Very inaccurate Skytrak...please help!

[vinchenzo319]

I just received my brand new Skytrak Friday and set it up nice and level, aligned, and even with the hitting surface. My 10yr old daughter plays and hits her driver about 150yds. The Skytrak is only saying 100yds. She knows when she hits it on the nose, from the sound and feel, you just know. I even verified how far she hits with a laser range finder. Can anyone please help?! I haven't called Skytak people yet, hoping its just something I missed.

[thorin33]

Have you set the elevation to what your current elevation is? This is what did it for me.

[vinchenzo319]

Altitude is only at 1300 ft. Like I said in another post, maybe I should set my altitude to 30,000 ft. and bombs away.

[vinchenzo319]

Just curious, what is your altitude set to?

[thorin33]

Didn't realize that elevation was only 1% per 1000 ft. I live in Calgary so I set my elevation to 3438 feet

[Morini]

Total or carry? What is ball speed and launch angle? A child hitting driver is probably not the easiest way to confirm distance.

[vinchenzo319]

Total carry was just over 100 yds on a very good strike. I can't recall exactly what her specs were...I think her ball speed was somewhere 55-60 mph and launch angle ~18-20. I know there's some error, but the discrepancy I am seeing is huge, especially with driver for both of us. Not as much with my irons, but significant enough where I could be a whole club short, maybe 8-10yds.

I read somewhere on this forum that tee color could cause some interference. I am currently using white tees. I haven't experimented with it yet, but it sounds plausible. Also tee position...inch or 2 behind the red dot. I did try that the other night and seemed to help a little bit. Any thoughts?

Our altitude in Kansas is only 1300 ft. but I'll definitely adjust that. Maybe I should adjust it to 30,000 ft so my daughter and I can feel better about ourselves! It'll be like playing golf on Mt Everest.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Morini]

Total carry was just over 100 yds on a very good strike.

Sorry just to clear that up, when you are comparing distances to real life are you comparing total or carry? Look at carry only. The roll out physics have nothing to do with hardware and are difficult to compare.

When my daughter was the same age her driver total was around that distance ... maybe a little less, but her carry could be 120 or 100 or 80. Her ball speed was relatively consistent, but a few degrees difference in launch angle totally changes carry but not total at those swing speeds.

Chances are that your unit reads perfectly. Don't spend time reading a thousand threads and worrying about tee color, sock color, ball position etc. None of those will cause a distance short falls. They can cause no-reads and on rare occasions very obvious misreads.

Always good to look at ball speed first to see if it is reasonable and work from there. If your daughter's ball speed was 55-60 mph in real life, it would only go 150 yards total with concrete like fairways. I think my daughter was around 60 mph club head speed that age, and 90 ball speed, total 140-150 on our course.

Here are the common causes of distance short fall (copied from my post in another thread):

Most of the time, the unit is reading the ball correctly. Here are the common causes of distance shortfall:

• Club mat interaction: A grabby mat can slow down the face. Also some poor quality mats result in very high launch. If you took your mat outside, you would see similar distance as the Skytrak reads.
• Cheap or cracked ball.
• Indoor swing syndrome: If you are new to swinging inside and your space is not huge, most people will subconsciously feel a bit cramped and will swing slower. This is almost universal, and there is ample evidence that it is real.
• Shorter real world distance than believed: It happens. Unless you have a spotter, or can find your pitch mark to laser back, it can be hard to know exact carry. And some golfers (myself included) have a tendency to want use our best strikes as our average.
• Miscalibrated skytrak: Rare, but there has been a small number.

[Morini]

Oh, and my recommendation is that you do any trouble shooting yourself. Kids can go on an emotional roller coaster when their distances aren't what are used to. I can't even count how many times my kids come in from the garage upset and telling me that "Skytrak's broken". I used to panic thinking they smashed it, but it just read a club short for a couple of shots, lol.

[Randy E]

I have SKYTRAK and MEVO (last years version) so I can calibrate them against each other. To do that in Cypress TX at 149 ft above sea level I cranked my humidity to 70%, elevation to 9500 ft and temperature to 70 degrees. My distances are fairly consistent to being on the course.

[Morini]

Interesting use of the MEVO. I assume that the MEVO reads club head speed accurately, and also gives you a second opinion on ball speed.

[Morini]

On second thought, if drivers are giving both you and your daughter significant trouble, but not irons, it is possible that your case does not have a good fit. It can particularly affect low trajectory shots such as drivers and woods. Normally, it would be an increase in no-reads, but there have been anecdotal reports of reduced distance. If nothing else seems to resolve it, I would take it out of the case and hit a few. Just be very careful.

[richerod]

Sometimes I have experienced the Skytrak is more responsive to short chips with the full metal jacket removed. Probably coincidence but ....

[Morini]

Not coincidence. It seems that low shots get partially cut off in some cases ... as mentioned likely ill fitting case. It should struggle with 3 wood as well as it is similar trajectory to a low running chip.

[richerod]

I see a Uneekor in my future.....if I only had 6k under my mattress.

[Morini]

Uneekor is great solution if you don't need portability and don't mind the need for marked balls. WRT Skytrak, I am starting to believe that the FMJ is a huge mistake that is causing a lot of the problems reported. Shots going at 45 degree angle are typically not full power. I do think some type of protection is needed, but FMJ is overkill, and think the cut outs margins are too small. I got the plastic case. No issues whatsoever. Theoretically, it is possible to hit the unit and break it with this case. But chances are very very small, and I will take perfect reads any day.

[vinchenzo319]

Thanks everyone for your input...the FMJ is a must for me since I do have kids that like to use it. I may try it myself w/o the FMJ and see as suggested, just out of curiosity, but Murphy's Law and all...

Re: Online play in Societies on TGC 2019...what settings are used for online play for tournaments? I found the TGC settings where you can add boost points for different clubs. Is there a standard setting for these? I'm tempted to up these to what I know are normal distances for me. But I don't want to cheat when I play in tourneys.

Thanks everyone!
Vince

[Parshooter36]

The official ProTee societies allow a 5% boost. Most other societies follow this as well.

[Morini]

The chances of hitting the unit on a half dozen swings by a skilled golfer is like 1 in 10,000.

[Physed44]

I just received my SkyTrak yesterday. I have been golfing for over 45 years and have an 8 handicap. So I have a good idea what my yardage is. With an 8 iron it was 20 to 30 yards short. Tried adjusting altitude and height of SkyTrak to mat. It helped but if I cannot get to be more accurate I probably will send it back.

[wbond]

Have you taken it outside to a range to confirm it’s a problem with the unit?

[thorin33]

When I first got my Skytrak I thought that it measured short as well. However it was really just me....now that I practice more and am used to swinging indoors, the Skytrak mimics my real life distances very accurately.

[s0707]

I just received my SkyTrak yesterday. I have been golfing for over 45 years and have an 8 handicap. So I have a good idea what my yardage is. With an 8 iron it was 20 to 30 yards short. Tried adjusting altitude and height of SkyTrak to mat. It helped but if I cannot get to be more accurate I probably will send it back.

To forum moderators: There should be a sticky message in this Skytrak subforum with a clear message like "If you're new to Skytrak, and think it is under-reading your yardage, PLEASE READ FIRST" ...

Please read: https://gunghogolf.com/articles/indo...ndrome-skytrak

It seems like we all go through the same process when we first start with Skytrak... After a while we begin to trust it and make peace with it. I'm not a good golfer, but experts say it's very accurate, comparable to more expensive launch monitors like Trackman, GC2, etc. I've owned my Skytrak about 6 months and I'm barely getting what I thought I should get in yardage, perhaps 5% of the time; but for me there are other factors: I'm getting old (loss of muscle), returning to golf after a 15+ year hiatus, trying to rebuild my swing, etc.

[Physed44]

I have played in leagues with golf simulator. They have never been very different from my normal yardage. I have not given up on it yet. But it is still under 30 day warranty.

[Morini]

I just received my SkyTrak yesterday. I have been golfing for over 45 years and have an 8 handicap. So I have a good idea what my yardage is. With an 8 iron it was 20 to 30 yards short. Tried adjusting altitude and height of SkyTrak to mat. It helped but if I cannot get to be more accurate I probably will send it back.

If you opened your garage door, removed net/screen and hit a shot to the outside, and measured it, chances are that the measured distance and Skytrak readings are identical. As such, you are really trying to figure out why you are short rather than why Skytrak is inaccurate. That is not a reflection on you, as most of us have been through this.

Just to cut to the chase, hit an iron off a short tee, and compare ball data to hitting off your mat. Second, is your distance shortfall higher the longer the club?

Rather than write up the same thing every time, I will just quote myself from another thread:

Set up can cause misreads in a couple of ways. If the unit is tilted it will mess up launch angle and spin axis (depending on which way it is tilting). As long as the bubble is flat, it should be good. Setup issues are unlikely to cause distance short falls. There are literally dozens of threads from new users who are concerned about shortfall in carry distances. Most of the time, the unit is reading the ball correctly. Here are the common causes of distance shortfall:

• Club mat interaction: A grabby mat can slow down the face. Also some poor quality mats result in very high launch. If you took your mat outside, you would see similar distance as the Skytrak reads.
• Cheap or cracked ball.
• Indoor swing syndrome: If you are new to swinging inside and your space is not huge, most people will subconsciously feel a bit cramped and will swing slower. This is almost universal, and there is ample evidence that it is real.
• Shorter real world distance than believed: It happens. Unless you have a spotter, or can find your pitch mark to laser back, it can be hard to know exact carry. And some golfers (myself included) have a tendency to want use our best strikes as our average.
• Miscalibrated skytrak: Rare, but there has been a small number.

Chances are good that it is one of these. The quickest way to figure it out is to take unit outside on a windless day. Avoid direct sun on unit. Use premium balls and use a spotter if possible. Alternatively, if you have access to Trackman, do a side by side (actually side by behind) comparison.

If those aren't possible, you need to eliminate these causes one by one until you find it. If you eliminate the first 4, then you need to get a hold of Skytrak to get it re-calibrated/replaced. Why don't you post some ball data?

[3on3putt]

If you're 20 to 30 yards short with an 8-iron, there's something going on there that isn't the skytrak. Skytrak is simply not that inaccurate. Is it perfect? No. But its been tested against trackman and performed neck and neck. My skytrak is spot on to my real life distances as well as my friend's when he comes over to play. It's an accurate machine. Proper setup is key, as are all the things listed above by Morini. For whatever reason, some people have drastically different experiences with the skytrak than others. But its not like they are shipping out some units that work extremely well and others that are faulty (I'm sure faulty units happen and exist, but I bet it's awfully rare).