Hard Wedges Fall from the Sky

[stevnkrn]

I have a GSA system with TGC course software. I have an issue with the distance on full pitching and sand wedges. If I take a half swing with either wedge the balls fly the right distance. If I hit the wedges hard, they fall from the sky like a rock. Basically I can hit a half wedge as far or further than a full one. Obviously that is not correct, and certainly that is not what happens IRL. According the the GSA control panel software, the correct full wedge distances are being calculated. I presume those are the values being passed to the TGC software. If I use GSA courses from Red Chain, the distances on both short and full wedges are right where they should be. Somehow the TGC software is cutting the full wedge distances down 40% to 50%. I can't find any reason for this. I am hoping someone can help. My best guess is that it has something to do with spin and/or launch angle. I launch hard sand wedges at 60 degrees or more regularly on my sim and my PW is over 55 degrees. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to try them out.

[GungHoGolf]

How are you swinging, or what kind of balls are you using, to launch a SW at 60 degrees and PW over 55?

Pros launch those two clubs at around 30 and 22, and even a crappy mid-cap like me launches them at 34 and 27. Rule of thumb for good iron and wedge swings is a LA of 1/2 the club loft.

No surprise you're seeing short carries if those are your actual launch angles. My guess is you're massively scooping at impact with club head ahead of hands, and also using a low-spin distance ball like the E6 or Velocity.

[keither5150]

I know that I can hit my 60 w about 54 degrees if I try. Usually that club is between 30 and 45 degrees LA. . Are you using the latest update from GSA? PM me with a screenshot of each window in the CP. So all other shots are showing correct distance? Also send me a screenshot of the vcam window while taking a full wedge shot. I can manually input the data and duplicate the shot.
It does sound weird that a 1/2 shot would be correct and a full shot not.

I see that you have shot recording turned on....so that will be helpful. Please take 4 or 5 shots from each club. 6 iron to SW. With your wedges, take some 1/2 shots and full shots. Send me a message and let me know when you have done this.
You can also verify that your LA is correct by using this right angle calculator. http://www.csgnetwork.com/righttricalc.html . By using the distance to the screen and how high off the ground the ball impacts the screen, the calculator will give the correct LA. Let me know how far away your Vcam is from center.

You can also check that the data in your control panel matches what's in TGC, either by pressing ( I ) or by looking at your shot data on the tour site.

You can also compare ball flight by using this calculator. https://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/ The highest LA that this calculator will accept is 45 degrees.

From taking a quick look at your data, it seems to me that your LA is not being measured correctly. Over 30 degrees on a 6 iron seems hard to do.

[stevnkrn]

I want to thank you two guys for your comments. I have thought for a while that the launch angles seemed too high, and you were right. Your comments made me take a long hard look at my setup. It turns out the issue had to do with a relatively new GSA feature called Vcam calibration. As soon as I turned that off my wedges fell in line again. Vcam calibration is supposed to mathematically compensate for high launch balls hit left and right of center. Basically the ball traces the vertically launch camera catches on high shots are shorter/longer than they should be because they are further away or closer to the vertical launch camera than lower, perfectly straight shots. I won't bore you with more details, but the distances I'm hitting both full and partial wedges now match my play IRL. I've been struggling with this for a while, having to hit lower lofted clubs into the greens than I would IRL just to keep the hard hit wedges from falling way short. By turning off this "feature" my online club selection matches the clubs I would hit IRL. Hopefully that will result in better scores. Time will tell I guess. Thanks again.

[keither5150]

No problem. I have had my PX5 since just before Xmas. I really like mine. There is another way to adjust your speed without turning Vcam calibration off. I will send you a PM. Because of differences in enclosures and camera placement....you just can't turn Vcam cal on and expect it to be accurate.