To Trackman or Not To Trackman?

[HitAndGiggle]

I'm curious about something and soliciting opinions here from those who've gotten a club fitting with this technology. I am due to get a fitting for a driver/woods next week. It's at the big golf supershop/course for this region. In getting the fitting I have the option of them using the Trackman for about an extra $100. Seems steep to me. Or, I can just use the fitter's expertise and eyeballs. What are your opinions on this? Thanks...

[iacas]

It's indoors?

It's a ripoff, to charge $100 for that, but if it's indoors it's also bullcrap if they don't use it.

How much is this fitting costing you?

Even outdoors, if they have a fitting and a Trackman is available, I don't understand not using it. There are plenty of things you can't "see" well enough to get a good fitting. $100 on top of the fitting fee is a ripoff regardless, IMO.

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, HitAndGiggle said:

In getting the fitting I have the option of them using the Trackman for about an extra $100. Seems steep to me. Or, I can just use the fitter's expertise and eyeballs. What are your opinions on this? Thanks...

I agree it is a rip off. There is no accurate way to fit a golfer to a golf club with out the us of a good launch monitor. Charging $100 extra for the use one is a rip off. 

[No Mulligans]

I must be lucky, around here from time to time (maybe every couple of months) a manufacturer sponsers a fitting with Trackman and it's free.  And I'm not being helped by a random store employee, it has been a trained in fitting employee from Callaway.

I've done it a couple of times, didn't buy the clubs on the spot, mulled it over for a while.  I take my own clubs and do a side by side test with the Trackman.  The drawback is you only get test clubs from a single manufacturer.

[HitAndGiggle]

My teacher (different course) today said to get fitted for a driver with the use of trackman is a good idea. 

[Denny Bang Bang]

@HitAndGiggle I've never had to pay for a fitting, and have had a several over the years.  All but one included launch monitors during the process, and the one that didn't was at an outdoor range/club shop.

[Typhoon92]

Yeah, that's BS charging u extra for Trackman.  Go look in Golf Digest top 100 fitters and find someone near u.  Getting fit by some box store...God knows what your getting...unless you know the guy, that's different.

 

Trackman isn't good inside.  I know it needs alot if room to be accurate but it's still poor.  GC2 indoors is good.  Trackman outside would be fine.

 

But seriously, don't get fit at Kmart...I mean Dicks or something.

[HitAndGiggle]

31 minutes ago, Typhoon92 said:

Yeah, that's BS charging u extra for Trackman.  Go look in Golf Digest top 100 fitters and find someone near u.  Getting fit by some box store...God knows what your getting...unless you know the guy, that's different.

 

Trackman isn't good inside.  I know it needs alot if room to be accurate but it's still poor.  GC2 indoors is good.  Trackman outside would be fine.

 

But seriously, don't get fit at Kmart...I mean Dicks or something.

Yeah, that's funny. After my lesson today I sat in the clubhouse with my boy having lunch while flipping through a Golf Digest with that list of top 100 fitters and where I'm going is on the list - Haggin Oaks. Great place to shop. got my putter and bag there over the past year. Their range has the auto-tee-up machines and my boy loves them. The range it lit and open all night in the warmer months - making it a great place to meet fellow beer-drinking golf geeks - haha. 

[Typhoon92]

Excellent!

[HitAndGiggle]

Had my fitting today. Ended up sticking with my RBZ driver. Very interesting process. 

[dennyjones]

5 minutes ago, HitAndGiggle said:

Had my fitting today. Ended up sticking with my RBZ driver. Very interesting process. 

Do tell.   How was your experience?

[Hacker James]

To buy a Trackman is a bit pricey I understand. There is a guy here in San Diego who claims he was the first to own one and would take it to Mission Bay and charge people something like $200 for a half hour as I recall.  He would get a little defensive if anyone questioned his expertise. I can not say, as I do not know hardly anything about them, but in reading articles and posts from other instructors who use Trackman, I would question the San Diego guy's expertise as he seemed to differ somewhat from what others were saying.  I really do not know. I believe he said he paid over $10,000 but that would have been several years ago.  Then there is Joe Mayo at TPC in Las Vegas, whose moniker is "Trackman Maestro".

[HitAndGiggle]

1 hour ago, dennyjones said:

Do tell.   How was your experience?

They will email me the numbers and I'll certainly go over that a little here once I get them. I must have hit 400 drives with that thing today. Most drives I've ever hit in a day, for sure. A few interesting details from the session: If I remember correctly, I fly my driver in a range of 210 to 240, this with range balls. I actually didn't have an idea of how far I hit the club as I recently changed my swing and, given our weather out here, I've not been able to play on the course. I've pretty much eliminated the slice that haunted me the first 15 years I played, by my better shots are a high baby slice. My average drive seems to end up about 10 yards left of where I'm aiming - the blob of data is an ellipse that's short center to long-left. I need to continue to work more on my swing. I'm tending to hit down on the ball with some outside-in path. Just recently my coach started having me tee it higher and I need to get more comfortable with that. My driver shots have very low spin, with many under 2000 rpm. So, if I can get the launch up more that will be nice. I don't remember many of the specific numbers but the smash factor, which was up around 1.5. Will go over the numbers here when I get them and I'll welcome suggestions on them. I'm sure the fitter is "encouraged" by management to sell product. And, she did run me through many clubs. The Sub Zero was a little low. The Epic heads looked a little small to my eye. The new Ping was probably the longest club I hit today, and the XR16 performed very well, too. We tried many different shafts. Anything not stiff and/or with stiff tip curved left - and felt a little wobbly.

In the end, my choice was to keep my driver, which was in the top couple I hit for me, or spend at least a few hundred $ to gain an average 5 or 6 yards. It's clear the most improvement will come from me improving my swing. My current RBZ driver that's a few years old is a dang good driver. 

Edited February 18, 2017 by HitAndGiggle

[Typhoon92]

I had an RBZ Tour for a couple years before it cracked.  Loved the way it set up and performed.

Good move sticking with it for now.  Maybe after the swing changes settle in you can try another fitting.  FWIW, I didn't find the Epic anything earth shattering.  I picked up the m1 and M2 that I got fitted for AND saved money.

The only people raving about the Epic and SZ are the forum testers who will never utter a bad word when testing a club anyway... I know some average Joes that are dumping theirs.

[Divotmaker77]

IMO, you should never get fitted without a good simulator system (Trackman, Flightscope, GC2, etc).  Also, I am not a believer in getting fitted in an indoor sim. I know most places do it and there are some really good fitters who do it that way only.  Again, JMO, you cannot see the actual ball flight in an indoor sim setting and hitting off a mat is easier to do.  Much prefer being fitted at a range and hitting off of the grass to get the most accurate results.  

Speaking of the RBZ, friend of mine who hits the ball a mile and accurately still plays with that driver.  Won't change until it breaks.  Was and still is a great driver from TM.

Agree on the Epic.  Some will disagree, but I remember hearing about this revolutionary technology (Jailbreak) back in the fall and its frankly more marketing hype.  Have tried out the new M1, M2, Epic and others and frankly the performance is nothing earth shattering compared to last year's models.  No doubt, great drivers and if you have to money to spend then by all means get one, but if your current driver is performing well then I do not see any reason to get a new one.

[HitAndGiggle]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 2:04 PM, Typhoon92 said:

I had an RBZ Tour for a couple years before it cracked.  Loved the way it set up and performed.

Good move sticking with it for now.  Maybe after the swing changes settle in you can try another fitting.  FWIW, I didn't find the Epic anything earth shattering.  I picked up the m1 and M2 that I got fitted for AND saved money.

The only people raving about the Epic and SZ are the forum testers who will never utter a bad word when testing a club anyway... I know some average Joes that are dumping theirs.

Yeah, the new Taylormade models I swung felt pretty nice and performed very well.

[Typhoon92]

On 2/28/2017 at 6:10 PM, HitAndGiggle said:

Yeah, the new Taylormade models I swung felt pretty nice and performed very well.

Actually, save some money and get last year's M2...I got fitted for that.  It's better than this years.  Last year's M1 I have as well and love it...on the M1 I hear this years is more forgiving but that is about the only positive I've heard about the 2017.

 

Last year..save money!

[proto]

the fitting place where i got fitted last week, if your wanting to use their trackman and not buy any clubs. it's like 100-200 just to use it. if you end up buying clubs from them then fitting is free. if they are not using a trackman, gc2 know what your average yardage is because the simulators that aren't trackman or gc2 will give you a extra 20-30ys. my brother went to dicks just to hit some new irons and he said with the one length cobra irons he was hitting a 5i 236y and he said he hit a stinger with the driver and he said his carry was like 300+ he laughed and told the guy the simulator has to be off but the guy said no its very accurate, which we know it's not at all. if i was you, id get fitted outside off the grass so you can get the real data like you would be if your playing on a course. if it's not a trackman or gc2 id make sure your not getting extra 30y that you know isn't true data