Launch monitors/screens - do you trust them?

JD LowIndex
Go to Last Reply 202 Views 12 Replies 0 Likes
I am just curious how accurate people's experience is w/ the monitors set up at golf retail outlets to test new clubs. Seems hit or miss. I am replacing my driver and recently got the 913d2, and put my UST Mamiya VTS shaft in it. I have been eyeing the SLDR 430 tho too. Anyhow, I hit the SLDR 430 (300-305 avg), and the 913d (290-297 avg) on the monitor the other day and decided to go w/ titleist d2 because it was consistently straighter, though shorter. I went to another shop today because i really like the look of the d3 over d2 so was hitting the ball and it was all over the place, from 260-280, but w/ a big pull draw. I know i really should hit them on a real range, but w/ all courses closed around here cuz of 18" of snow, I'm worried I made the wrong choice. Just curious how much stock you put into the monitors/screens at golf retail outlets? (I know I should prob just wait til the spring to get a club, but the winter does this to me, i feel i need to replace/upgrade stuff... LL escaped the cold, he can play year round, so the collecting has ceased for the time being. I, unfortunately, still live in snow covered Massachusetts...)
LyinLewis Legend
# 1 1/5/2014 4:16:31 PM
Yes to a point. It really depends on the monitor but all of them have there pros and cons. My old country club had the best monitors for irons and woods. It not only had the lasers capturing speed and angle but they had the overhead lasers which captured the club head at impact and path. That being said for some reason it stunk for wedge shots...ALWAYS COMING UP SHORT OF MY DISTANCES. On the flip side the public course had 4 monitors and these were your common ones that you see in most simulators. They do not capture the path or the impact but rather the direction the ball travels between the two lasers. It was very good for most distances...but you could cheat. If you wanted to hit a cut you just had to aim left of the target. Overall if I was working on my swing I would want the overhead monitor, but for playing for fun I would take the simulator.
armygrunt47 Professional Champion
# 2 1/5/2014 4:27:38 PM
I have found that if you go to a place that uses the monitor for selling equipment they juice up the yardages by about percent. If they are used primarily for fitting then they are usually pretty close.
JD LowIndex
# 3 1/5/2014 4:28:11 PM
Yes to a point. It really depends on the monitor but all of them have there pros and cons. My old country club had the best monitors for irons and woods. It not only had the lasers capturing speed and angle but they had the overhead lasers which captured the club head at impact and path. That being said for some reason it stunk for wedge shots...ALWAYS COMING UP SHORT OF MY DISTANCES. On the flip side the public course had 4 monitors and these were your common ones that you see in most simulators. They do not capture the path or the impact but rather the direction the ball travels between the two lasers. It was very good for most distances...but you could cheat. If you wanted to hit a cut you just had to aim left of the target. Overall if I was working on my swing I would want the overhead monitor, but for playing for fun I would take the simulator. Thanks Connor, yeah, the overhead monitor is the one I had used first, the second one that got into my head was just the simulator w/ the laser on the ground. Point taken, I may have to go back to the original place and hit some more to reconfirm. I hadn't thought of the difference between the overhead vs. side simulator. Thanks for the thoughts and info, much appreciated.
Vincedaddy Legend
# 4 1/5/2014 4:32:56 PM
Hit a few bad shots on purpose and see how the machine reacts. That should give you some insight to it's honesty. Good luck!
OtterMan08 Legend
# 5 1/5/2014 5:39:53 PM
Hit a few bad shots on purpose and see how the machine reacts. That should give you some insight to it's honesty. Good luck! Yeah, that's what I go with too... I did that on purpose! I don't know if I would put any faith in the yardages themselves, but it's a good way to check one club against another. I think it's also better than hitting at a demo day using range balls.
Don Freeman Professional Champion
# 6 1/5/2014 7:22:38 PM
I say its apples to apples. Don't compare one store's monitor to another. Compare your current clubs to the store's clubs on the same monitor. thats what I did. you know your swing, and if you are any good you should be able to tell before you look up how you hit the ball. Golf Galaxy has never stopped me from comparing my 7 iron to theirs, or my driver to theirs. As a matter of fact last time I was there, it was because I just had attended an outdoor demo day for Taylormade, and fell in love with the SLDR. I went the next day to G.G. and took my driver to compare. Both distance and accuracy were virtually the same. so the salesman told me if it were him, he wouldn't spend $500 for a new driver to gain nothing. that went a long way for me.
HOGAN418 Professional Champion
# 7 1/10/2014 11:59:06 AM
Mostly.. no.. unless outdoors..most of them get skewed on left handers.. this has been my experience..
kirk goings Amateur
# 8 1/15/2014 3:21:11 PM
Every LM that I have used has always said that I had a terrible slice. And when I actually goto the range or play I rarely slice. I don't know if its how I am lining up to the LM. But I have stopped using them for any reason.
armygrunt47 Professional Champion
# 9 1/15/2014 4:09:43 PM
Every LM that I have used has always said that I had a terrible slice. And when I actually goto the range or play I rarely slice. I don't know if its how I am lining up to the LM. But I have stopped using them for any reason. One of the guys that I play with went and got fitted for a SLDR a few weeks ago. The launch monitor said that he was hitting it 300+ and straight down the line. He got to the course and has hit a hard slice that has not went more then 230 almost every single time that he has used it.
Vincedaddy Legend
# 10 1/16/2014 9:31:47 PM
My club fitter played with the altitude, humidity, and temp settings with me. Some drives over 300 others under 200 with the same swing.
armygrunt47 Professional Champion
# 11 1/16/2014 9:43:48 PM
My club fitter played with the altitude, humidity, and temp settings with me. Some drives over 300 others under 200 with the same swing. Those things have more effect than most people think. A cold day here can show almost a two club difference. Throw in some damp air and it is two full clubs.
Vincedaddy Legend
# 12 1/16/2014 11:11:06 PM
I considered going to dicks with my cold weather gear. Wondering how much different my swing speeds would be with and without all of those layers. Maybe get 5 with and 5 without and look at the data.

JD

LowIndex

Go to Last Reply

202 Views 12 Replies 0 Likes

I am just curious how accurate people's experience is w/ the monitors set up at golf retail outlets to test new clubs. Seems hit or miss. I am replacing my driver and recently got the 913d2, and put my UST Mamiya VTS shaft in it. I have been eyeing the SLDR 430 tho too. Anyhow, I hit the SLDR 430 (300-305 avg), and the 913d (290-297 avg) on the monitor the other day and decided to go w/ titleist d2 because it was consistently straighter, though shorter. I went to another shop today because i really like the look of the d3 over d2 so was hitting the ball and it was all over the place, from 260-280, but w/ a big pull draw. I know i really should hit them on a real range, but w/ all courses closed around here cuz of 18" of snow, I'm worried I made the wrong choice.

Just curious how much stock you put into the monitors/screens at golf retail outlets?

(I know I should prob just wait til the spring to get a club, but the winter does this to me, i feel i need to replace/upgrade stuff... LL escaped the cold, he can play year round, so the collecting has ceased for the time being. I, unfortunately, still live in snow covered Massachusetts...)

LyinLewis

Legend

# 1 1/5/2014 4:16:31 PM

Yes to a point. It really depends on the monitor but all of them have there pros and cons. My old country club had the best monitors for irons and woods. It not only had the lasers capturing speed and angle but they had the overhead lasers which captured the club head at impact and path. That being said for some reason it stunk for wedge shots...ALWAYS COMING UP SHORT OF MY DISTANCES.

On the flip side the public course had 4 monitors and these were your common ones that you see in most simulators. They do not capture the path or the impact but rather the direction the ball travels between the two lasers. It was very good for most distances...but you could cheat. If you wanted to hit a cut you just had to aim left of the target.

Overall if I was working on my swing I would want the overhead monitor, but for playing for fun I would take the simulator.

armygrunt47

Professional Champion

# 2 1/5/2014 4:27:38 PM

I have found that if you go to a place that uses the monitor for selling equipment they juice up the yardages by about percent. If they are used primarily for fitting then they are usually pretty close.

JD

LowIndex

# 3 1/5/2014 4:28:11 PM

Yes to a point. It really depends on the monitor but all of them have there pros and cons. My old country club had the best monitors for irons and woods. It not only had the lasers capturing speed and angle but they had the overhead lasers which captured the club head at impact and path. That being said for some reason it stunk for wedge shots...ALWAYS COMING UP SHORT OF MY DISTANCES.

On the flip side the public course had 4 monitors and these were your common ones that you see in most simulators. They do not capture the path or the impact but rather the direction the ball travels between the two lasers. It was very good for most distances...but you could cheat. If you wanted to hit a cut you just had to aim left of the target.

Overall if I was working on my swing I would want the overhead monitor, but for playing for fun I would take the simulator.

Thanks Connor, yeah, the overhead monitor is the one I had used first, the second one that got into my head was just the simulator w/ the laser on the ground. Point taken, I may have to go back to the original place and hit some more to reconfirm. I hadn't thought of the difference between the overhead vs. side simulator. Thanks for the thoughts and info, much appreciated.

Vincedaddy

Legend

# 4 1/5/2014 4:32:56 PM

Hit a few bad shots on purpose and see how the machine reacts. That should give you some insight to it's honesty. Good luck!

OtterMan08

Legend

# 5 1/5/2014 5:39:53 PM

Hit a few bad shots on purpose and see how the machine reacts. That should give you some insight to it's honesty. Good luck!

Yeah, that's what I go with too... I did that on purpose! I don't know if I would put any faith in the yardages themselves, but it's a good way to check one club against another. I think it's also better than hitting at a demo day using range balls.

Don Freeman

Professional Champion

# 6 1/5/2014 7:22:38 PM

I say its apples to apples. Don't compare one store's monitor to another. Compare your current clubs to the store's clubs on the same monitor. thats what I did. you know your swing, and if you are any good you should be able to tell before you look up how you hit the ball.
Golf Galaxy has never stopped me from comparing my 7 iron to theirs, or my driver to theirs. As a matter of fact last time I was there, it was because I just had attended an outdoor demo day for Taylormade, and fell in love with the SLDR. I went the next day to G.G. and took my driver to compare. Both distance and accuracy were virtually the same. so the salesman told me if it were him, he wouldn't spend $500 for a new driver to gain nothing. that went a long way for me.

HOGAN418

Professional Champion

# 7 1/10/2014 11:59:06 AM

Mostly.. no.. unless outdoors..most of them get skewed on left handers.. this has been my experience..

kirk goings

Amateur

# 8 1/15/2014 3:21:11 PM

Every LM that I have used has always said that I had a terrible slice. And when I actually goto the range or play I rarely slice. I don't know if its how I am lining up to the LM. But I have stopped using them for any reason.

armygrunt47

Professional Champion

# 9 1/15/2014 4:09:43 PM

Every LM that I have used has always said that I had a terrible slice. And when I actually goto the range or play I rarely slice. I don't know if its how I am lining up to the LM. But I have stopped using them for any reason.

One of the guys that I play with went and got fitted for a SLDR a few weeks ago. The launch monitor said that he was hitting it 300+ and straight down the line. He got to the course and has hit a hard slice that has not went more then 230 almost every single time that he has used it.

Vincedaddy

Legend

# 10 1/16/2014 9:31:47 PM

My club fitter played with the altitude, humidity, and temp settings with me. Some drives over 300 others under 200 with the same swing.

armygrunt47

Professional Champion

# 11 1/16/2014 9:43:48 PM

My club fitter played with the altitude, humidity, and temp settings with me. Some drives over 300 others under 200 with the same swing.

Those things have more effect than most people think. A cold day here can show almost a two club difference. Throw in some damp air and it is two full clubs.

Vincedaddy

Legend

# 12 1/16/2014 11:11:06 PM

I considered going to dicks with my cold weather gear. Wondering how much different my swing speeds would be with and without all of those layers. Maybe get 5 with and 5 without and look at the data.

COMMUNITY