Golfsmith swing vs. Golf course swing

[bunkerputt]

This is going to sound extremely weird, but it's something that I've noticed over the past couple of years. When I am at the range, and on the course, I load the club on my backswing, release it at the bottom, and finish without the club hitting the back of my neck with a full turn towards the left of the target. But when I hit golf balls at Golfsmith, I have a serious cast and recoil on my through swing. So much so that by the time I leave, the back of my neck is sore from the club hitting it so hard. I could swear I'm not swinging it any harder, I just CAN NOT make a decent golf swing at Golfsmith. The only thing I can imagine is that I'm stopping my body turn too early in the downswing causing my hands to whip around and the club to slap be in the back of the neck. But what's even wierder is that I hit the ball really well at Golf Galaxy. Has anyone else experienced something weird like this?

[PiKapp23]

I was getting a driver fitting a couple weeks ago on launch monitor at Golf Galaxy and was hitting like a total hack. The guy I was working with had to leave after about 20 minutes and sent another guy back to take his place. By the time that guy got there I was hitting great. The first guy had told the second guy that I should be looking at a draw biased driver, but then I started hitting my normal draws before the second guy got there. Mentally, there seems to be something different about being inside.

[flopdarock]

i think they "pad" the stats on their machines to sell more clubs... i seem to kill balls on the simulator and not on the course... plus i know for a fact i intentionally tried to slice the crap out of a few but the ball flight on the screen was a pretty looking fade

[wrx_junki]

I don't think the #'s are padded since I actually hit about the distances that it shows on the screen. Although my swing is a mess whenever I go test out clubs.

[uttexas]

that is weird. Is your Golfsmith practice area more restrictive (more nets, smaller turf area, etc) than Golfgalaxy. Is the plastic/rubber tee height different? Any really bad or really good customer service experiences at either store?

[shortstop20]

Maybe it's just becuase you're not loose and warmed up? I have that problem whenever I'm at Austad's. My body isn't loose so I'm just throwing my arms at the ball and that's it, until I get loose.

[bunkerputt]

that is weird. Is your Golfsmith practice area more restrictive (more nets, smaller turf area, etc) than Golfgalaxy. Is the plastic/rubber tee height different? Any really bad or really good customer service experiences at either store?

That's weird. It is generally a really bad experience at golfsmith. I've been approached several times and asked, "Umm, So, are you gonna buy anything?".

Regarding the padded launch monitor numbers, I get really wierd numbers at golfsmith. My six iron numbers are comparable (~190 yards) but my driver distances at golfsmith are around 220 compared to 290 at golf galaxy. I've always thought that was weird. I occasionally hit it in the 250 range if I get steep on my downswing, but that's due to distance loss through backspin. It's been quite some time since I've seen 220 yards come off my driver (a 40mph headwind at the range recently comes to mind). The six iron ball speed is something like 130 compared with 165 for the driver at golf galaxy. But my driver ball speeds are never much over 140. I once did a test of 6-iron, driver, 6-iron, driver and it was consistently 190, 220, 190, 220. I suspected the LM, but what's even weirder is that I've seen other guys with great swings pipe it 310 with driver on the same machine.