Skytrak low yardage on drives.

[Tdholmes]

I recently went to American golf and used their sim at their shop, I was getting around 150mph ball speed off my driver, which is roughly the same as what I get off my Skytrak, however I seem to max out at 250 on both the Skytrak range and in TGC. On their sim, I was consistently 270 yards one even topped 295 yards (something I have never achieved in 500+ drives on Skytrak). I consistently drive 260+ in real life, this is measured with my Skycaddie SGX


Has anyone got any advice as to how I can get my yardage to replicate my drives more accurately? It doesn't bother me on the range at all, however, I am playing on the TGC tour and it is annoying not being 15-25 yards closer on most holes...

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

[Shifty]

My typical drive on game golf is 258. On skytrak I hit one 280, other than that 230 is generally the longest, while most are laughable at 130-160, which I can hit my 8 iron further. And I know I've striped a few of them. Ever since getting my Cleveland driver the shortest I've ever hit it is 150 yards Irl. I know indoor swing may be a factor, but come on, even my bad shots should be over 200!
Will be following along on this one.

[mikemcd22]

I have experienced EXACTLY the same thing. I'll guess you have no such trouble with your irons? A couple of things I've heard on this forum and also, tried on my SkyTrak:

1. Place the ball about an inch or two behind the red dot and in line with the screen (away from the screen, directly behind the dot). It gives the camera's a little extra time to catch the ball.
2. Consider that the Golf stores likely have their machines boosted in an effort to sell you that driver!
3. The "Indoor Swing Factor" is real. However, after a while, I believe it goes away with the comfort of swinging indoor at your own place (knowing the room). Still, combining 2 & 3 could impact your results.
4. If all else fails, try boosting the elevation (if you can do that in TGC). It doesn't seem to affect the irons as much and the driver gets a few yards! I've done it in TruGolf and it's working out (though if you're in tournaments, that won't fly).

Good luck!

[Tdholmes]

1) I've tried that and didn't notice any difference at all unfortunately.
2) I had that thought too however it was amazing to me how close they were to my real life yardages measured with my SGX.
3) I'm well over indoor swing factor I would like to hope.
4) I'd love to be able to do that but I do not think it's allowed on the tour.

Thanks for all your advice though, and yes my irons are spot on to within 5 or so yards on shorter irons.

[dborden0]

I can occasionally hit 300 on the Skytrak with my driver, but usually it is in the 260/270 range. I can easily hit my 3 wood about 250. I think the driver distance is definitely off, although it shows my slice perfectly!

[Shifty]

I have experienced EXACTLY the same thing. I'll guess you have no such trouble with your irons? A couple of things I've heard on this forum and also, tried on my SkyTrak:

1. Place the ball about an inch or two behind the red dot and in line with the screen (away from the screen, directly behind the dot). It gives the camera's a little extra time to catch the ball.

Will try that tonight. Thanks!

[Tytow]

If you're playing on TGC you can open the settings file and adjust all your clubs by a certain percent. I've been messing around with that and have mine dialed in pretty close to RL distances.

[shimonko]

How are people learning their real life distances?

[Tdholmes]

I use a sky caddie SGX, you can mark your ball location before you tee off, then walk to your ball and it displays your yardages!

[Shifty]

I tracked all my shots with gamegolf gps and played like 100 rounds this summer, so those numbers are accurate.

[mikemcd22]

Swing by Swing GPS. Tracked several RL shots at multiple courses. Also played something like 80 rounds this summer so I'm pretty confident in my RL yardages.

[Mirek_62]

Do you compare the carry distance or total distance?
My experience is that the carry distance is the same as the outside.
I see the difference in the total distance, scrolling of ball is usually shorter than reality.
Inaccuracies, of course, are increased by driver, woods and long irons.

[skytrakali]

I agree with Mirek_62. I often hit 260 yard drives at my golf club and Skytrak never shows me hitting my driver this far. HOWEVER let's think about it - actually the holes where I hit most 260 yarders are slightly downhill, the fairways get slick and hard in the summer and the prevailing wind is often a bit with rather than against. My real carry for these drives may well actually only be about 210.

In general I find that the Skytrak predicted roll is not as much as I get in RL. But actually roll length is much harder to predict mathematically.

[inorkuo]

when I switched from protee to skytrak I was sure that skytrak was short on the driver. I bought my brother's skytrak when he upgraded to gc2. he was also hopeful that gc2 would show that skytrak was short for driver but unfortunately it agreed with skytrak. when I upgraded to gc2 I had the same experience.

like skytrakali and mirek_62 mentioned, I believe the carry numbers are accurate. on the cheap courses I play locally, it's not uncommon, on a good strike, for me to see anywhere from 270 to 300 yds total with driver. when I go play somewhere nicer, I see more like 250 to 270. I attribute the difference to bounce and roll out.

[James James]

GC2/Quad is somewhat generous with carry distance on low spinning shots:

https://exploringimpact.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/efficiency-spin-axis.html

I would say Skytrak is somewhat less generous in its calculation so I think the real truth lies somewhere in the middle. Either way there isnt much in it and with so many variables at play I think any of these launch monitors are more accurate than we are...

[wbond]

It's somewhat easy to verify this at a range with a laser finder and marked targets. Laser a target, get the yardage, hit a shot, read the ST output, did your ball land short or long of the target and does it correlate to the ST yardage? It's not that hard, unless it's really sunny, then you have to shade the skytrak somehow.

[BadEddieKit]

............

[Sandhugolf]

Go with Carry numbers on all your clubs. I also thought my drive was short on SkyTrak. But carry numbers are accurate... also you need to get use to the indoor swing.

[BadEddieKit]

Tees might be a culprit too, what are you using? I recently turned a fella onto the Tomahawk tees, he says he picked up 15-20 yards immediately switching from the white rubber range tees he was using, to those. Something to consider anyhow.

[Tdholmes]

I use Tomahawk too mate! I wish it was that easy haha, thank you for the advice though.