Tracking Devices

charlieIRL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878786#Comment_119878786

I've one here you are welcome to try out depending on where you are!

Strawberry HillBilly

Shot Scope user. Find it quite good at picking up shots but there is a 5-10 minute post round review needed to get your stats right.

Personally I'm a stats geek so love it, especially checking my shots gained against my handicap or the next one up to see where I need to improve. I've gone from 21 to 14 handicap this year, some of which is definitely down to knowing my shot distance by club and working on my weakest game elements from review of the data.

enfant terrible

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119882684#Comment_119882684

How'd you get it for that price was it second hand?

benny79

yes. I actually got 2 for €150. I had a lend of a mates that I broke. So had to replace it but they do be on it very regularly.

copacetic

Have the Prgr, have found it unreliable at best. Grand for tinkering around at club speed, but it just guesses from there. Eg it will give me same distances for an open faced sliced 7 iron as for a perfectly stuck compressed 7 iron because club head speed and initial launch was somewhat the same. Whereas they are actually going 20 yards difference in carry. So outside of speed training not of great use.similarly gave up on arccos, good system, bit unreliable but can tidy it up afterward quick enough, but if playing a lot in different conditions in Ireland it is a pain to be taking out all the knockdown, or creative shots you hit, as well as the downwind, or into wind ones to get an true average. Not sure any of these systems or indeed swing speed are really key to bringing handicap down ten shots. Knowing that for everyone stats show most of the strokes gained from scratch to the 10 example are in driving and approach, after that the last few come with a very tight short game.

there is no harm in knowing your strikes gained, but you won’t vary from the overall know stats too much anyway. Just keeping GIR by tracking putts is probably enough for nearly everyone, as it correlates almost exactly to handicap.

thats not to say you shouldn’t understand all this to really trust the ideas, so every shot counts, decade system, practical golf are required reading, but tracking driving with arccos to tell you knocking down 4 drives a round is costing you shots isn’t a good use of your time.

Ivefoundgod

I've used Arccos now for about 2 years, gone from about a 12 hcap to 7.6 currently. Arccos has played a role in that though I think getting fit has been the biggest help. That said I don't think i'd give up the Arccos sub easily, really good for identifying trends with my game and confirmed a lot of things I thought about my game as well as some surprising things too. Its gotten better during that time too, much more accurate at getting the flag position right now compared to a 12 months ago.

What I would say to anyone using it though is when looking at your club data, make sure and remove the outlier shots or your distances will be off. The app defaults to last 10 rounds as well i think so be careful of that too as a couple of weeks with a good few 5i punch outs that you didn't remove will show up with your 5i distances decreasing. Its generally pretty good at identifying a punch out but if you are good at a low punchy one it can tend to count those as a normal shot even though it might be 80 yards short of your normal distance.

The caddy feature is good to preview a course you haven't played too and can show some surprising options you might not think of to approach a hole. Good example is a hole on my home course, i'm more accurate with my 8i than 9i for GIR (no idea why :/) and it advised me to hit a different club off the tee on a short par 4 to leave me with a 8i. Tried it a few times and have been doing that ever since. Before i was leaving myself 9i/PW distance in and screwing it up.

Next step for me this winter is a garmin R10 to try dial in my carry distances. I've a far idea but suspect like most amateurs I think i hit it further than i do.

mjsc1970

Lads. I've just read this whole thread. Been playing since the late 70's I don't think I've moved on from 1990's approach to the game 🤣. Yizzer all talking a different language.

Fair do's to you all.

redzerdrog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119959212#Comment_119959212

have you the older or newer model of the PRGR? I have the newer and ever found that much of an inaccuracy as the example above as its usual accounted for in the difference of smash factor

copacetic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119978659#Comment_119978659

It’s the latest model, have it 6 months. Have compared it back to back with trackman outdoors and now don’t bother with it much at all. It’s better at driver but absolutely shocking for wedges. I play with a lad who swears by it, but in my opinion it’s actually bad for his game, constantly gets clubbing wrong because things the PRGR distances are his distances.

benny79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119982195#Comment_119982195

It mainly wont pick up wedges as loft is to great. But I have mine over a year and its bang on myu distances from PW up and have compared it to Trackman loads of times. I have actually found it more accurate than the Toptracer in the Spawell and the trackman in Palmerstown GC range.

getoffthepot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878786#Comment_119878786

Yes I have one and very happy with it.

Make sure you get the HS-130A as the previous model is still around.

Padraig swears by it and recommended it very strongly on Golf weekly podcast a few ago. (this is a free podcast) 1hr 37mins into Podcast.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0MCJgOVKHqYlRa8lD0hQDk?si=GkWVptrpSTqOPrnVprpMlg

Also saw him recommend it on a IG or twitter post during the week.

McGuirks still selling the old one for €259 and were looking for €329 for the newer one last time I saw it on their site.

https://superspeedgolf.eu/products/prgr-black-pocket-launch-monitor have it for €229 + €15 delivery.

CSWS101

Thanks for the replies. Is there a big difference between the older and newer model?

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858091#Comment_119858091

Do you have the watch or the GPS unit? What you have listed is exactly what I want to start doing in 2023. I noticed something towards the end of my rounds this year that is basically the opposite of what I thought all year. What I thought were good misses on certain holes were actually bad misses and costing me a few shots every couple of rounds. Trying to break 80 on a regular basis is hard to do when I’m handing shots back. If I can get a proper track on my shots then I can look to address it before the counting rounds resume in 2023.

Russman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120045141#Comment_120045141

I have the watch. The GPS unit wasn't around when I got the watch a couple of years ago, but tbh I'd still pick the watch. I'd never remember to tap the unit before every shot, some might like it but, for me, it would be a needless faff particularly if I had it say, clipped onto my bag, and then need it on the putting green. Honestly I forget to mark the pin after holing out probably 4 or 5 times a round anyway ! Its easily fixed in the post round edit though. The only tiny downside I found with the watch is that you have to wear it on your top hand on the grip - I'm a lefty which means on my right wrist, and after a lifetime of wearing watches on my left wrist it felt strange at first. Don't even notice it now though.

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046343#Comment_120046343

Is the only downside to the watch the fact that you need to tap it when you hole out on every green? If so, that’s not bad at all. I don’t want to be messing around logging stuff on each hole, if it’s just a question of hitting the button when I hole out then I don’t mind that at all. Post round I generally tend to go through my card anyway so if there’s work needed to log data then that’s fine also.

If I can track what I want to track and see the live data on my phone afterwards then it’s 100% worth it. For the price, I can’t see anything else that comes close to tracking that level of data and I can definitely see it helping my game.

Russman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120056150#Comment_120056150

Yep, you just press a button when you hole out. Its no big deal at all tbh, just easy to forget to do at times until it becomes a habit. Its simple to add in or move a pin location in the post round edit/check anyway.

I think the Shotscope is a good system that gives, IMO, anyone, more than enough information than they'd ever realistically need about their game and performance. Personally I find the Strokes Gained the most interesting metric.

benny79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120006957#Comment_120006957

Whats the difference between the old and new model? I have one but haven't a clue what model it is, how would you check that?

spacecoyote

I think one of the primary difference is being able to switch between metres and yards, better accuracy, etc...

That's just from looking at CharlieIRLs one when he was trying to switch, as he's one of those metres weirdos!!!

AOH77A

I have the old PRGR and find it great. Mainly use it for checking the driver swingspeed. Also a lot of fun when you are out in a friendly 4 ball and take it out on a few holes to check everyone's driver speed (not in competitive rounds).

spacecoyote

I see Rapsodo have launched their latest device:

https://rapsodo.com/pages/golf-mlm2pro

$699 so not cheap, but relative to the high end stuff the testing I've seen on it is very comparable in quality. It also has simulator mode aside from the swing data.

Could be a nice option for a home set Up.

benny79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120192612#Comment_120192612

Yeah see a review seems to be a game changer in that price range alright.

Ivefoundgod

I picked up the Garmin R10 in the Mcguirks sale around Christmas time. I haven't used it a lot but when i have it seems pretty accurate and is a lot of fun on the range. Have brought it to the course and myself and playing partners hit a few shots with it when we got a bit of a gap between the group behind. Distances were accurate and ball speeds matched our stats from fittings with trackman. I only used it in the back garden once, weather just hasn't been good enough for me to bother putting him the net and hitting into it for any length of time but i intend to use it more as the weather improves.

Main issues i have are that it can be quite finicky to setup when you're not at the range. Uneven ground and placement cause a lot of problems it seems though i think that is expected with any of these devices to be fair. You also need to make sure you are aligned with it if playing the sim courses or your shots will be way offline. Overall i'm happy with it and am looking forward to using it in spring as a lead in to summer golf.