Got to try Trackman the Game

[kfowler]

One of my local driving ranges, Miles of Golf in Ypsi, MI, just got Trackman The Game installed in several of their hitting bays. They were offering free 30 minutes to try it out. Visit MyTrackman.com to see all the details. You have to purchase the range balls separately. Here's my experience.

The hitting looks like any other bay except it has a flat screen monitor facing you at address. Out in the range there were five marked targets from 1-5 at varying distances. There was also two large poles that's supposed to designate the edge of a fairway for drives.

You set up your user name and password either on-line or at the hitting bay. Once logged on, you have three options to try.

1.) First is shot analysis. The idea here is to keep track of your shots at a target during practice. You can see the effect of different swing thoughts on the ball flight. Since it keeps your historical data, you can also compare your progress over time. I did not try this option.

2.) Second was the game utility. There's a bunch of types of games you can play. Most revolved around hitting three shots at a target and then being scored on how close you were. For driver, you try to get as close to the middle between the two large poles. Scores are +/- par. (Eagle, Birdie, etc) I was told it's pretty hard and the best score there had been +5 on 18. This looked fun but I did not try this option either.

3.) Third is the club compare. This is the one I did try. You hit however many swings you want to the center (#5 target). It tracks all the data for each swing. You also see your ball flight from a horizontal and vertical perspective. If you shank a shot, you can easily delete the last swing. Once finished, you select Club 2 and repeat the process.

I compared my own Cleveland CG Golds to a Mizuno MP57 and MP62. All were 6i. The Trackman gives you tons of stats. Some of them I have no idea how to use. When you're finished, it gives you a summary of distance and accuracy for each club with a check mark next to the best club in each category.

If you're at all into gadgets, which I am, you'll think the Trackman is the coolest thing in the world. It's very accurate with the only difference being the loss of yards from using range balls. They said it's about 8 yards for a driver and 1 yard for a wedge. I only had a yard difference distance wise between the three clubs. However, my dispersion was much less with my CG Golds compared to the Mizuno's. Seeing the dispersion was really sobering. Also being able to see the difference in distance from one shot to the next was really cool.

Another tid bit the shop was interested in is the affect of cold on the ball during Michigan winters. The range actually heats all their balls and surmised that your distance should be similar to optimal playing conditions even in the winter. The Trackman will give them the opportunity to test this.

Overall, I'd love to use one of these things every time. However, cost could be prohibitive. It's basically $20 for 60 minutes. Price varies if you buy less or more time. Add range balls on top of that and you're looking at $30 per session. Ouch! That being said it's great for trying out different clubs, evaluating swing thoughts and establishing the distances of your clubs. One thing I would like would be the ability to change names of clubs in the application. Instead of "Club 1" you could enter the actual club name. I'd also like to be able to download the data to an Excel file. I certainly plan on trying it again. It'll be great for these long Michigan winters.

[deronsizemore]

Very cool! I've hit inside using the Trackman, but never any of the games. Didn't know they existed. Trackman is really great technology. Wish it wasn't so expensive to use ($50 here).

I found the PGA tour averages interesting: http://www.mytrackman.com/TrackMan.O...GANumbers.html