Please Help before I Pull remaining hair out! - Skytrak woods

[Liqdaddymac]

Ok, I am a fairly good golfer in real life (3.6hc CONGU UK) and I know my yardages. I have been playing the TGC2019 tour and do well on Par 3 courses but anything that I need to hit driver or 3 wood on just trashes my round. From now on I will be hitting 3 iron or rescue of the tee until I can sort out this driver/3 wood issue.

I started a table as I was going to play with boost in TGC to get the yardages but they are spot on apart from Driver/3 wood but if I boost them it boosts my hybrid I think as a wood.

Not a long hitter as you see, driver swing always been between 98-103 average and would say I generally carry it around on average 235-240 but just cant get it anywhere near that with SKytrak hitting inside or out. I have hit outside to a fence that is 230 yards away by laser on flat sports field and hit it on the fly but skytrak still struggles to give me anything over 210yards.

This table below is average of 5 shots per club apart inside sim room and Driver which was done outside and only shows the best number which in real life was over 240 judging by where it hit fence.

Tried all sorts of tee placements but close to giving up on it now.

	Ball Speed MPH	Carry Yards	Total Yards
58 1/2	52	50	51
58 Full	67	74	73
54 1/2	65	72	73
54 Full	79	93	93
50 1/2	74	88	89
50 Full	86	104	104
PW	95	122	123
9	103	134	137
8	106	144	147
7	109	153	157
6	116	167	172
5	121	175	181
4	123	181	190
3	129	191	202
4 Hybrid	131	205	216
3 Wood Floor	131	193	206
3 Wood Tee	128	189	201
Driver	136	217	232

[Liqdaddymac]

Basically, I think I am asking if anyone else has had this and found an answer?

have tried:

tee behind dot
tee towards skytrak with dot at bottom of ball
tee everywhere in a 3 inch radius of dot

I’m using chrome softs balls which are new, same results using vice pro, prov1, Srixon ad333 etc

[DS12]

Is the spin reading high? High launch angle off the tee?

[Whiskeyjack]

Yeah I have found, for myself, spin rate is key for all clubs.......and to be honest, I'm not consistent, or good enough, to have good results every time I play. The reason my distances can change are usually always spin related.

[AnthonyZ]

OP, I sympathize with your dilemma. My SkyTrak was reading dismally lower distances for my driver and I generate about 95 mph of driver club head speed. I use my SkyTrak exclusively outdoors and recently build a dead flat - gravel/limestone screening/paver stone pad under my golf mat and am now witnessing more realistic (albeit still slightly lower than on course conditions) driver and 3-wood distances. I made sure that my SkyTrak base is dead level with my golf mat as well and for tee shots target the red laser at the base of the tee.

If your indoor set-up is in say your garage, there is a good chance that the floor slopes towards the door for water drainage purposes which could be causing a downward bias on your simulated shots.

Is your indoor and outdoor surface under your mat absolutely dead level and as well your SkyTrak? I know from other set-up tips on this forum that SkyTrak needs a level golf mat and level unit, otherwise distances are underestimated. This prompted me to construct the pad I described.

As a FYI, using a distance simulator program I have on my PC (TrajectoWare), that 136 mph driver ball speed shown above, represents a 92 mph club head speed, 5 degree upward angle of attack that would carry 221 yards. My hunch that based on your real life carry yardages that you generate in excess of 140 mph driver ball speed on a well struck ball. The latest software update is supposed to help with that, have you downloaded it?

[Liqdaddymac]

I will have to check session settings but spin was definitely under 3000 and launch was normal.

[Liqdaddymac]

AnthonyZ thanks for the reply.

I have build a garden room specifically for a golf sim and the floor is level, Matt is level, skytrak level in a FMJ with base of skytrak level with Matt.
ceilings are 12ft and room is 4.5m wide.

i think the issue is the ball speed off driver and 3 wood. I’m generally high 140’s ball speed and creep into 150’s (albeit measured on flight scope with our club pro not skytrak).

my swings probably getting worse as I get more and more frustrated about it 🙈😤. Still love it, will just plod around with rescue off tee.

[AnthonyZ]

OP, I envy your set-up!

I remain mystified now as to why your teed Driver and 3-wood distances are so understated (particularly as you have tried different laser positions). My remaining bias is that I am hitting my 3-wood around 230 yards with roll and only squeezing around 240-yards with roll on average from with my driver. My irons have a roughly 5-10 yard downward simulated bias.

I agree, still fun, but not when if you are really cranking driver swing speeds to try and match real condition distances (formula for grooving nasty habits).

Funny story - Before I built a level base, last summer when on a course and remembering my then SkyTrak false understated gapped distances, I pulled out an 8-iron from 125 yards from the pin and blasted a ball well over the green, after doing that a couple times, I had to do a little mental re-calibration...lol. All the SkyTrak practice resulted unbeknownst to me, in a significant increase in club head speed across all my clubs.

[Morini]

My ST was a club short at first, so I did that lots of times, lol Ball position will help getting reads, but will have no impact on speed. With regards to your irons, mats can be an issue. They will launch higher, but with less spin. For some players these cancel, for others not. Some mats can also be grabby. And then there is indoor swing, but generally not a consistent factor for irons. Most of us get return to normal swing speed. I am sure you know this, but you can juice with altitude.

[AnthonyZ]

Morini, thank you...I played around with my SkyTrak today with a driver and 3-wood, double checked that the unit was level and the base of the metal case level with my mat and noted more realistic (or ego satisfying) distances.

As for my irons, you are right, I am still measuring about club too short, particularly with a PW, 9 and 8 irons. I have a FiberBuilt mat and as you say, it might be a tad grabby.

Apologies, for interjecting as it is bad form to hijack a thread.

[Morini]

No need to apologize, great comment. On a clean shot, I think fiberbuilt is as good a mat as you can get. In my opinion it has the lowest launch and highest spin of any mat. And it looks like liqdaddymac licked his problem.

[Morini]

The 7 iron ball speed and carry does indeed match 100 mph driver club head speed. And your ST driver ball speed matches 92 mph club head speed. So yes, there is an issue. 8 mph, 20+ yards are missing.:

Two main categories of possible causes:

• Your club head is moving 100 mph
• Your club head is moving 92 mph.

Indoor swing can really affect driver badly. In fact it would be the prime suspect in this case. You do address that by hitting outdoors. Your conditions were not fully controlled, but reduces probability of indoor swing being culprit significantly.

So if your club head is moving 100 mph what are the causes:

• setup
• contact
• faulty ST

The problem is that all three are unlikely.

Setup: Your issue is low ball speed so we don't need to worry about spin, launch angle etc. Skytrak setup does not really affect ball speed. It doesn't matter where you put your ball, the level, or height. If the ST sees the full ball, it will read speed accurately. The lighting is the one thing that can mess with ball speed, but it would be more erratic, not consistently low. Second, you hit outside as well. Also, the tee can be picked up, but again should be erratic. Finally, driver head or shaft can be picked up, but that is rare for driver, and would also be erratic. The last thing I will mention is the case. Sometimes the ST does not sit well, and this particularly affects low trajectory shots. Just for the sake of thoroughness, I'd take it out of the case.

Contact: If the ball is struck centreface, you will get around 1.49 smash. A little bit off, maybe 1.46. You report 1.36. If this was the issue, you would have HUGE variability in ball speed. Just rule it out, what are your highest ball speeds?

ST: It is extremely rare for ST to read ball speeds accurately for all clubs but not driver.

There you have it. Nothing is likely ... but it is something.

The way to settle this is to hit side by side with Trackman. The other things I'd try: Remove case. Also, lower ST or raise your mat. Not permanently just for few shots. Finally, if you could post the full ball data for say 5-10 shots, it would be helpful. Just export to csv and then copy and paste.

[Liqdaddymac]

Thanks chaps, I will have a play a bit later with it not in the case to see how that fairs as that’s the one thing I haven’t tried actually. I can feel my driver swing getting worse and worse as I get more frustrated🙈

[Zarakoff]

I get really good readings with 3 wood and driver often after a session always finish with a few long drive challenges
my ball speed is 160mph
and my club head speed is always between 107 and 110
if I can keep my spin low 2000’s I can just creep past 300 yards 306 my longest on there
high spin 280 yard with same speed
carrying 275

what’s your spin with driver ?
My setting are just normal no wind firm
you haven’t got wind into have you ??

[frankiepap39]

if it is a consistent issue that wont go away with any real solution, you could always just add driver boost in the game settings to get you up to distance.... i know its not ideal and using a rescue etc
driver boost will gain distance... in the ST range you will have to adjust altitudes etc - again not ideal but if no other solution works......

[Liqdaddymac]

OK,

Put a new hitting section in my matt (Huxley Matt) and dont understand how that could help or maybe it was just getting it off my chest that has helped but ball speed etc where I think it should be now.

Maybe froom all this indoor play I have developed a slight over the top move as spin normaly maxes out high 2000's and hopefully skytrak wasnt aligned correctly as I cant remember last time I was that far left 5 shots in a row!!

SHOT	HAND	BALL	LAUNCH	BACK	SIDE	SIDE	OFFLINE	CARRY	ROLL	TOTAL	FLIGHT	DSCNT	HEIGHT	CLUB	PTI
#	L/R	MPH	DEG	RPM	RPM	DEG	YD	YD	YD	YD	SEC	DEG	YD	MPH	SCORE
UNDEFINED
AVG		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
DRIVER
1	R	149	12.1	2494	-178	-18.4	-94	237	28	265	6	31.6	24	102	1.47
2	R	145	15	3202	275	-8.5	-30	238	22	260	7	39.9	33	100	1.45
3	R	151	14.8	3645	578	-17.5	-64	244	20	264	7.4	42.6	38	105	1.44
4	R	151	11	3328	190	-17.5	-75	240	22	262	6.7	34.6	27	104	1.45
5	R	144	18.3	2857	41	-13	-62	243	24	267	7.2	42.7	38	99	1.46
AVG		148	14.2	3105	181	-15	-65	240	23	263	6.8	38	32	102	1.45

[Morini]

Well there you have it. Your center face shots got proper ball speed. Your spin, VLA etc is not optimized, but that is another problem for another day. You have the ball speed you should have. Did the mat change by any chance result in the ball being teed up higher versus ST? I am interested in knowing this, because I am certain that when sensors get a full view of the ball, setup does not matter at all. However, I suspect that shots that are just at the lower edge of field of view get robbed of ball speed. I would love to confirm this, as it would help a lot of people with similar issues. Any how congrats on working this one out.

[Morini]

Also you are right at the ball speed where the recent update will help get accurate ball speed. It won't make a difference on TGC2019 yet, but it should help on ST range.

[JamesBurns13]

Hi , just seeing the shed your simulator room is in and it looks similar to what mine will be. Just curious :

1) Is it insulated?
2) Is it loud from the outside and if insulated, does that make a difference to the sound?

Thanks!

[Liqdaddymac]

Hi, sorry just seen this message.
it is insulated and it’s not too loud outside, only hear driver really - have no neighbours though so not too concerned with it.

joe