SkyTrak Carry Distance Seems Low

[hdtact]

I just got a SkyTrak about a week ago. Initially I was having issues with ball speed and launch angles being too low. After adjusting several things in the setup of my room I am now able to get ball speeds and launch angles where I think they should be. The reason I am confident in my numbers is that I routinely hit on a GC Quad at GolfTec.

Having said that, even with virtually the same ball speed, launch angle, and spin rate as the GC Quad, the SkyTrak carry distances are about 4-5% lower. Based on my experience on the course, I'm pretty confident the GC Quad numbers are correct. Has anyone else experienced low carry distances on SkyTrak? They must use a different formula for calculating carry distance than GC Quad. Does anyone know of a tool/formula on the web for how to calculate carry distance based on ball speed, launch angle, and spin rate?

[Morini]

Ball speeds are accurate on Skytrak and there is not setting or setup tweak that can change that. If your ball speeds went up, it was because the ball was actually moving faster. Skytrak is not fickle when it comes to accuracy, despite what some people seem to think. It does need to be set at correct height, and there should be nothing reflective in view of the sensors. Those will lead to no-reads and obvious misreads, but will not make you hit consistently short etc.

With regards to the ball flight model, all ball flight models differ slightly. For example, if you look at Trackman data and punch it into Flightscope trajectory optimizer, they will be a few yards apart. Overall, despite not taking spin decay into account, Skytraks model is solid and definitely is not short on average. Also, remember this issue is not hardware related, and won't have any impact on say TGC2019, as it has its own ball flight model (regardless of sim).

Was your skytrak set to spin axis of side spin? If side spin, keep in mind that the number you see for backspin is only the vector, not total spin. It could make quite a bit of difference, especially if you have ball curvature. Change it from sidespin/backspin to spin axis/total spin for easier comparisons.

If you want a second opinion about carry distance, use Flightscope Trajectory Optimizer. Just google it.

[hdtact]

Thank you very much! I've been trying to do comparisons on shots with very low side spin because I know that makes a difference.

That Flightscope Trajectory Optimizer is just what I was looking for! Very cool. It does give me some comfort around the SkyTrak numbers. It obviously doesn't match perfectly, and varies a little bit by club, but pretty reasonable.

[Morini]

There is raging debate between Foresight, Flightscope and TM ball flight models all are slightly different. And remember, ball flight models are not hardware. That is what I like about TGC2019, it uses its own.