Mevo+ inaccurate distances help

[jls141]

Hi guys, I’m on day 3 of trying to get the mevo to read correctly and getting a little frustrated. Ive got it set up in the garage. I have 18 ft to work with and have watched videos and read articles trying to get the right set up. I’ve varied the distances from net to tee and tee to mevo.
im using the metallic stickers.
I was fully anticipating being humbled a bit by distances but these are just too short. I’m usually 150 8 iron at the course and range.
mevo is giving me 125 max.
driver I am usually around 230-275 let say.
I can’t get a driver past 215 on the mevo. I have really laid into them and I just think something is wrong.
I've messed around with the alignment and the angle countless times.

any suggestions I am not thinking of?
Thanks so much everyone.

[3on3putt]

A lot of people estimate their distance based on the best shots (which people tend to remember) and not the average or "normal" shot they do. Often a low spin flier.

When you start and hit in the LM the true distance often causes discussions like this.

The gap between your clubs (given a 4 degree difference in loft) indicates you either have a rather low swing speed and/or that you get reduced quality in impact the longer the club.

The gap should about 13-15 yards between clubs. The difference in gap indicates that you actually hit shorter then claimed.

This.

Yes, things like your mat and setup and indoor swing can certainly play a slight role. But the bottom line is that almost everyone is a bit (unpleasantly) surprised to see their actual numbers when they first buy a launch monitor. Heck, just look at how many "my distances are short" threads are on this website. Or sit by the 18th green on a Saturday and watch how many approach shots come up short vs. ones that get pin-high or longer.

The good news is, your numbers are perfectly normal. Remember the USGA study from a couple years ago where they found that the average male golfer only drives it like 215? This Trackman blog has some good data too and shows that the typical 15 handicap carries it about 204 with a driver with a 132 ball speed and a club head speed in the low 90's (almost your exact numbers). https://blog.trackmangolf.com/perfor...-male-amateur/

And the really good news is that if you take your launch monitor numbers to the golf course and trust them, your handicap will likely come down because you'll find yourself pin high much more often.

[jls141]

Nothing groundbreaking to report today. I really appreciate everyone’s responses and help. My buddy couldn’t make it over unfortunately.
I can accept I don’t hit it as far as I may think but I can’t believe the readings I am getting. Was getting a lot of no reads today maybe one out of every 5-6. I am not sure I got a drive past 200 total distance.

i am attaching a picture of the camera, can anyone confirm this is what theirs looks like and the left half being glossy is normal? It’s hard to see.

also something odd, I was hitting 8 iron and getting around around 125 hitting it comically hard. The mevo picked up a practice swing and said ball went 170, what could it have measured?

[Dax]

Wow that is very interesting that it read a shot when the ball stayed put! I am very sure many will test this out now as we have seen that behavior before on another brands unit a few years ago. I had to rub my eyes and read that again

Also, don't let frustrating hitting get to you as I would fear that you might develop bad swing habits forming (especially when testing the time that there are no reads). I have experienced these frustrations in the past when I hit with my old radar unit facing my metal garage door. It will happen and takes away from what you bought the unit for which is to develop and practice your swing.

I would wait until your friend can go over and test or alternatively, can you take your unit to a driving range (appreciate we are in Covid) and safely test your distances there? This will help determine if you have indoor swing issues or alternatively if you have a faulty unit. It will also help in determining if your mat has the issues of severely punishing you on even partially fat shots. I think hitting with it outdoors and checking your distances will be very helpful.

Good luck and please keep us posted on this practice swing issue.

[Dax]

On your camera issue, perhaps FS could do a remote session with your unit and see if they identify anything wrong. Also, they can test a lot of things in respect of your set up.

[pwade3]

Can you give me your data from the 8 iron. I will compare it to mine and the FS optimizer.

[airbaker]

If your driver ss is 90, realistically you should be in the 128-133 yard range for your 8 iron. In the end it doesn't matter how far a certain club goes; it's how consistent you are with your distances. I'm a fairly high speed player and used to play to a plus handicap (mid 160's driver ball speed, 280'ish carry), but in the end if you stick your 6 iron closer than my 9 iron, you're winning the hole and I owe you $$.

[jls141]

I am more than willing to be humbled and swallow my pride if I was getting lower than anticipated numbers. I am about a once a week player and play enough to know that when a par 3 is 150 I pull out a 8 iron. Flightscope is consistently giving me 120-125 carry. That’s a pitching wedge for me.
the inconsistencies with what readings I am getting make me think there has to be something wrong with my set up. I’ve contacted flightscope to try a remote session to see if they see anything.
I know I am not consistent on the course and yes I probably only think about my best shots as being my distance But I have hit enough balls into this net on flightscope to know I’ve cranked some and to see it only going 125 not believing.
understood by all as well hitting inside and also the Mat can contribute.
i do have a nearby range I can attempt to take it to.
again thanks to all very much.

[airbaker]

I hear you and hope it isn't a flaw with your Mevo+. But if you are swinging your driver 90mph, look at the chart I attached. It has the average carry distance of all of your irons based on your driver speed. Accordingly, you should carry your 8-iron 129 yards.

[Gresh12]

I think you may need a second tester to rule out your indoor swing or potential mat interaction issues. Of course the second tester could have similar issues but I'll give you a similar example.

I take lessons indoor on Trackman. The room is huge so there is no hope you could realistically think you were going to have issues swinging. I'd hit balls there 10 times and took a friend with me to show him the setup. His story was exactly yours in that his 8 iron is his "150 club" and he hit 15 balls that carried 125 to 130. He was getting super frustrated and didn't believe the machine but knew he's one club shorter than me. I grabbed his 8 iron and hit the next ball with 160 carry which convinced him it wasn't the machine. He still couldn't hit it further than 130 for the rest of the session so he left pretty annoyed. I brought him back in a couple weeks to try again and he flew them all low 140s (which was what the pro who had time to watch this trip told him he should get based on his swing as I was staying out of it). We never solved why he struggled the first time but best guess was it related to getting comfortable indoors even though the room is huge.

It's totally possible there is something wrong but look at the Trackman tables out there for ball speed vs swing speed and what they produce in carry. If your ball speed is low relative to swing speed you are probably hitting it slightly fat which is death on some mats. If your swing speed and ball speed appear rational and the carry is way off start looking at launch and spin but for you to be missing 20 yards carry on an 8 iron to me the ballspeed is "wrong" (either you're hitting it poorly or the unit has issues).

Also if you can play outside right now and you're in a friendly group. Set it up on a par 3 tee box where you can clearly see where balls land on the green. I'm sure your group will find it cool if you let them all hit a shot with it tracking and see where balls land relative to the Mevo+. I'd be surprised if indoor vs outdoor mode would have an appreciable impact on the ball speed the unit reports. If the hole is relatively flat and not windy and you are still 20 yards off on carry then I'd say your unit has problems.

[Dax]

jls141 where do you live? Not sure if you have mentioned the elevation in a prior post, but could this be an issue? For others with Mevo+ does the unit take the elevation based on your location or can you set his? Sorry I can’t recall.

[keither5150]

Very good point. Most of the courses that I golf on have elevations of between 3500-4500 feet above sea level. This will add about 8 yards onto a 8 iron. Plus, the higher elevations tend to have firmer fairways. It is not uncommon to see a drive roll out 30-40 yards around here.

[3on3putt]

1.) How far are you from your impact screen? If you're say 9 feet for example (3 yards), hit some little chips that just reach your screen. You know those balls are carrying 3 yards in real life. Do those show up as 3 yards on the Mevo as well? Certainly wouldn't be anything conclusive (because 3 yards may be too short for anything "wrong" to affect), but if there is indeed something wrong with your setup, then theoretically that would be reflected in short chips as well. Worth trying at least to see what happens. In other words, if you hit chips that fly 3 yards in real life and they show up on the Mevo as a 1-yard carry, then yes, it's easy to see there's a setup issue.

2.) Are the distances consistently short throughout the bag with fairly regular intervals between clubs? If the intervals are "consistently inconsistent" you may want to have your lofts checked. Lofts change over time. Every time you hit a shot and that club bangs against the ground or mat, it bends the loft a tiny tiny fraction. Over time, those tiny fractions add up and you have a 7 iron that's more like an 8 iron. Pros have their lofts checked several times a year. Justin Thomas does it at every tournament. I had mine checked once and my 5 iron and 6 iron were basically the same club and my 8 iron had more loft than my 9 iron. Tough to do during quarantine of course, but once things get back to normal most places only charge like 3 bucks per club to do it.

3.) The driver and 8 iron numbers you posted are accurate according to the chart posted above by airbaker (which I find to be spot-on accurate for my distances and swing speed and consistent with other charts that I've seen). What are some of the other numbers for other clubs in the bag? Do those numbers align with the columns representing either the 90 or 93 mph swing speeds on that chart?

[airbaker]

I'm a club tinker'er and have my own Mitchell loft/lie machine. You're correct - as the leading edge impacts and decelerates, the hosel presses forward. You'll gain an ever so slight strengthening of your lofts over time (delofting) and more so with soft forged hosels like on a Mizuno blade. But tbh, it really is small...and you'd have to be a really steep player to notice dramatic effects. This is based on "real" golf and club/turf interaction. I'm new to the sim game, so it's totally feasible that there might be more bending occurring with sim mats.

[3on3putt]

You're probably right in that it would deloft it as opposed to adding loft. When I had mine checked, my irons were a good 10 years old and had heavy use without ever having the lofts checked. So if you're only playing once a week and the irons are only a couple years old --- yeah, probably not any noticeable difference. But several years of beating balls all the time (especially off mats) and a 7 iron could turn into a 6 iron and account for a weird yardage gap. I'm guessing my 6 iron got bent over time to resemble closer to a 5 iron while the 5 stayed pretty much the same. And the 9 got bent but the 8 didn't. Who knows. But I did notice better gapping throughout the bag when I had them adjusted (several other clubs were also off from the original specs by a degree or so).

I'm just searching for something that might explain any of his odd yardages. But yeah, you're right in that if he is reporting short numbers than it's probably not due to bad lofts because those would create longer yardages like you said.

[bubbtubbs]

pwade3 it's only forged heads that you need to worry about checking lie and loft periodically. Cast heads don't move easily enough.

[jls141]

In Ohio do not sure how impacted by relativity to sea level.
flightscope automated email said someone would reach out to me within 24 hours. Nothing yet, I’ll give benefit of doubt right now given current work environment.
played 9 golds in my league and kept all distances for all full swing shots.
there was absolutely no roll at all it was wet and gross. So I know I’m inconsistent but at home I should be able to replicate the good shots.
ill let everyone know what FS says

4h- 196

Driver - 240

A - 105

7 - 165

8 155

Driver -240

3w- 210

9 140

Driver 250

Driver 215 hook

5 - 165 fat

[Dax]

So you are maybe between 750 to 1500 feet above sea level? This would likely account for about 3 or 4% variation in distances, but suspect not much more than that. I am also assuming that Mevo+ testing you are doing is measuring at sea level, but I am not sure this is the case for Mevo+ Is the range open for the course you play at? If so, why not take the Mevo+ with you and test it out? We should also assume no wind today and that when you did your measurements there was no elevation changes (i.e. target at same level as where you were hitting from)?

[bubbtubbs]

Are you sure you're not just hitting it fat? I have around 112mph SS with driver and I'll lose about 20 yards on Skytrak if I'm rusty and hitting the turf first with irons. Nothing like having a 9i go 125 on one hole and then nearly 150 on another.

[Dax]

Agree fat shots on certain mats could have big impacts as noted above.

[pwade3]

Tee the ball up and hit your 8 iron to take the fat shot issue out of it.

[jls141]

Spoke to Flightscope
there is a 350 transfer fee since I bought it used if they have to do a remote session or if they have to service the device. They were able to give me general advice first to try.

recommended 8 ft mevo + to tee and then 8 tee to net.
(7 ft mevo to tee if you are putting)

with E6 the device angle piece provided should he used to set mevo angle.
with FS the mevo should be all the way open.

the instruction booklet says to have the mevo at the same height as sensor so I had it on a piece of wood. He told me to take it off the wood and then go into FS and set the tee surface height.

told me for alignment to offset the mevo about an inch to the right on a right handed golfer so body is not in the way of reading.

so with all this I am going to hit in both programs and compare. I had primarily just used E6.
im hoping the mevo angle could have been an issue that helps as I don’t think I was doing this correctly.
will report back after I hit this evening.

[jls141]

Mevo+ for sale or possible trade for a skytrak if anyone is interested.