Learning Carry Distances Through PGA Tour Superstore

[3puttssuck]

I just found out that for $150 you can hit balls at your local PGA Superstore, with a launch monitor, and all year  long.  Not bad.

After every session at PGA, you can get a report with all of the regular launch monitor data.  I take one club with me each time and I'm trying to really zero in on my carry distances.  I know that if you average averages, your data will be incorrect.  My question is, how incorrect?  Will I get close enough to trust that data, or do I need to keep track of N?

Thanks in advance - 

[woodzie264]

16 minutes ago, 3puttssuck said:

I just found out that for $150 you can hit balls at your local PGA Superstore, with a launch monitor, and all year  long.  Not bad.

I'm not a math guy so I can't intelligently answer your question, but that little tidbit is good info.

[ChetlovesMer]

I went to Chicago Public Schools so I have no idea if you need to keep track of N or not. I'd say let N do what ever the hell N wants to do, it's not your job to watch him. 

In terms of your question it's pretty simple really. I assume they give you the data broken down ideally in a spreadsheet of some sort where you can throw out some crappy shots. Here's an example let's say you hit your 5 iron 5 times. You hit it 189, 192, 36, 195 and 188 yards. Obviously you throw out the one you duffed 36 yards. Otherwise if you average them you will get 160 yards. But we all know that you can't put the 36 yard duff into your process. So in reality the 5 iron would be your 190 club. 

I don't know how the PGA Super Store gives out their data. But hopefully they will either allow you to remove some outliers as you go, or massage the data later on in an Excel Spreadsheet. 

Good luck and enjoy the process of learning your distances. 

[woodzie264]

27 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I went to Chicago Public Schools so I have no idea if you need to keep track of N or not. I'd say let N do what ever the hell N wants to do, it's not your job to watch him. 

hahahahahahahahahahaha😄

[boogielicious]

16 hours ago, 3puttssuck said:

I just found out that for $150 you can hit balls at your local PGA Superstore, with a launch monitor, and all year  long.  Not bad.

After every session at PGA, you can get a report with all of the regular launch monitor data.  I take one club with me each time and I'm trying to really zero in on my carry distances.  I know that if you average averages, your data will be incorrect.  My question is, how incorrect?  Will I get close enough to trust that data, or do I need to keep track of N?

Thanks in advance - 

What you really want to do is map out shot zones for each club or every other club. A shot zone represents not only distance, but direction and will give you an oval shaped dispersion for that club. It is all summarized in the book, Lowest Score Wins. I really encourage you to get this book. It explains a lot more that I can in one post.

Knowing your dispersion helps you aim your shots to minimize hitting into area that would cause increased scores like, hazards or deep rough. It can be fun collecting data (I’m a retired engineer). Try to make it repeatable with the same warm up and data sets each time. And factor in fatigue as well. Hitting a lots of balls in a short time can be draining.

[3puttssuck]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

What you really want to do is map out shot zones for each club or every other club. A shot zone represents not only distance, but direction and will give you an oval shaped dispersion for that club. It is all summarized in the book, Lowest Score Wins. I really encourage you to get this book. It explains a lot more that I can in one post.

Knowing your dispersion helps you aim your shots to minimize hitting into area that would cause increased scores like, hazards or deep rough. It can be fun collecting data (I’m a retired engineer). Try to make it repeatable with the same warm up and data sets each time. And factor in fatigue as well. Hitting a lots of balls in a short time can be draining.

 Right.  The report generated after each session will allow me to create the shot zone, but I'm still curious about my original question.  After several months and I've hit potentially hundreds of shots with any given club, do I need to keep the data from each individual shot or can I just average the averages from each session?  How far off would the numbers be?  

[billchao]

5 minutes ago, 3puttssuck said:

How far off would the numbers be?  

Can’t really answer that because it depends on too many variables. If you’re consistent it might produce something that’s good enough to work, but if you’re topping a bunch of shots and those get factored into your session average, that’s not going to be as useful.

If you hit a 7i ten times, nine carry exactly 150 and once you topped it 10 yards, how far do you really hit your 7i, 150 or 136? Mapping shot zones is more than just averages.

[DaveP043]

10 minutes ago, 3puttssuck said:

 Right.  The report generated after each session will allow me to create the shot zone, but I'm still curious about my original question.  After several months and I've hit potentially hundreds of shots with any given club, do I need to keep the data from each individual shot or can I just average the averages from each session?  How far off would the numbers be?  

If you can get the data in a spreadsheet format, you could easily chart each point to develop the "Shot Zone" that @boogielicious talks about.  You could combine a number of sessions (with each club) that way.  You can develop a Zhot Zone with each club that you try.  A simple average could be a problem, unless you eliminate outliers, the shots you cold top or shank or whatever, your average will be substantially less than the center of that Shot Zone.  And of course @billchao beat me to it.

[boogielicious]

12 minutes ago, 3puttssuck said:

 Right.  The report generated after each session will allow me to create the shot zone, but I'm still curious about my original question.  After several months and I've hit potentially hundreds of shots with any given club, do I need to keep the data from each individual shot or can I just average the averages from each session?  How far off would the numbers be?  

In the book, @iacas discusses how to use you data. You essentially plot the data on an xy graph. Throw out outliers then draw an oval around it. This becomes your shot zone. Example: for me, my 8 iron ranges between 132 and 142 with longer shots left and shorter right. My zone is a left tilted oval. So I aim so that long left and short right are out of trouble.

[iacas]

Shot Zones don’t include all of your shots.

• Throw away any obvious mis-hits: shanks, tops, chunks.
• Depending on your skill level, throw away 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% of your worst shots.

That is what makes your Shot Zone. The center of your Shot Zone is your distance.

That’s how I’d do it.