Trackman, Is that really accurate?

[glllambo]

My coach has a "Trackman" device". I tried it couple times, seen good but don't know about every shot that is accurated. Sometime the driving range is so windy so my ball goes farther? Or pushed it to the right/left by the wind.

My coach only rely on the "Trackman" report. Should I 100% trust on the report? It also tell me the spin rate, lauched angle, club path, attach angle, face angle,,,,,,ect

Overall is a amazing technology for golf industry.

[DavidFehertysBike]

How did the ball look and feel to you? Im sure thats more important than what some robot says..

[Doctorfro]

It's basically doppler radar. Should be pretty accurate.

[jorruss]

The trackman radar is very accurate, up to 400 yards. It's also accurate to 1 foot at 100 yards for measuring landing points.

The problem with it is that most people don't want to accept the fact that they don't hit it as far as they think.

[klaymon]

The problem with it is that most people don't want to accept the fact that they don't hit it as far as they think.

Isn't that the truth. My father-in-law was amazed at how short my drives really were when I showed him the readout on my GPS.

[BallStriker]

The problem with it is that most people don't want to accept the fact that they don't hit it as far as they think.

LOL....this is true for the pros as well....how many of those 305 yard drives have about 40 yards of roll from those nice firm fairways....and all seem to claim 290 of "carry"

[TN94z]

LOL....this is true for the pros as well....how many of those 305 yard drives have about 40 yards of roll from those nice firm fairways....and all seem to claim 290 of "carry"

Although, I have seen the tracman results from the pro drives that have 290 yards of carry

[glllambo]

The trackman radar is very accurate, up to 400 yards. It's also accurate to 1 foot at 100 yards for measuring landing points.

You are so right!

Trackman mesured my driver distance avg. 273 yard. I always think my driving distance were over 285 yard avg. I guess I was wrong

[deronsizemore]

The trackman is pretty accurate. When I was on it, it basically confirmed everything I had previously measured with my rangefinder for driver distances.

[buddhabob]

I have heard they have different settings on the Tour for Trackman than for amateurs and the public. They measure club speed off the toe for the stars on t.v.  The rest are measured off the heel or mid face. If you think about it this helps to move product and sell new drivers every year because it makes the public feel that much slower. If I watch a guy on t.v. hit something that is in the air for 7-7.5 seconds and they regularly claim a 310- 325 yard carry than I know they are juicing the numbers to create drama and ratings. Anybody hitting at a range or on a course and carrying 8 seconds is hitting bombs but seldom will they read out to farther  than 300-310.

[Lihu]

I have heard they have different settings on the Tour for Trackman than for amateurs and the public. They measure club speed off the toe for the stars on t.v.  The rest are measured off the heel or mid face. If you think about it this helps to move product and sell new drivers every year because it makes the public feel that much slower. If I watch a guy on t.v. hit something that is in the air for 7-7.5 seconds and they regularly claim a 310- 325 yard carry than I know they are juicing the numbers to create drama and ratings. Anybody hitting at a range or on a course and carrying 8 seconds is hitting bombs but seldom will they read out to farther  than 300-310.

Given your handicap, I would guess that you probably are almost as fast as many of the tour players. The issue with using air time, is that balls hit with different initial velocities could have the same hang time. If there is a slight headwind it could hang in the air longer and go less distance.

Do your readings indicate an error from the Trakman? Do you have good correlation between your actual course distances and Trakman numbers for similar conditions?

[Spitfisher]

The trackman and other Launch monitors computes data and analysis based on phased array Doppler radar & proprietary optical systems, from the moment of impact to about4-5 feet feet from the tee, once the ball is gone from that window it is no longer tracked. Instead highly sophisticated software further calculates what the ball will do based on spin, velocity, smash factor, compression etc

so how does it know the final distance, well it also calculates decent angle and spin RPM degradation. Most pros now are looking for maximum carry with less than 42 degrees of decent angle with the least amount of spin. Somewhere in the 32-38 degree is ideal. Too steep say 50 degress the ball basically plugs or rolls a few yards, too low of angle your carry distance is severely impacted, yeah your roll distance might be 25-30 yards but carry distance is 50 yards less too.

The GUI interface allows for the consumer and pro to SEE the ball flight based on these calculations measured from the tee to a few feet after impact.

[iacas]

The trackman and other Launch monitors computes data and analysis based on phased array Doppler radar & proprietary optical systems, from the moment of impact to about4-5 feet feet from the tee, once the ball is gone from that window it is no longer tracked. Instead highly sophisticated software further calculates what the ball will do based on spin, velocity, smash factor, compression etc

I'm almost positive that's not correct. I'll get an answer hopefully within a few hours.

Additionally, they can "track" the clubhead prior to impact as well.

[iacas]

I'm almost positive that's not correct. I'll get an answer hopefully within a few hours.

@Spitfisher - I was correct - they can track much more than 4-5 feet, up to the entire ball flight. They will extrapolate if the data becomes unavailable (I once saw two balls collide - it extrapolated from there - or a student steps in front of the radar, etc.).

There are two ways to see how long it tracks.

1. The color of the line changes (if the setting is enabled) when it goes from measuring to extrapolating.
2. You can look at the raw data (well, as raw as they'll show you), which will show you something like this:

Even the shortest distance on there - 178 yards - is quite a bit farther out than 4-5 feet.

These are true on both FlightScope and TrackMan.

[Lihu]

. . . They will extrapolate if the data becomes unavailable (I once saw two balls collide - it extrapolated from there - or a student steps in front of the radar, etc.). . .

I bet that doesn't happen very often.

[dsc123]

@Spitfisher - I was correct - they can track much more than 4-5 feet, up to the entire ball flight. They will extrapolate if the data becomes unavailable (I once saw two balls collide - it extrapolated from there - or a student steps in front of the radar, etc.).

There are two ways to see how long it tracks.

The color of the line changes (if the setting is enabled) when it goes from measuring to extrapolating.

You can look at the raw data (well, as raw as they'll show you), which will show you something like this:

Even the shortest distance on there - 178 yards - is quite a bit farther out than 4-5 feet.

These are true on both FlightScope and TrackMan.

I never would have guessed this.  Always assumed, probably since it can extrapolate in a studio, that it always does so.  I think this makes it even more impressive.

[iacas]

I never would have guessed this.  Always assumed, probably since it can extrapolate in a studio, that it always does so.  I think this makes it even more impressive.

After all, FlightScope (EDH) got their start tracking missiles and things. A missile that's a few hundred miles away is smaller than a golf ball that's a few hundred yards away.

[Spitfisher]

4-5 feet

I am going on what my training was with flight scope, I heard it first hand from the trainer- unless he was wrong. I used both systems most recently flight scopes 100s maybe even 1000s of fitting sessions. In that time I have never seen two balls collide where it impacted the data so far down range. But I have seen golf balls slice, block, hook or fade into a net running parallel to the driving range, never once did I see any indication of a change of ball flight on the gui interface or data. The same goes for trees and yardage bill board signs on the range. I have seen drives at 3 degrees of launch hit the 150 yard bill board dead on, yet the launch monitor still showed it rolled to 200yards.

The numbers you supplied can be hard crunched calculations based on launch, spin velocity etc. Trackman nor flightscope are no simple radar only devices like what the police use, but they use a multitude of sonar, radar and advanced algorithms and mathematical calculations. A vast majority of these flightscopes are used indoors, especially here in the northeast.