Protracer Range

[PJCdude]

http://www.protracer.se/experience/protracer-range/works/

 

So I was up visiting the in-laws in the Albany area. Had a spare hour, took my backup bag to the Northway Golf Center, exit 8 off I-87. Apparently they just hooked up protracer range. It was awesome. It's basically like a simulator but you get to watch your ball flight as well. Anyone else get a chance to try this? I didn't mess around looking at stats on the range since these weren't my usual clubs but the virtual courses were fun.

[klineka]

That looks awesome! I hope that sooner or later all driving ranges will have that technology built into them. 

Was it more expensive than a regular bucket of balls?

Edited February 21, 2017 by klineka

[iacas]

That looks nifty, but… it's only really going to be an option for awhile in some high-end places, I'm wagering.

If it's a full range, you can of course see your ball flight. So the tracer itself is probably not that important, right? The points and games are another thing, kinda TopGolf-like.

[PJCdude]

  On 2/21/2017 at 2:15 PM, iacas said:

That looks nifty, but… it's only really going to be an option for awhile in some high-end places, I'm wagering.

If it's a full range, you can of course see your ball flight. So the tracer itself is probably not that important, right? The points and games are another thing, kinda TopGolf-like.

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The place I was at is not a dump by any means but I wouldn't call it high end. However, they only had 5 bays equipped with it so I see your point iacas. I will say, I was expecting a ton of bugs and the system was great. Only caveat is that it doesn't really pickup shots that are less than 40 yards so instead of chipping and putting, you just aim at a target and how close you get determines your short game strokes for that hole. Chipping and putting is always dicey on simulators but at least I groved my 93 yard choked down gap wedge shot.

[DutchLeon]

My golf club here in The Netherlands (Amsteldijk) has brilliant training facilities, including protracers at around 10-12 bays at the range. I love the system. It gives you instant feedback on your shots and makes you understand the dynamics in swing changes. You'll need a little bit of understanding about what is being measured though (with which my pro helps me). For example, I found that if I increase my swing speed with my driver, I generally lose some launch angle, resulting in a very little distance gain at the moment. For me it has brought me the understanding that an 80% drive that I can keep in play 90% of the time only results in about a 10-15 yard distance loss as opposed to swinging with a higher speed and less accuracy. So on the course, the choice for my 80% drive is obvious until I figure out how to increase speed and not decrease launch angle. Very useful system.

[b101]

It's the launch angle that I've found most useful with the driver - it adds in 'normalised' distances for your shots, but it's still hard to tell how accurate that is with range balls. That said, I find the ranges I've seen with protracer really helpful for gauging distances for stock shots. Certainly better than just thinking 'yeah, that landed near the 150'...

[Shark9]

My local range has pro tracer.

Is nice and seems very accurate. Very handy on days like today when the sky was really grey, I was losing the flight on most my shots so would not have known where they had gone.

[cutchemist42]

My outdoor range in the winter has really bad snow glare, so I honestly only ever see 25% maybe of my full ball flights. Does seem like an interesting thing to have just to assess how well you're htting those ranges between the 100/150/200/250 markers on a range, or visibility is poor.

[sirsteveo55]

I think this is really cool, I wish a range around where I lived had something like that. I am not sure how much more I am willing to pay to use it though. Most of the ranges I have been to. Its not flat and there is not accurate distance markers. Its hard for me to tell where my ball lands sometimes and hard to get a good distance so this would be a good tool for those kind of ranges.