Are All Launch Monitors Equal?

Forbes

3 days ago

Full Swing launch monitor testing event
Most of the golfers I know like to know as much about their golf game as possible, in an attempt to improve. And that includes knowing data about their golf swing, such as swing speed, ball speed off of the clubface, their shot's carry distance, total distance, and much more. Because of that hunger, there are a slew of portable launch monitors on the market that you can buy – giving you all of the data you need at your disposal. Some of these products are tiny, inexpensive, and can even fit in your golf bag pocket. Others are slightly larger but still portable, pricier, and more substantial. Essentially they all work the same, though: You set them up by you on the range – or even on the course or in an indoor studio – and sync them up with a smartphone app or a computer, then start swinging away.Yesterday I attended an event put on by one such company, Full Swing, which makes an outstanding product called the Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor. They set up a range on a local soccer field near the company's San Diego headquarters, and had a pro hit shots that were recorded by its monitor and the two most popular competitor models from Trackman and Foresight Sports – just to see which was most accurate for distance recognition. To add control to the test, there were spotters standing out by the landing spots to manually mark exactly the carry and total distances, as well as the right-left ball dispersion. After each shot, the monitors would quickly spew out the data while the spotters radioed in their findings. It was all pretty interesting to watch, and well thought out. While many of the numbers were pretty close to each other, they did start varying a lot when the wind picked up.'The advantage with radar systems like ours is that they actually can track the ball position the whole way,' said one Full Swing representative. 'Camera systems snap a couple of pictures (upon impact and right afterwards) that do a good job of estimating and providing ball spin. And in wind, that estimating can be a little off in estimating short distances. And that can give bad carry numbers in some cases. We hang our hat that we'll tell you what your ball's going to do, given current conditions.'I can totally see the advantage to golfers using a launch monitor like this. Think about how much more accurate you can be if you know the exact carry and total distances of your irons – and precisely how much right or left you tend to hit each iron. You can make a much more educated decision on which club to use for an approach shot or on a par-3 tee box. If I'm stuck between hitting a hard 8-iron shot for instance, or an easy 7-iron, I might know that I tend to hit one or the other more solid. Maybe I tend to come up off an easy 7-iron and leave the ball short right. Knowing the carry distance alone is important because if you need to hit the ball to a back pin placement with no room behind the green, you're going to use the safer club choice if you know the carry distance. That way you won't hit it past the green. This knowledge may easily help you lower your scores by a couple of shots per round.I'm convinced that launch monitors would probably help a golfer's short game way more than the long game. In fact, the experts agree – adding that one yard difference from close in can mean missing or making a green. Whereas with a tee shot, one yard doesn't matter much. Plus, golfers will most likely hit a driver off the tee, on par-4 and par-5 holes – regardless of their tendencies. They just want to crush the ball for the most possible distance.Until now, I've always played instinctively on which club to use on a hole. This technology is making me re-think that strategy. As for yesterday's test? It showed that any high-end launch monitor can help your cause.