Experiment: Rough calculation of clubface using launch direction and club path

[dinospumoni]

I was hoping someone with a GC2+HMT or GCQuad with club data could help me test out one of the formulas that Trackman lists on it's website.

I was on trackman academy last night and saw that they assign about 87% of the ball's launch direction to the club's face angle at impact when using a driver, and 81% to the face angle when using a 6 iron or pitching wedge.

On the flip side, they were saying this means that 13% of the ball's launch direction is related to club path with a driver, and 19% when using a 6 iron or pitching wedge.

I tried to use this formula last night and was consistently getting results that matched their calculator when solving for club face angle as the unknown variable (driver example):

Club Face Angle*.87 + Club Path*.13 = Launch Direction

With a GC3 we already know club path and launch direction, so I was wondering how reliable this formula actually is for calculating face angle.

Even if the formula is only useful when you make center contact, since GC3 also gives you smash factor (ball speed/clubhead speed), I would think it would be easy enough to exclude shots that don't meet a certain smash factor from your sample if you wanted to calculate face angle at impact.

Would someone with a GC2+HMT or GCQuad be willing to provide sample data that displays the items below so we can see how accurate their estimates really are?

- club used
- smash factor
- launch direction (horizontal)
- club face angle
- club path

[Skedaddle]

There plenty of testers on YouTube that show all their data and you can test this eg askgolfnut shows all his quad data and can look for those centre hits
Think that what a lot of those using gc3 which back calculate face angle from launch direction (and as you say to a certain extent path). Spin loft also affects the formula and there’s details on early trackman newsletters on how to do.

[Golfwith1ball]

If you create a calculator in Excel, someone might help you determine if the information/data points, you are looking for, can be reversed engineered.

[dinospumoni]

There plenty of testers on YouTube that show all their data and you can test this eg askgolfnut shows all his quad data and can look for those centre hits
Think that what a lot of those using gc3 which back calculate face angle from launch direction (and as you say to a certain extent path). Spin loft also affects the formula and there’s details on early trackman newsletters on how to do.

These trackman newsletters are awesome. It almost seems like they've tried to remove them from the web for some reason lol.

I think spin loft is more relevant to the vertical launch angle than anything.

Spin axis might be able to be factored into a more advanced formula for calculating face angle from horizontal launch angle and club path, but then the smash factor would become even more relevant since the gear effect from missing the center of the club face affects spin axis pretty significantly.

[Skedaddle]

Make sure you’ve signed into trackman university app too as some great calculations in there too

[Psariunit_tr]

Any updates on this? I have a gc3 and was considering the same thing.

[sinkingputts]

If your already getting path it should be easy to get a general idea of face angle just by looking at the ball flight. Don’t use chase cam. Just use tee cam and see did it start right or left of your target and how much did it curve? Look at path which direction was it going? Problem solved. I have club data upgrade and i can say after using it for two years you can tell what the face was doing just by looking at the ball flight and path

[dinospumoni]

If your already getting path it should be easy to get a general idea of face angle just by looking at the ball flight. Don’t use chase cam. Just use tee cam and see did it start right or left of your target and how much did it curve? Look at path which direction was it going? Problem solved. I have club data upgrade and i can say after using it for two years you can tell what the face was doing just by looking at the ball flight and path

Yeah, that was basically what I came to realize. Based on the ball flight, spin axis, and horizontal launch angle in combination with the club path, you can get a pretty good estimate of what your face angle was.

[sinkingputts]

I put a laser level down my line and up my screen then filmed the ball hitting the screen so when i used the room configuration tool i could dial in the exact spot the ball was hitting the screen. Then with the range aim line and tracer on you can see perfectly starting spot and curve.