach), chipping/putting the remaining 1/3. The whole "putts are 1/2 of your score" argument is largely false. 

Putting numbers on this sort of thing on is inherently murky. For mid to high handicaps chipping/putting is often 50% or more of their score. My attempted larger point was to get at everything else that goes into playing golf including putting, chipping certainly but especially for lower HCs the nuance of executing a golf shot - aka, the lie, decision making, course management, changing weather impacts, etc.. Get these wrong and someone’s raw ball striking ability becomes much less relevant to their score. Hard to duplicate these intangibles in a sim. 

[cdub59]

On 3/7/2022 at 12:22 PM, RmoorePE said:

Have FSK, which has 16 data points including club data.

 

The indoor mode has only been out for a month, and from my perspective, yes good/great purchase.

 

FSK takes a video of every swing, combined with the data, it is a wealth of knowledge if you know much about the golf swing. I am an engineer and a huge golf nerd, so it is easy for me to figure out what is wrong with my impact points. Of course figuring out how to change it is a lot of trial and error. But that is the beauty of being at home, you can do all of those awkward drills in private and not worry about shanking the ball into someone's leg, or looking foolish. 

 

For example, in just the past few weeks, I have increased my club head speeds, to distance increase 20 yards across the board. My PW was 130 yard club in early Feb, now it is 150 yards with ease. I hit a 175 yard 8 Iron on Sat AM with my regular golf group, and they were shocked (almost as much as me). Some of it is just that I am getting to swing a golf club way more and so my distances I usually have in June, I am getting in March (we really only golf from March to Sept), the other is I noticed on my videos that my backswing plane was pretty good, but my right hip was limiting my back swing. Easy fix with a few weight transfer drills.

 

If you can leave your LM set up on a net, or in a SIM room it is really nice for your golf game. If you only get to play once a week, but get to hit 500 balls with distances with club data throughout the week. How can it not help?

 

Of course, I get double value because I have a Jr golfer in my house who tries to hit balls every day and her success brings me a lot of joy, so I would do it for that alone.

 

Enjoying the sim with my son is a huge plus for me as well. He'll bring teammates over when the course is rained out and we have a blast with closest to the pin challenges and skills challenges. 

[Billfitz]

Using my SC200 yesterday hitting into my net I was able to gain 5MPH of driver clubhead speed and 12 yards of carry by identifying how far away to stand from the ball to get the best result. That translates to one less club with the approach, which translates to better accuracy with the approach, which can translate to fewer putts because I'm closer to the hole.

[RmoorePE]

One thing I really like about having a launch monitor is being able to warm up at home if I am playing close to home. Can get in a full range session, with accurate distances, better balls, and by myself and then drive to course roll a couple putts, step confident on to first tee. Even when we are driving up to an hour, I warm up at home to get my feels and then at the course just take 6 balls out of my buddies bucket, or laying around and then head to the putting green.

 

So there is a time and money savings if you are a Large Bucket kind of golfer. 

[Bubbtubbs]

On 2/25/2022 at 2:21 PM, PEI_Golfer said:

You forget that a good chunk of NA doesn't play year round and might have an indoor set up for those colder months...

Hell, some of us are lucky to get 4 months before the courses close again.

[SE Gamer]

On 3/28/2022 at 2:22 PM, RmoorePE said:

One thing I really like about having a launch monitor is being able to warm up at home if I am playing close to home. Can get in a full range session, with accurate distances, better balls, and by myself and then drive to course roll a couple putts, step confident on to first tee. Even when we are driving up to an hour, I warm up at home to get my feels and then at the course just take 6 balls out of my buddies bucket, or laying around and then head to the putting green.

 

So there is a time and money savings if you are a Large Bucket kind of golfer. 

 

Being able to warm up at home is great. At the same time, I think most would get just as much benefit out of only a mat and a net. I don't think a launch monitor is a requirement. 

[whumber]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:54 PM, SE Gamer said:

 

Being able to warm up at home is great. At the same time, I think most would get just as much benefit out of only a mat and a net. I don't think a launch monitor is a requirement. 

No way, hitting blindly into a net is a great way to screw yourself up.

[leekgolf]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:54 PM, SE Gamer said:

 

Being able to warm up at home is great. At the same time, I think most would get just as much benefit out of only a mat and a net. I don't think a launch monitor is a requirement. 

 

It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Hitting blindly into a net is great for many drills while working on a swing change. It allows us to ingrain the drill without worrying or even paying attention to the ball's direction or in some cases how well we hit the ball. That's great for ingraining a swing change.

 

Once we are trying to control the ball, direction, distance and height, hitting blindly into a net will just screw most of us up. I remember Bobby Clampett saying when he was in college, he practiced hitting into a net all winter and thought he was ready for the season. He said when he finally got to play outside, he was hitting the ball all over the place.

[SE Gamer]

1 hour ago, leekgolf said:

 

It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Hitting blindly into a net is great for many drills while working on a swing change. It allows us to ingrain the drill without worrying or even paying attention to the ball's direction or in some cases how well we hit the ball. That's great for ingraining a swing change.

 

Once we are trying to control the ball, direction, distance and height, hitting blindly into a net will just screw most of us up. I remember Bobby Clampett saying when he was in college, he practiced hitting into a net all winter and thought he was ready for the season. He said when he finally got to play outside, he was hitting the ball all over the place.

 

I suppose I took some liberty and assumptions with that comment. Agreed when you're working on something it's very useful. And depending on how in tune with your swing you are whether it'll be beneficial outside of that. I know my swing pretty well. And while my internal radar isn't 100% accurate. It's pretty darn close. When hitting on Trackman recently I knew exactly where about 80-90% of the shots were going before the ball flight populated on the screen. 

 

A sim/LM is certainly better. But a net can be plenty useful for someone who is unable to go the former route, for whatever reason.

[coyote09]

I had a Garmin G6 GPS that stopped working.  I was able to pick up a new Garmin G80 GPS/Launch Monitor at a Black Friday sale for $200 off.

I took right to the GPS. The Launch monitor has been an on-going experience. On the range, the quality of range balls vary greatly, giving misleading carry and total distance numbers.

I have taken the G80 to the course, used the launch monitor function, when no one else was around and have been able to gap some of my clubs from the wedges down to my 9I, using my own balls. On the course, I marked off distances using my range finder and the distance feature on the G80.  Since the G80 doesn't record any data, I had to write down the info after each strike or take a photo of the screen.

Last season I won more money on closest to the pin contests ever.  Which is directly the result of the G80 on course practice.

At the start of this season I was able to record full swing data for my 52° & 58° wedges.  I suspected that the TT Dynamic Golf Tour Issue S400 shafts in both wedges were too stiff, causing a loss of distance. I recorded data for 5 swings with each wedge.  I analyzed the data and changed the shafts out to Nippon shafts.  After the shaft change-out I recorded data for another 5 swings with each wedge and found out I gained 7 more yards.

The swing tempo function on the G80 is also useful on the range. I also take the G80 out to the park or practice field to hit pitch shots of various distances.

[soberD]

My swing improved more in one winter of practice with my Mevo+ than the last 3 winters combined just hitting into a net (I've always used slowmo video).  A snap hook can feel really good going into a net without any other feedback.  

 

[rlefig]

i am hoping for the same once i finish my build

[leekgolf]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:15 PM, SE Gamer said:

 

I suppose I took some liberty and assumptions with that comment. Agreed when you're working on something it's very useful. And depending on how in tune with your swing you are whether it'll be beneficial outside of that. I know my swing pretty well. And while my internal radar isn't 100% accurate. It's pretty darn close. When hitting on Trackman recently I knew exactly where about 80-90% of the shots were going before the ball flight populated on the screen. 

 

A sim/LM is certainly better. But a net can be plenty useful for someone who is unable to go the former route, for whatever reason.

So you're better at judging your shots than Bobby Clampett, who at the time was the #1 ranked amateur  in the world?  Impressive.

[SE Gamer]

On 5/14/2022 at 8:56 AM, leekgolf said:

So you're better at judging your shots than Bobby Clampett, who at the time was the #1 ranked amateur  in the world?  Impressive.

 

I don't know what to tell you. There are far better players out there than me, but I'm very much a feel player. Some of the former may be much more technical/mechanical. So I'll grant you that there's a caveat with my earlier post that others milage may vary. And to do net practice effectively, you have to have a pretty good understanding of your own swing. 

 

I'm now around 6 weeks of play into the season (had to take about a month off due to an injury working on a weekend warrior project). Figured I'd post back with results from having hit thousands of balls into a net over the winter. No surprises. Same consistent little draw. But can work a fade when I want/need to. First few rounds were a few over par. Last 3 have been -2, -2, -1. 

 

At this point I can definitively state that the winter practice into a net provided me with a tangible benefit. I committed to getting back into golf more seriously this year. After life getting busy and becoming casual at best over the past 5 years or so. 

 

With that being said, I still have a new sim/LM on the way. Partly because it'll make practice more enjoyable with some visual feedback. But also for the data side of things to really fine tune the things that I can't get purely from feel. 

Edited July 6, 2022 by SE Gamer

[kmak]

I don't have any place for an indoor setup so my Trackman is strictly for outdoors.  I am vision impaired - can't see a ball travel after about 50 yards - so using a launch monitor is the only way that practice is worthwhile for me.

 

Definitely improving with it.