Do you trust launch monitors?

[TourSpoon]

Wow that's a lot. You can narrow it down by looking at options and recommendations about your swing speed, tempo, preferred ball flight etc. I have found that many "stock" shafts are marketed so that the average player can use them. Once you get beyond average, you need to get into a decent shaft. For instance, I am sure that I could probably use many shafts just fine, but I needed a low to mid launch with a low spin rate designed for someone who swings the driver at 105 mph. The NV65s fits that profile and when I tried it, it worked. I didn't try have to try 30 shafts, I just needed to narrow it down to find that one that works.

[Zeph]

Whatever you do, bring your own clubs and do some reference swings. If you normally hit the driver 230, and suddenly hit it 260 on the launch monitor, something is not right.

[sblack5]

agreed with what most people have said. go to the range and get a real feel for how you hit your go to club. like maybe a repeatable 150 yard club, and take that to the launch monitor.....if you hit it say 148-152 it is probably enough to give some good feedback.

[shortys408]

Ended up returning the Adams speedline fast 10 driver I demo'd. The extra inch of shaft did give me like 10 yards more distance, but a loss of control. This was very different than the launch monitor showing me hit it 30 yards further dead straight. Although during my round I did have one amazing drive that was about 30 yards if not more further. It was probably more or less the swing than the driver in this instance. So I took the driver back, and suddenly I was not hitting the new driver as far on the launch monitor as I did the other day. The sales person gave me a new burner driver to try out, and that driver was giving me the 270 yard drives, and of course was 300$. I am convinced this location manipulates the launch monitor to sell clubs.

[jamo]

  Zeph said:

Whatever you do, bring your own clubs and do some reference swings. If you normally hit the driver 230, and suddenly hit it 260 on the launch monitor, something is not right.

+1. Definitely do this. Compare apples to apple.

[sean_miller]

  DarkPrince said:

I wish someone wouldve told me that :( I'm pretty sure I hit my old Cobra SS 380 better/further :(

If someone specifically suggested a driver (or pair of golf shoes?!?) to me that cost substantially more than what I was initially looking to spend, they'd risk losing me as a customer for life.

[DarkPrince]

Well, it wasn't necessarily that they said "try this one!" and I did, it was more I came in with an idea of a few I wanted to try, and in in higher lofts and whatnot than my old driver. Pretty quickly they said I definitely needed stiff (which I thought but hey, most of us have ego complexes when it comes to flex :P), and apparently going up in loft didn't help me so we stuck to the 9/9.5's Eventually they said the Cobra S2 was the better of them all since my spin rate dropped nearly 1,000 with it compared to the VR Str8 Fit, and blah bla blah. Part of me was saying just don't buy anything that day, but the other part was just hoping it was the right one. It's hard to have confidence in something that you didn't have even when you bought it lol, learned that the hard way.

I went to trade it in yesterday at a more...honest small family owned shop that I like to go to, and the guy just had me hit a few with the current one to see if it was the driver or shaft or both. He just tells me to do two small tweaks and I'm blasting it again, but it almost feels like too little too late. Someone in another thread joked about how the second you think about getting a new putter it's time to replace the old one since the idea is stuck in your mind lol. My issue is I just found out the trade-in dropped all the way down to $75 for my driver, and since my swing is the best it's been all year I figured if I trade in now while I can hit well, maybe I'll find one that actually fits me, fits my eye, and feels good. I feel stupid for driving 45 minutes to the place and not at least trying some other drivers, but w/e. I may go back there again some time since they have an outdoor range and a trackman for help with fittings.

[TourSpoon]

I just went today to see the Titleist D2 and the Cally FT-9. I just couldn't get past the looks. The sales guy asked me my numbers, what kind of shaft I have, and then said that neither product would outperform my current set-up. I didn't even hit one club and saved a ton.

[jamo]

  TourSpoon said:

I just went today to see the Titleist D2 and the Cally FT-9. I just couldn't get past the looks. The sales guy asked me my numbers, what kind of shaft I have, and then said that neither product would outperform my current set-up. I didn't even hit one club and saved a ton.

It's great that they were honest with you.

[ks8829]

If you hit the store driver and then switch to your own driver with alternate shots if would be difficult to manipulate with the launch monitor give false readings is my thought.

[dreamingduffer]

I personally own a FlightScope launch monitor and tried out a Trackman before buying the FlightScope. The Trackman was $25k plus while the FlightScope was $10k and both use dopler radar technology. The feedback I get from both of these is at least 95% accurate. I would be suprised if someone would consistently get inaccurate results from either one of these launch monitors. I also tested some other cheaper launch monitors but I felt they gave poor feedback and/or inaccurate results.

[TourSpoon]

  jamo said:

It's great that they were honest with you.

It's been twice now...I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[jswaykos]

I was just at Golfsmith yesterday swinging some drivers, and the distances seemed to be WAY off, in a bad way. My drives were averaging 170-210. I'm not the longest driver in the world, but I KNOW I hit it further than that! Direction seemed to be somewhat true to what I normally get. Also tried a 6 iron for comparison and that was also short by a fair amount. Was registering 140ish, and that's what I hit my 8 iron. So after that experience I've chalked launch monitors (at least at that particular store) up as being a fun toy, nothing more. Better than just hitting into a net, I guess, where you'd never actually know how well you were hitting the ball. I've missed many a fairway on swings that felt good.

[Scott_K]

I've found it depends when you go to golfsmith and what they're using. The one by me uses a vectorx or something like that. It sells for roughly $3K. I've tried it when it was freshly "calibrated" and other times when it's been way off the mark. Some of the numbers like the ball speed, launch angle, clubhead speed, etc. I was told that the yardarges can be off by 20-30 yards and I believe that with what I see on the course.

As mentioned above, the flightscope and trackman are known to be a lot more accurate. You get what you pay for. I'd love to get time on a trackman just to see my numbers.

[jswaykos]

  Scott_K said:

I've found it depends when you go to golfsmith and what they're using. The one by me uses a vectorx or something like that. It sells for roughly $3K. I've tried it when it was freshly "calibrated" and other times when it's been way off the mark. Some of the numbers like the ball speed, launch angle, clubhead speed, etc. I was told that the yardarges can be off by 20-30 yards and I believe that with what I see on the course.

I'd believe that it was off by about 30-35 yards. I was with my dad, and his shots were all approx 30 yards shorter than mine, which is about right. For $3K, it'd be a fun toy to have in the basement! Of course, I'd need to come up with $3,000, first. :(

[Clambake]

  jswaykos said:

I'd believe that it was off by about 30-35 yards. I was with my dad, and his shots were all approx 30 yards shorter than mine, which is about right. For $3K, it'd be a fun toy to have in the basement! Of course, I'd need to come up with $3,000, first. :(

A toy would be nice, but for that kind of money you can have 30-40 hour long sessions with a really good pro, and you'd not only have your full-swing game more dialed in (exceeding what you can teach yourself from the monitor) but also make big improvements in your short game. I expect the difference in your game for the same money would be dramatic! And the extra upside is that the pro would really know your swing and learning personality well, so any fixes in the future would be a lot easier. [but I would still like the toy too

]

[Bluenoser67]

To the Original Question I reply

No

[Comeback]

  sean_miller said:

If someone specifically suggested a driver (or pair of golf shoes?!?) to me that cost substantially more than what I was initially looking to spend, they'd risk losing me as a customer for life.

I went to Golf Galaxy last week looking for a driver so i was trying out a few and an employee told me to try a different driver and it was amazing, i looked down at the price and it was 100 dollars cheaper than the drivers i was looking at. I was suprised and happy that the employee talked me into a cheaper driver. Then he told me they dont work on comision and he was just trying to get a good fit for me.