Review and shank protection question

[oakleyj]

I've been using the ES Tour Plus since just before Thanksgiving and I think a lot of people are missing out. This is not nearly as finicky as people have said. I get almost zero no reads, and less than 1/4 no spin reads on the driver. Almost never happens with anything other than driver. The ball being used is key. A year ago I was at a state park course that was mowing the deep ravine that had about 175 yard forced carry from the back tees on a par 3. I picked up around 150 balls of all makes. After sorting through these and using the advice that the ES liked bold straight logos it became pretty clear that Pinnacles were the ball to use. Bought some new, the monitor recognizes them almost immediately (as in before I can get my hand out of the way) and no misreads.

The club data appears to be calculated relatively accurately, the ball data is spot on. As noted, the monitor will not read fat shots. This comes into play the most for me on chips. Instead of taking a weird swing I use these: https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Holder.../dp/B07BHWNKBL and put the chip shots on a lie that is not as tight as can be which makes it so much easier to pick clean.

I picked this up for $1795 at Best Buy, no subscription. Only needs 8 feet out the front. I am very very happy with this unit. This would be a 4/5 star review overall and 6/5 given the price point. I have used a Trackman quite a bit over the last 6 months so I am pretty spoiled and know what my numbers should be pretty dang well. But playing 2 or 3 rounds a day in the simulator for the last month I could not be more satisfied given the fact I paid 1/10 the price of a Trackman. Good thing since with all those rounds my hands are getting worn out and I am going to have to buy gloves for both hands.

The only issue I have is the vulnerability of the unit since it sits pretty close and slightly out front of the ball. A severe shank can hit the unit. You'd think no one could ever hit that bad, but never say never. The good news is this thing isn't made out of egg shells and has taken a couple blows with no damage. So I am trying to make some protection for the unit, especially if someone other than me were to play. I have proven that it will read the ball through a pane of Lexan but I am curious if having a piece in front of the unit will make the microphone not work as well leading to mis/no reads. I am sure I can make some protection with no nails to not mess with the radar, just curious if anyone else has created a protective "case" for their unit and how they did it.

[Brettster]

I would be careful with hitting all chip shots off a rubber tee... that will screw up your short game real fast, in my opinion! Is that the only way to get around it? Other than that, the review sounds better than any other I've heard... but without a custom made FMJ (full metal jacket) is it really better to consider it? SkyTrak makes a FMJ for their units that you can buy and fits perfectly.

Let us know if you find a FMJ for your ES Tour Plus?

[oakleyj]

I have almost no complaints about the unit. Best Buy allows returns on Xmas purchases until mid-January. So I will play the snot out of it for the next couple weeks while I am off (for research of course) and see what I think.

The biggest weakness of the ES is the sound activation for the shot recording. If you hit fat, no read. The rubber tee I have referenced above holds a wood tee. So the chip shots are hit off the barest nub of a wood tee. With the bounce on sand and lob wedges it is tough to get a completely clean strike on a chip forward in your stance. Just like you wouldn't hit a lob wedge off bare dirt forward in your stance, you hit those shots when they are sitting up even if just a little bit. The ultra short tee actually has let me make a more real swing instead of doing weird stuff to nip it clean.

I'm pretty sure I have a design for the bulletproof jacket that will work. The really rough prototype was working last night, but needs refined to make it pretty.

[bubbtubbs]

I think the main issues are that it's barely cheaper than Mevo+ but is more finicky, can't be used outdoors, has fewer software options, and has both shot delay and space/noise requirements (the weakest part of Skytrak and Mevo, respectively).

All that being said, it's a solid unit for the price and I'm glad you're enjoying yours. Whatever protection method you come up with will have to be non-metallic to avoid interfering with the four Doppler radars and you should probably confirm that the cameras take similar readings with and without the lexan in place if you haven't done this already. Maybe putting the unit in chip mode to turn off the radar and hitting a ton of easily reproducible shots to compare data sets would be a good way to start?

Good luck.

[oakleyj]

Mevo+ wasn't a consideration due to space restrictions. GC Quad wasn't a consideration due to not hitting the lottery yet.

The "case" will be Lexan and wood that is pegged together. So no nails or screws at all. I've got all of $25 invested in the protection so far, so not like I am in deep with it. The real reason I want the protection is so the wife can swing away without fear. That hesitation that you will break something ruins your swing in the simulator.

I have the next two weeks off so we'll see what I come up with.

[oakleyj]

After more experimentation I had to give up on the Lexan protection. It increased the number of no reads on spin and for me the tradeoff wasn't worth it. If my wife toes one into the unit and breaks it she'll just have to cough up the money to get it fixed.

[Bubba22]

I chip off my mat with no issues. Good luck with a protective case. Keep us posted with your results.

[oakleyj]

Yeah, I just had to get more used to it.

[Chuck]

Space was my issue too. I really liked my ES tour plus. It's very reliable and consistent with the game I play. It really is hard however to have no reads on chunked shots specifically with my 3 wood off the deck. It's something I'm trying to fix in my swing now. I do agree there are many positive things I like about the ES 16 tour Plus. Primarily, it gives good results and very realistic play.

What amazes me is how accurate the putting is in tgc2019 and how challenging it is in E6. I never shank the ball into my unit, but I did strike the side and broke the LCD display when a club slipped out of my hand while practicing during the warm-up session. I have yet to send it back for repairs. The unit is working fantastically otherwise.

[Chuck]

Thanks for the posts oakleyj. The more I play with this unit, and the more I discover about this unit; like using the Wilson Staff range balls with its distinctive logo and all, how to line the unit up to the screen, how to line putting and that it can play both TGC2019 and E6, and it doesn't have some yearly money grab just to play the thing you bought. The Wilson Staff range ball really showed me something new about this unit. It's really really good if it tracks the spin. There is so much misinformation about this unit. Not the ES16, but the version 2 of that; the ES Tour Plus. People have implied all sorts of nonsense about club tracking and numbers being calculated, etc.. etc. Even several folks I respect. But I can tell you for a fact when it presents club data, It's spot on the money. It will not give club data if the radar doesn't record a 45 degree or better downswing or on slow practice swings, like a chip, slow-motion practice swing... etc, etc. For the short swings, it has a pure-optical sensor, that tracks just ball motion for short-range wedge play and pure optical for putting. The camera trigger is audio-based so it can be affected by external sounds but for the most part, it works pretty well. As a side-affect of the audio trigger, a fat shot can cause a misread and it's very obvious when you do it. For me, that only affects a few clubs, 3W, Sand wedge (non-chip-mode) can be a challenge. Other than that, I get perfect, distances, ball flight dynamics, club head data, excellent pitch, chip, flop wedge play, and near-perfect putting with TGC2019 (E6 has a velcro putting issue with putts over 26ft, its a software issue). For an indoor sim (my only experience with it), it's a wonderfully good unit.

[bubbtubbs]

Doesn't it get tiresome hitting range rocks?

[Chuck]

What do you mean "range rocks". Pretty rare for me. Although I'm not the strongest ball-striker in the world. Sr. level. Anyway, so my setup is a pretty thick mat 'holds-a-tee' kind that I can pound until the cows come to roost. So if I 'fat' shot things I feel it and from experience, I've learned with this unit, it doesn't take much, 1in or more on the fat, it will misread. On a tee, I rarely, rarely see a misread and almost always see pretty accurate numbers on everything. On nearly all clubs you're pushing through the ball slightly downward, and rarely misread. Wedges are the odd ones because you need the bounce most times and if it's not in that pure camera mode, it depends a lot on how close you are to getting the blade into the grove of the ball to the ground. Fatting the 3-wood, 5-wood off the deck, that's on me and is just part of the learning experience.

Anyway, the idea that there the club selection affects the data presented (distance, spin, other things, etc) just doesn't show in my unit. I've heard that rumor too, and I think it is just competing company's rumors. For example E6, on the driving range (E6 provides some really good data on the driving range), if you see any club data, it is usually dead on the money accurate, fast in its response, and good. That is where I think the ball tracking makes the numbers work (ball markings really make the difference). If I ever see a 0,0,0 on the club data values, in E6, then I know I hit something that will only give results on the speed of the ball flight and that's it. If you use a ball with weak markings, 'Taylormade', 'Pinnacle', and others that have light lettering, I suspect they give a lot of misreads. So basically if you're not seeing club data and see 0,0,0 for club data on E6, then you are using the wrong ball (weak logo), or don't have the ball logo directed at the camera. (it's not just E6, but TGC2019 shows the same, just differently that is hard to describe).

Given that, what is your launch monitor of choice, that costs less than $1800, doesn't have a yearly subscription to play, and does both the big SIM software games extremely well? And why?

[bubbtubbs]

Sorry, it's what some people call the one-piece range balls because of how they compress off the face, especially when it's cold. Might be a local thing.

But hey, if it works...

[Chuck]

bubbtubbs, I agree, not my favorite ball either, but it only flies 10ft or so, so no worries on aerodynamics. But what a difference that logo makes! My unit locates those Willson range balls almost instantly at nearly any position and seems to be tracked so much better than any other ball I've tried. If you still have you ES Tour, definitely give it a try. It's a huge improvement.

[oakleyj]

I'll have to give the range balls a try. I have had decent success using Pinnacles, but it gets a few no reads on side spin sometimes. So you get a straight launch, which isn't so good when you are drawing it into an island green. The one place it completely fails is very short putts. Somehow on TGC2019 my gimme within 2 yards got turned off and I was left with a 3 foot putt. The impact was too quiet to trigger, and when I hit hard enough to trigger it bounced off the hole. So always turn your gimmees on.