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Trackman 4 vs. Foresight - Initial Outlay Questions Only

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  • Trackman 4 vs. Foresight - Initial Outlay Questions Only

    All, my first post and glad to be part of the forum. Although my first, have been lurking and reading on this site and others for months. As a background to this post, I am building a house with a relatively large simulator space, and want to deck it out right. I have a large budget, but not completely insane. The effective room for the space is 17’ wide, 22’ long and 11’ ceilings.

    If this helps, for me I am a 15-20 handicap golfer that due to job, kids, etc.. doesn’t get to play much, and more importantly, practice as much as I want. I do have a Skytrak, but given my living situation at the moment (rental house), it is setup outdoors which limits time on it during the winter months. I want to use my new system for roughly 75% game improvement, 25% simulator play. I will use it 90% indoors if I had to guess. Goal is to become a much better and consistent ball striker.

    I have narrowed it down to two choices: A Foresight product and Trackman 4. The purpose of this post is not (yet) to debate the pros and cons of the systems — Leo Mode, Dax and many others have covered this extensively, and I don’t want to rehash old ground. My questions are strictly to the initial outlay of cost (all amounts in US Dollars).

    1) Trackman 4:

    I am still unclear on the difference between the indoor mode ($19,000) and the indoor/outdoor model ($25,000). It seems the hardware is the same. So why can’t you use the indoor model outdoors? And if you can’t, what exactly are you buying for that extra $6,000?

    Hidden and/or future costs: from Trackman's website, it seems the best “deal” would be to pay $4,000 for a three-year hardware and software subscription. I know you don't have to buy this at all, but if you are going big, might as well go all the way. So on an apples to apples comparison (indoors/outdoors use), you are looking at $29,000 to just start the process, before even starting with the construction of the simulator space.

    In addition to the above, is there a fee for the software to run the Trackman 4 (TPS 6.3??).

    2) Foresight GCQuad:

    The GCQuad is $18,000 for ball and club head data. Can be used indoor and outdoor. Thus, a $7,000 savings off of the comparable Trackman 4 unit. As stated above, I would use it 90% indoor. Assume I don’t yet need any putting module add-ons (but I assume you can get it later if you want?)

    Hidden and/or future costs: annual fee like Trackman, or is this a one time purchase? Putting module upgrade fee if desired?

    Software fee: limited to FSX2018 I know, cost of that? And yes, I have read about the gouging for “upgrades”.

    3) Foresight GCHawk:

    Eventually I will post about my questions on the GCHawk, but I know it is only ball data now (I confirmed this in a short call to Foresight). And there has been zero testing of it by anyone I am aware of (Leo Mode, get on this – ha ha). Given I am at the beginning stages of design, I still have time to reconsider a GCHawk if I were to go the Foresight route. But I am not going to consider it until they get club head data worked out, which they say will be “this year”. Who knows if that is true.

    Thanks for the feedback and helping a newbie with some basic into questions.

  • #2
    I can't answer all of your questions, but here is what I know.
    1. The hardware for indoor or indoor/outdoor is the same. If you just have indoor mode, it won't show data on shots that travel more than about 10 yards. So as long as you are hitting into a net, it shows you the data, but as soon as you take it outside it stops giving you data because it can track that the ball is continuing to fly farther than it would inside. I am pretty sure you can run TPS for free, as there are people selling used Trackmans on ebay that have expired subscriptions and they say you don't have to renew it as long as you don't want to play simulated rounds of golf. Another main selling point would be lefty/righty play. If you have left handed frends coming over a lot, there is something to be said for not moving hardware back and forth. The GCHawk will have this selling point as well.

    2. There is no annual fee for Foresight products. They did charge an upgrade fee from FSX to FSX2018. Initially it was $500, now it is $750. It remains to be seen how often they will be upgrading their software. FSX is $3k and comes with 6 courses. Additional courses have an MSRP of $150/course. When a new course is released, sometimes they run a special for $65. You can likely negotiate at least some discount if you buy them when purchasing hardware, or if you buy several courses at once. The "premium" courses like Pebble and St. Andrews are $500-$750.

    3. GCHawk looks cool but I agree that I would wait until there are more reviews on it and they get club data working.

    As a side note, if you plan on mainly using it inside, I would give a GC2 + HMT some serious consideration. You wouldn't really need the added portability, alignment stick, and larger hitting area that the Quad gets you. Those are more for hitting off of grass at a driving range or on a course. The GC2's accuracy is plenty good for a scratch golfer. I imagine only Bryson DeChambeau can tell a difference in the tighter tolerances of a Quad. With a dedicated space you just need to get it aligned once and you are good to go. You could still get FSX for practicing, and you can play rounds and online tournaments on other software packages as well. TGC2019 is coming and with a new tool developed by ChadGolf on here, people are able to create incredibly accurate course recreations using LIDAR data. In a few months, I suspect that pretty much any famous course you have heard of will have a TGC2019 version that is at least as accurate as the FSX version. And you are only paying a one time fee instead of per course.

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    • #3
      AndyGG1986, thanks for your detailed reply. I don't want to derail my own thread given this was only about initial costs, but the L/R issue really isn't one for me as all my friends are right handers, and thus the lefty issue is a minor one at best. I also didn't realize the premium courses were that expensive on Foresight.

      You do make some good points on the GC2/HMT, given my skill level. That is something I will have to consider.

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      • #4
        https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...d-golf-monitor. Check it, you can almost buy a GC Quad also, for the same money you have to give for Trackman, and use it with the ipad app on the driven range. just a thought

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        • #5
          I probably wouldn't test GC Hawk unfortunately as I don't want to install anything on the ceiling (it's already packed with projectors/AC/lightings) But I can probably go to a facility who would carry it and definitely test out that with Trackman outdoor.

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