All shots are shorter than usual except driver (am I crazy or I just lost distance)

[Ryan_luan@yahoo.com]

something weird has happened to me in the last few days - all my shots are shorter in SkyTrak (other than probably driver). For short irons, the distance loss is about 5-10; for long irons and hybrids, the distance loss is about 10-15. In the golf course I noticed a little bit distance loss, but the SkyTrak readings definitely magnified and exaggerated the difference.

Do I suddenly have a swing issue? Have anyone else experienced the same issue with SkyTrak lately? Am I crazy? It's very frustrating and I have to say a bit frightening...

[BadEddieKit]

Any given day my distances will vary by up to 10 yards. Our swings are slightly different from day to day. I find the skytrak to be very accurate, I think more people need to trust the data they are getting, it will help your IRL game, if you play accordingly. Btw the distances I thought I hit prior to the skytrak, were not average, but were the longest i hit those clubs. I think its just human nature to be biased, just because u hit that far once..

[CW35]

I agree w/ BEK, the loss of distance is most likely due to your swing. I'm not a ST user (gc2) but I've had the same issues w/in the past week or so. My swing path got out of whack where I was seeing distances coming up 10-12 yards shorter. Once I figured out the flaw, the yardages have come back to normal.

[Ronsc1985]

I'd vote for crazy.

Every one of these threads about my simulator distance is shorter then my IRL shots share one thing in common. The Op's never take note of the things other then distance launch monitors provide.

This seems to be independent of which launch monitor the OP's are using.

If you want to see what is going on take note of launch angles, back and side spin, ball velocity, club head speed if available and azimuth. If you know your normal numbers it's relatively easy to resolve any differences you observe. Without those numbers to compare current and past results it is really not possible to have a meaningful conversation about any distance differences.

[MainStGolf]

Everyone continues to say that its the player, but I'm one that has always seen a difference in my IRL numbers (mainly 6-gap irons and 3 wood [wood is the worst of them all if I'm hitting it off the deck especially, but still not there off the tee]) and my SkyTrak numbers whether it be on the SkyTrak range or in game simulation software. I'm generally about a club short of my IRL numbers. And honestly it has not had a fantastic impact on my IRL game, because I have made some IRL decisions based on indoor numbers and end up with errant shots. So it is frustrating, but I just have to keep telling myself to trust my outdoor numbers when I'm outside and trust my indoor numbers when I'm inside.

Now is that SkyTrak's fault. Not entirely. I think it is safe to say that the mat has much if not more to do with it. Whether the hitting surface is moving slightly or stable. Mine happens to be one that will shift slightly. But when I'm outside and I'm 150 out I'm pulling my 8 iron out of the bag. When I'm playing sim golf and I'm 150 out it's the 7 iron and there is not a hesitation, because I simply know I can't get there with an 8 iron. And as long as I get consistent results I'm okay with being a club short. I deal with it and move on.

[bbjr]

Well said, MainStGolf

[inorkuo]

is that with or without boost? if it is without, have you tried boosting up to 5% to see if it makes up the difference?

[Clevited]

I too find this to be true and i mostly blame the mat. A ball seems to squirts out more like a bar of soap being stepped on when hitting off real turf and more lazily off the mat.

[Ryan_luan@yahoo.com]

I have ordered a true strike golf mat but it will not be delivered until mid August.

[MainStGolf]

Would be interested in seeing the results that you have with the true strike. I started with a divot action mat and honestly I don't remember having distance issues with my irons, but it's been so long ago. I switched to the CCE because I felt the divot action was a little too forgiving and was going to hurt my outdoor game in the end. Didn't really stick with it long enough to see if that was true or not before I switched.

I never played with a boost.

[shank12u]

I do feel like it's my CCE that causes me a bit of distance loss...but on certain days when I'm loose and catching the ball solid i might be 5 - 8 yards consistently over my standard yardages. After I moved the skytrak off the mat my yardages did pick up overall though. But definitely my swing is fickle and seems to change a bit Day to day.

[mikemcd22]

something weird has happened to me in the last few days - all my shots are shorter in SkyTrak (other than probably driver). For short irons, the distance loss is about 5-10; for long irons and hybrids, the distance loss is about 10-15. In the golf course I noticed a little bit distance loss, but the SkyTrak readings definitely magnified and exaggerated the difference.

Do I suddenly have a swing issue? Have anyone else experienced the same issue with SkyTrak lately? Am I crazy? It's very frustrating and I have to say a bit frightening...

This is curious to me... I feel exactly the opposite. All my shots with the Driver seem to be 30-40 yards short on the ST. My mid-irons (9-6) are dead on or, if anything, slightly longer. My long irons (5&4) show up about 10-20 yards shorter and my 3 wood off the mat is often 10 yards longer than my driver off the tee!

Does my ST need calibration of some sort??

[bjohnson1102]

I have said since the beginning that either my sktrak doesn't work correctly, or all of them simply measure short. However, there are a number of people who post on here who state that their distances are spot on. Part of me wonders if it is simply a difference in playing conditions. I play in Iowa, in the United States. When I play, the weather is in the mid 80s, all the way up to 100 degrees, and often with pretty high humidity.

When I use my sktyrak, whether it is winter or summer, the weather in my basement is almost always the same. Temperature ranges between 65 and 70 degrees, with much lower humidity. I wonder what effect that has on ball flight conditions? Even though you can adjust the temperature, wind and humidity in the skytrak application, I still don't see a matchup of distances when comparing indoors vs outdoors.

Many on here chalk this up to the "indoor" effect of swinging your clubs inside. While I could buy that for a certain period of time, I have had my sktrak for over a year, and I have zero apprehension about swinging my golf clubs in my basement, so I don't think the "indoor" effect is causing any issues for me.

As far as evidence to back up my claims, I also have played outdoors for the past year using the Arccos system on my clubs. For those of you that aren't familiar with Arccos, you place sensore on your clubs, and information is relayed back to the app. The app does all sorts of things, including charting each shot you take with each club. Obviously, because the app uses GPS, it is charting total distance, vs carry distance. That being said, skytrak also reports total distance in addition to carry distance, so it is reasonable to compare Arccos numbers to skytrak numbers.

Further, I happen to use Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf, in conjunction with *** practice range, which also charts my numbers, which I'll be referencing below.

So, for Arrcos, here are some of my numbers:

Driver--Smart Distance 252 yards, smart range 235-273, longest drive 291, 729 total shots taken

My second most used club is my pitching wedge (46 degrees I think), and I have the following stats on my wedge from Arccos:
PW--Smart Distance 128 yards, smart range 115-141 yards, longest 154 yards, 185 total shots taken

3rd most used is my 7 iron

Seven--Smart distance 162 yards, smart range 138-175 yards, longest 182, 182 total shots taken

4th most used is my 8 iron

Eight--Smart distance 154 yards, smart range 144-174 yards, longest 197 (I remember this shot...big downhill ) 166 total shots taken


Now, comparing those Arccos numbers to my most recent session on ***

Driver, 23 total shots taken. Average carry of 202 yards, average total carry of 222 yards, average ball speed of 135.6, average backspin of 2631, average launch angle of 12.8

8 iron, 47 shots taken, average carry of 119 yards, average total carry of 133 yards, average ball speed 93.4, average backspin 4320, average launch angle 19.9

PW, 4 shots taken, average carry of 106, average total of 114, average ball speed 83.1, average backspin 7930, average launch angle 28 degrees


All that being said, I really like my sktrak, and I love comparing the feel of the shot to the results on the screen. My frustration comes when I am playing Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf. It's hard to play and compete when the distances are shorter than my real life distances, but if I feel like I need to hit an 8 iron, then I just hit a 7 instead. Driver is really the only club I can't do that with, and many of the courses in JNPG are tough to play when you are only driving it 230 yards on what feels like a really big hit.

I have posted similar information such as this before, but again, I welcome all feedback and thoughts from anyone.

Thanks!
Brad

This is curious to me... I feel exactly the opposite. All my shots with the Driver seem to be 30-40 yards short on the ST. My mid-irons (9-6) are dead on or, if anything, slightly longer. My long irons (5&4) show up about 10-20 yards shorter and my 3 wood off the mat is often 10 yards longer than my driver off the tee!

Does my ST need calibration of some sort??

[mikemcd22]

You've just reminded me that when I play E6, my irons are shorter than when I use the ST driving range and I have club up as well. And I echo nearly everything you just said including that it's very frustrating to play the E6 Courses when driver averages ~215 yards. For the record, my normal yardages and ranges are nearly identical to yours (on the course). I have taken to just using the "flight of the ball" as feedback and just know that my yardages, are my yardages.

[Fawley]

Which parameters do you think the Skytrak isn't measuring correctly? I assume ball speed?

It should be pretty easy to check just by taking the Skytrak to an outdoor range and hitting a few balls and see what numbers are showing up. If you're consistently hitting the ball 250 yards on the course with a high of 290, I would guess most of your ball speeds are actually somewhere in the 140 to 150mph range (or maybe a bit lower depending on how much roll you get). My guess is that either there's an issue with your Skytrak or there's something about your indoor hitting areas that's causing you to subconsciously not go as hard at the ball as you do outside.

One other thing to look at. You said Skytrak has your average driver shot at 202 yards carry, with 135.6mph ball speed and 2631 backspin and 12.8 launch angle. Plugging those numbers into the Flighscope trajectory optimizer, that would put your carry at 225 yards. Skytrak's algorithm is a little different to Flightscope's, but I'm surprised they'd give more than 20 yards difference in carry. Depending on on how hard the fairway's you play are, the 225 yards of carry could very well be right in line with the 252 yards of total distance you're seeing from Arccos.

[bjohnson1102]

Yeah, I would assume that ball speed is what would not be correct. I don't have any outdoor ranges near me that use mats; all the ranges here are natural grass which I've understood to not work with skytrak.

As I said, I might buy into the whole indoor hitting area theory, especially when you first get a skytrak and start hitting indoors. I've had my skytrak for over a year and have literally hit thousands of shots on it, and I swing hard, so I just have a hard time buying into that theory given the amount of time and the number of shots I've taken.

That being said, I do have a CCE mat, which I agree can definitely affect ball speed, but that should only be a factor on iron shots. Since drivers are hit off a tee, the mat should have no effect.

Again, I wonder if it is the actual indoor temperature and humidity and its effects on the golf ball. When you're talking a 20-25 degree temperature difference, and a 10-30 percent humidity difference, that could affect ball speed I would imagine.

Anyway, not really complaining anymore, as I've said I simply just hit a different club indoors than I do outdoors, and I do wish the driver would go further when I'm playing in JNPG, but it doesn't stop me from using my skytrak!

However, it would be fun to locate a range that I could take the skytrak to and hit outdoors and just see how the numbers compare.