Prove Your Drives- GPS

[muttbag]

Since there seems to be a running dispute on perceived driver distance vs. real driver distance, I'd like to propose an idea.  Using a GPS-enabled golf app of your choice and your phone's screenshot capability, start documenting your drives on STRAIGHT fairway runs.  I do not believe this will work on any type of dogleg fairway, because you can cut corners and skew the results since the yardage is based on the fairway route, not actual straight-line distance from tee to green.

* Stand on the tee box from the spot where you hit your drive with your GPS-enabled golf app displaying your distance to the center of the green and take a screenshot on your phone.

* Before hitting your 2nd shot, take another screenshot showing your remaining distance to the hole.

* Post both screenshots.

If I'm not thinking this through, someone correct me.  I'm sure there is a slight fudge factor involved and the distance will be give or take a few yards, but if you're in the middle of the fairway, I don't see this being that far off.  I'm doing this regardless.

[Golfingdad]

Most GPS devices, as well as phone GPS apps, have measurement capabilities.  Press button at tee, and press button at ball, there's your distance.  The hole shape is irrelevant. :)

[muttbag]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Most GPS devices, as well as phone GPS apps, have measurement capabilities.  Press button at tee, and press button at ball, there's your distance.  The hole shape is irrelevant. :)

That's google-worthy.  I haven't found that feature on my app yet, I use GolfLogix.  Sounds much easier!  I'd like to see actual distances posted, and I don't think I'm speaking for myself.

[geauxforbroke]

Originally Posted by muttbag

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Most GPS devices, as well as phone GPS apps, have measurement capabilities.  Press button at tee, and press button at ball, there's your distance.  The hole shape is irrelevant. :)

That's google-worthy.  I haven't found that feature on my app yet, I use GolfLogix.  Sounds much easier!  I'd like to see actual distances posted, and I don't think I'm speaking for myself.

If you have the premium version of GolfLogix, you can get distances to any point on the hole, including the tee box.

[CR McDivot]

The best accuracy you can expect to attain with any GPS receiver without a correction method applied is within 15 meters (2D RMS) for the horizontal measurement. Vertical accuracy is within 25 meters. This is typically true for any commercial GPS receiver from any vendor.

http://www.spatial-ed.com/gps/gps-basics/135-differential-correction-methods.html

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by CR McDivot

The best accuracy you can expect to attain with any GPS receiver without a correction method applied is within 15 meters (2D RMS) for the horizontal measurement. Vertical accuracy is within 25 meters. This is typically true for any commercial GPS receiver from any vendor.

http://www.spatial-ed.com/gps/gps-basics/135-differential-correction-methods.html

Well then, clearly, GPS systems used for golf apply a correction method ... otherwise there would be exactly ZERO market for golf GPS systems, and there would be exactly ZERO debate as to what is more accurate, GPS or laser.

[muttbag]

Originally Posted by geauxforbroke

If you have the premium version of GolfLogix, you can get distances to any point on the hole, including the tee box.

Ah.  There's the culprit.  I'm still bumming the free version, but I don't mind the $20 (or whatever it is) to upgrade if I can access that feature.  As well as get rid of those annoying ads.

[muttbag]

Originally Posted by CR McDivot

The best accuracy you can expect to attain with any GPS receiver without a correction method applied is within 15 meters (2D RMS) for the horizontal measurement. Vertical accuracy is within 25 meters. This is typically true for any commercial GPS receiver from any vendor.

http://www.spatial-ed.com/gps/gps-basics/135-differential-correction-methods.html

I'm just going to trust it, as it is currently the most accurate way to determine distance as opposed to eyeballing course markers.

[Shorty]

I would prefer a way for people to prove their "tour quality" short games and how they are "money" fro 150 yards.

I never really cared for distance competitions.

I've seen too many guys who hit it 250 have low handicaps and too many huge hitters who've never seen a fairway.

And I've said it many times ------I am yet to meet a low marker who tells you how far he hits it, unless he considers himself a short hitter.

[MS256]

Originally Posted by CR McDivot

The best accuracy you can expect to attain with any GPS receiver without a correction method applied is within 15 meters (2D RMS) for the horizontal measurement. Vertical accuracy is within 25 meters. This is typically true for any commercial GPS receiver from any vendor.

http://www.spatial-ed.com/gps/gps-basics/135-differential-correction-methods.html

Ha ha ha ha!

I guess laser range finders must be 15 meters off as well because the guys that use them come up with the same distances as my GPS. Oh, and all of the yardage markers on the courses I go to must also be 15 meters off because they are the same as my GPS.

[Chipless]

Originally Posted by MS256

Ha ha ha ha!

I guess laser range finders must be 15 meters off as well because the guys that use them come up with the same distances as my GPS. Oh, and all of the yardage markers on the courses I go to must also be 15 meters off because they are the same as my GPS.

Same here.  My SwingBySwing phone app is always within two or three yards of any fairway yardage indicators, marked sprinkler heads, etc.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

My GolfShot GPS app is quite accurate. It also has a feature to measure drive distance. That's how I know my driver average is 242.

[muttbag]

I would prefer a way for people to prove their "tour quality" short games and how they are "money" fro 150 yards. I never really cared for distance competitions. I've seen too many guys who hit it 250 have low handicaps and too many huge hitters who've never seen a fairway. And I've said it many times ------I am yet to meet a low marker who tells you how far he hits it, unless he considers himself a short hitter.

I see your point. But I don't see any way to prove short game performance other than having someone video your approach shots. I'm intrigued by driving distance and it seems to be a fiery red hot button on this forum, so I thought this would be a nice proving ground for all interested to put up or shut up.

[Pretzel]

This would be sort of interesting to see posted along with swing videos, but I don't see much point to it. Does it matter so much how far you hit it so long as it's in the fairway and close enough for a mid-short iron on a reasonable-length par 4? I like to track my accuracy stats off the tee much more than anything else since I know my carry distance cutoffs from experimentation for going over lakes or doglegs and that's good enough for me. There's just so much variability based off of altitude, humidity, temperature and ground conditions that I can't really see how the distances would be very comparable to anyone except yourself under the same conditions.

That being said, I don't want to poo-poo this thread and would be hopefully optimistic to see how well this method of measurement works.

[smellysell]

I don't think it will prove or disprove anything necessarily, but might be fun. I'll try to figure out how to do it tomorrow while I'm playing.

[muttbag]

I agree that it would be fun. From what I've seen on here, not many of us live or die by our driver. But I disagree that it wouldn't prove anything. Lots of users saying they can hit the long ball... and even more casting doubt on the validity of those claims. Let's make this real and put each other to task. Honestly, I want to see if one of my crushed drives actually measures out to what I think it does. I'm consciously working on the rest of my game more than my driver right now, but dammit, I want to know. This would require that a certain degree of honor be upheld. You can easily cheat the system here, but that would only confirm the lack of a soul in your worthless, subhuman cheater body. I'm off to New Mexico for business tomorrow and I'm taking my clubs with me. I plan on playing a round when I get in town and contributing stats tomorrow evening.

[Pretzel]

Quote:

You can easily cheat the system here, but that would only confirm the lack of a soul in your worthless, subhuman cheater body.

That's just the problem as to why I feel it wouldn't really prove much, is because you could cheat. If you lie about distance off the tee already, why bother to reveal the truth when you could easily cheat without anyone necessarily knowing it. People could still doubt it the same as a number off the top of your head, but I'm not sure it would change anyone's distances except those who only guesstimate at their distance and weren't intentionally misleading people.

I'm not trying to really say that people will try to mislead you here, but I feel that those who would try to mislead in the first place would either cheat anyways or avoid a thread like this. Unfortunately that is how the internet's anonymity affects some people.

That's still not to say that I'd be interested in seeing how this measurement technique pans out compared to using with a laser and shooting the distance back to the tee box/to the ball from the tee. I'm guessing the real difference may be in that the GPS has fewer depth perception/human errors of misjudging where the teebox was but less overall precision on the numbers by a slight amount.

[ColeMc]

I think I said this in another thread somewhere, bloke above is correct in saying that GPS isn't a perfect measurement tool without some kind of adjustment. But it is however better than +/-15 metres.  Most handheld GPS units will get down around <+/-2 metres.

Using a basic GPS to measure against the quoted distance from tee to pin would probably put you somewhere within 15m from quoted as you would need to know the methods used to achieve the original measurement to get any better.

Using it to measure from where you hit the ball to where the ball stops would be within roughly a couple of metres as it's independent of the course and based purely on the difference in lat and long on a global scale.

Elevation can play a part in the difference between GPS and what you would get from a laser but you gotta be a fair way above sea level for it to really matter in terms of a golf shot and you'd have to be hitting the ball a hell of a long way too.