Distance way too short

[helgemr]

I know there was a topic earlier this year on this subject, but the thread ended a few months ago and I never heard if there was a resolution. My distances with the SkyTrak are off my more than 20 yards. I normally hit a 7 iron about 150 (with roll). I hit about 50 shots over 2 days and never got a reading over 130. Most of the readings were about 115. I tried changing the elevation to 10,000ft and that added about 10 yards - still nowhere close. I also changed the angle by propping up the front end or the back end of the unit to effectively change the launch angle, but still didn't get results that were close to reality. Finally, I turned off the lights and that made the biggest difference, but still only got readings close to 130. I also hit about 20 shots with my 3 wood off a tee (which is my normal tee shot) and I only got readings in the 150s. My normal tee shot is about 200. I'm about to return the unit but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[Joko]

I've had similar issues, although I've yet to check it at the range and since I haven't played much golf the last 15 years I'm not as sure of my distances. I haven't adjusted elevation yet however.

[TaS]

Can you compare the components? Ie, is it ball speed, spin, launch angle?

[davray666]

If you read the thread on ST vs. TM you will see some interesting data.
In my case when I practice indoor I have always regarded the mid iron shots such that, what I get in yards in the garage I do in meters on the course.
In many cases for a solid contact shot the diff is even higher.
There are a lot of theories on why that is. Swinging softer, turf friction, birds singing ... To be honest I don't care. What is important is that you know about the difference.
What you should do is take it to the range and validate it. Obviously that will only work if there is no wind, and only for those shots where you can clearly see the landing spot.
As for the distance looking at carry vs. total. I only care about carry. The ST app roll is a bit short vs. what I normally get on the courses I play. But I guess there are courses out there where the ST roll out is spot on.

Another thing that you mentioned that makes no sense is the light. ST has an IR pas filter that will remove most of the the light you have indoor. The LED Flash on the unit is way much more powerful than anything you might have. So normal indoor light on or off, should make no difference. One thing that should not but could make a difference is white or glossy pants or no pants and white legs.

[luv2golf]

Good points davray666. The other thing that seems to be missed here is poster talking about propping up the unit.

Put a torpedo level on it (if you don't own one, go to home depot for $5.00 you can buy one). If the unit is slightly outside the bubble, this can affect the calculations.

Also, reset your skytrak and remove the app. Re-install the app and try again.

Just banging balls isn't the answer. There was another poster here who had the same problems and fixed with a re-install of the app.

[MrHogan]

Are you hitting the same balls on the course as used on the sim? Some range balls i hit are 20 yards down with a 7 iron other range balls are relatively close to real balls, so try to hit to say the 150 yard marker during testing.

[bennyg211]

Range balls can be god awful. I took my Skytrak down the range yesterday and witnessed some frankly ludcirous flights in real life. If I had been hitting these balls into a net with Skytrak the data would be nonsense. The saying of crap in, crap out is true. Range balls are often intended to be 'damped' somewhat to limit the distance, especially on shorter ranges. Generally most ranges (in the UK anyway) had really old balls, they are often used well past there used by date. I'm not sure of the manufactures life on a ball (200 shots, 500, 1000?). But i'd be interested if range operators monitor this, certainly if they do, the 5 or 6 local to me don't tend to do anything about it. Some balls look battered to the point of the dimples ben knocked off!

[helgemr]

I took the SkyTrak to a place that has a TruGolf simulator. As I thought, the SkyTrak readings are about 20-30 yards short (carry). The launch angle was very close, the backspin was somewhat all over the place, and the side spin was impressively close. The major difference was the ball speed. The Skytrak was very consistently 10-11% lower than TruGolf with my 7 iron. The Skytrak was very consistently 13% lower with my 3 wood off a tee. Both systems were being used at the same time so I could compare the readings from the exact same shot. I like the SkyTrak, but without a way to calibrate or adjust it, it's just not good enough. I'd love to hear from the SkyTrak member on this.

[wilson]

This has been flogged to death.
Many corroborating posts about people who have accurate readings, even against Trackman.
I'll repeat for the post that in all my experience (9 months with it) it's accurate to realistically expected results through all my bag now for me.
I normalize at the 75* F 500ft 0 wind settings and feel it's true to what I see on the range with similar conditions.

[helgemr]

That's just the thing that makes this so frustrating. Many people have great results, and some do not. It doesn't make sense that some units would work so well, and others would not, but that seems to be the situation. I know my game well enough (even indoors) to know mine is not working properly, at least not for the way I hit the ball.

[wbond]

Comparing spin to a device that doesn't even measure spin. Probably not a reliable way to do it. As stated, go outside, preferably on a day with no wind, and see if the unit is way off, if so, then contact them for a return.

[helgemr]

I'm really only comparing distance. That's the only thing that seems to be significantly off. I don't need to bring it outside to know how far I hit a 7 iron and a 3 wood. I only compared to another indoor unit to check to see if I hit the ball differently indoors than outdoors.

[wbond]

And your absolutely certain you produce the same swing indoors as you do out??? Many, including myself, have learned that we simply swing better outdoors vs inside.

[ghopper8]

The common theme to all these threads are skytrak outdoor is accurate, indoor may not be. Could it be that skytrak works best with natural light outdoor but may change with certain indoor lighting?

[Bubba22]

I took the SkyTrak to a place that has a TruGolf simulator. As I thought, the SkyTrak readings are about 20-30 yards short (carry). The launch angle was very close, the backspin was somewhat all over the place, and the side spin was impressively close. The major difference was the ball speed. The Skytrak was very consistently 10-11% lower than TruGolf with my 7 iron. The Skytrak was very consistently 13% lower with my 3 wood off a tee. Both systems were being used at the same time so I could compare the readings from the exact same shot. I like the SkyTrak, but without a way to calibrate or adjust it, it's just not good enough. I'd love to hear from the SkyTrak member on this.

I wouldn't compare ST stats with a Trugolf sim. Don't go there! Some folks feel the distances are short with ST. Have you tested it at a outdoor matted, level range yet? Make sure it's a mat (not real grass), no wind and only focus on the carry distance.

[helgemr]

I've seen side by side comparison between TruGolf and the GC2 which was very very close. Everyone seems to think the GC2 is the benchmark, so I'm comfortable comparing to the TruGolf.

[doublebogey]

Agree w Bubba22. I've learned to trust ST instead of complaining about it not being accurate. Like others, I have taken it out on range and distance seems fine. Recently playing w WGT beta but realizing my irons are coming up shorter than usual, instead of questioning WGT I went back to ST driving range app and indeed my distance shorter there too - prob too excited about WGT beta and been hitting so much this weekend I messed up my swing.

I don't know about others but I'm quite an amateur at golf so there is no way I "know" my distances w all my clubs at all time (they go off when I don't play for a while or pick up bad habits, etc.) so I prefer something like ST to tell me I'm off so I can correct/improve my swing instead of complaining that ST is off and pretend my swing is all good.

And again I do believe people swing differently indoor / in a yard vs. outdoors in a range or on the course (must be psychological) hence ST always seem to come up short.

[TurfWar]

It seems to me that I'm getting a significant difference in distance when I either draw or fade a ball. I'm aware that a real world fade won't go as far as a draw, but usually you're talking half a club, or thereabouts. Last night a well struck 7 iron was going around 150-160 yards when hit with a draw, and only about 120-130 when hit with a fade. This is by no means a scientific study, but a pattern that I noticed over an hour or so of play.

So could it be that people reporting short distances have a tendency to fade the ball and the SkyTrak algorithms could do with a tweak when calculating the affect of positive vs negative spin axis as it relates to side angle?

[wilson]

Answer to that is simple - hit a fade and note the ball speed, launch angle, spin. Do the same for a draw.
Compare and contrast if your ball speeds are similar.

If there is significant difference in carry on similar ball speed then you can start looking for answers (swing AoA etc usually).
Traj Optimizer has zero distance deviation on angle of spin for the same launch condition readings.

[TurfWar]

Thanks Wilson, it'd be hard to argue with your logic.

So, this evening I hit 40 drives and noticed that the average total distance was 200 yards. This is around 30-45 yards shorter than my real world average. I have really high ceilings and plenty of space and am not afraid to do a full swing and given I really battered a few balls I really don't put this down to the theory that I might be hitting slower due to being inside. Understanding this does anyone have any ideas on what may be causing this? I'm expecting it to be the fact that I haven't placed spirit levels on my mat or the ST unit itself and perhaps they aren't' level with each other and therefor the displayed launch angles are showing higher than they actually are.

It's worth noting that I am inconsistent with face strike and thought perhaps my smash factor was lower tonight than it usually is. Having said that, of the 40 balls I hit, enough of them were hit from the sweet spot and even they were not much more than 200 yards total.

I experimented with tee height, spine tilt, ball position, strong/weak grip, choking up/down and a few other swing thoughts including lag to try and increase swing speed but no matter what I did, the ball wasn't travelling much further than 200 yards.

Thanks guys, would love to hear your opinions.