Does Skytrak putting suck that bad or am I that bad?

[DirtyGarry24]

I just played a round using straight putting per the patch earlier. It was really nice. Was able to focus on speed and aiming for break. Something I can definitely improve on for sure. Could see that I could focus on my stroke now if I so please. Most importantly I didn't have to constantly worry about if the ball was going to jump to the right. I'm all for if we decide to allow in tourney play.

Really put off after Thinman's comment. Enjoy the discussion guys I'm moving on.

[V8burble]

just my thoughts but... I wouldn't align a SkyTrak based upon putting, as we all know this is a potential weak spot.
I'd align the SkyTrak with simple wedges or whatever club you wish to use where you can see the shot is hitting straight at your target (the on screen ball in my setup) and if your shot is straight and SkyTrak reads offline then adjust the SkyTrak a little (and repeat until your straight shots hit your screen inline with target and repeatedly show approx 0 degrees offline. I echo earlier comments that said forget about lasers, forget about the unit being parallel, it's ONLY about what the SkyTrak reads.
Once aligned, go ahead and test putting. if it's all over the place then it shows a limitation of "your" or "the" unit. If it's consistently X degrees offline then great.. you now know where your putting target needs to be positioned (slightly left or right of your normal target).

Aligning the unit based upon a known weakspot seems crazy to me.
Don't shoot me down plz as it's not turning into a nice thread... just my thoughts.

[inorkuo]

It did get a little ugly didn't it? It is interesting to find out what different hardware is and isn't capable of though. I watched your video review comparing jnpg and tgc. Do you know what jnpg does with putting?

[wbond]

Ok just played a few holes with the patch and it instantly changes your thought process. I'm no longer wondering whether it's going to jump left or right off the start on shorter putts. This is also helpful for cce mat users. You don't have to worry about the bumpiness of the mat throwing you offline either. Seeing every putt start online is great. Is this what happens outside, NO, but this is sim golf and being penalized arbitrarily just isn't that fun. With a system that has these limitations I would rather be able to just focus on speed.

I vote for for the patch to stay.

[TorchRedRob]

Really put off after Thinman's comment. Enjoy the discussion guys I'm moving on.

For what it's worth Gary, I'm put off by practically all of your comments, and it seems like I'm not the only one.

[Dan Frost]

I think you must be TorchRedRob. Gary is clearly the best amateur sim golfer in the world, and he knows more about statistics, and physics, and putting, and pretty much anything than anyone. We are lucky to have him on the forum.

[FaultyClubs]

What would I align mine to if you think it's not aligned correctly? Am i supposed to use the results from a 4' putt or a 15' putt to calculate the mean.

All putts were hit straight down a track.
Shot Correction OFF
4' Putts-HA 7.5, 7.7, 8.1, 7.3, 3.6
15' Putts-HA -2.1, 2.1, 0, 2.2, -2.2

I would be willing to guess that if i follow what you're suggesting, when i hit driver, irons etc, they are going to be way wrong.

One needs enough ball speed to get reasonable readings. It depends on stimp but 4' is far too short to be suitable. The 15' putt should be OK but you really need more samples.

Personally I'd use something in the 15'-30' range. And I'd test a multiple speeds to verify the mean is consistent. An inconsistent mean indicates problems in the test or in the Skytrak but either way it's a red flag for being unsuitable for alignment.

I wasn't aware that the Skytrak is thought to have different alignment for putting versus regular clubs. IMO that would be an egregious error by Skytrak's engineering team if true but something that should be fixable by Skytrak in software. Since no-one seems to have tested the hypothesis it would be interesting to see your results if you align for 15' putt and then check against a 5 iron (for example). I would also be interested to see how you test alignment of your driver or 5 iron, just hitting marks on the screen isn't very accurate in my experience. Taping up a newspaper might work well if the holes are punched through cleanly.

[keither5150]

Plus, it would be fun to smash holes through a newspaper.

[BadEddieKit]

I just finished playing 54 holes on 3 different courses with the new patch. It was the most fun and realistic golf I've played to date! One change is that i set the gimmies to 3 ft. Score wise I have shot lower than I did tonight, but that could be for a variety of reasons too. But the biggest change so far is your attitude, you don't get frustrated and blame the Skytrak/TGC for every missed putt. I now know its me for sure when I miss. I did have 2-3 putts that were 6-12' long and fairly straight, I made those with ease just hitting the right speed. But I also missed 2-3 putts that were 4-6' long as well. Had a few 3 putts which I haven't had much of recently on the sim, but do see on the course in IRL. All in all it's a very good change and I wouldnt want to go back. Ideally the Hardware would give completely accurate info and we wouldnt have to do this, but since that is not the case, its the next best thing. I did have 4 times during those 54 holes where my interface disconnected and I had to reconnect. That is a couple more than usual, not sure if that is connected in anyway or coincidence. Even with that, it was not that big of a deal, just reconnected and continued play! Definately a fan of 0 HA, and suggest everyone get it and shorten their gimmie range!!

[BadEddieKit]

Another thought, It really does free your mind up to focus on hitting a good stroke and distance control. I truly believe this will help IRL putting!

[FaultyClubs]

just my thoughts but... I wouldn't align a SkyTrak based upon putting, as we all know this is a potential weak spot.

Not an unreasonable thought if you can measure the alignment with irons accurately enough to meet the demands of putting. That's hard to do in my experience.

Also one should know that the dispersion errors we have discussed in this thread are random errors. The bias due to misalignment is a systematic error which is fundamentally a different type of error. I've seen no evidence showing the Skytrak has an unusual amount of systematic error. The precision of a systematic error is improved by averaging. This is why I specified 10 samples minimum required.

Having said that, if the Skytrak alignment changes between putter versus the other clubs as some people are suggesting then no alignment will ever be correct. One just has to decide which one they care about and align for that I guess.

Anyway this thread is winding down. Seems Protee has already produced the 0 HLA patch to rave reviews. It hides a lot of alignment errors in addition to Skytrak accuracy issues so a winner all round imo.

[keither5150]

Success!!!! Sort of.... Productive yes.... Let's keep discussions friendly please.

[ProTee United]

The solution:

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-brands-and-types/the-golf-club/112066-tgc-patch-3-02