Trackman & Putting

[JohnnyBill]

Recently did a demo with Trackman as I am considering a Trackman 4 purchase. Demo went pretty well & overall I was impressed with the functionality of the unit. I would mainly use indoors for simulator & will be used by left & right handed players

One of the questions or concerns I had were the putting features. Formerly I have used a Trugolf & E6 software where as putting was set to 4ft gimme. I notice on the proprietary Trackman simulator software that lowest we can go is 8ft gimme.

Does the Trackman not read putts under 8ft?

What if I have a putt that is 10ft in length but is 9inches downhill. Obviously I would need to treat that as a 4-5ft putt. Will Trackman have an issue reading that putt?

If anyone has any experience regarding how well the Trackman unit is for simulator putting please share. What are your likes & dislikes about the Trackman putting.

[StuartG]

Sorry, no experience w/ TM putting - but in general sim play, for putting, the limitations are not generally the accuracy of the sensor - but how well coordinated and sync'd it is with the actual display. IMO, those types of short comings makes anything inside of 6ft a bit random - and therefor really pointless.

[wbond]

It's definitely related to accuracy of the sensor for skytrak. I've never done a test to see how well a gc2 reads for short putts.

[JohnnyBill]

I coming from a Trugolf system & we never had any difficulty when set at 4ft gimme or even putting ball in from less than 4ft. Didn't seem to be inaccurate by any means as far as I could tell. Was just trying to see if someone has experience putting on the Trackman simulator set up & how well it works or doesn't work.

[mthunt]

I played 36 yesterday on TM4. It can handle shorter putts. I don’t know why its 8 feet. I had some 8 footers down hill and we played at 11 feet.

[JohnnyBill]

mthunt - Thanks for your response. This is the feedback I was hoping to get from someone. I don't know why the lowest setting is 8ft for gimme either. I suppose it speeds up play in a commercial environment though I would be playing as a private owner among friends so time not really an issue.

Do you remember what you had the stimp rating set at when you played?

I was wondering if at a slower stimp rating you would need to hit putts a little firmer & maybe Trackman would be able to read them a little better?

Trackman is high up on my radar. I like their own software plus could play E6 connect if I decided to go that route. Also plays TGC I believe. Not sure if they will integrate to TGC2019.

[mthunt]

Stimp was 11 feet

[LEO MODE]

I own Trackman 4. The reason why they have set it to 8ft (and to be honest they should make it to 10ft) is because Trackman just simply can't handle slower putt (around less than 5mph putt). It's a hardware limitation. They would either need a much faster built-in camera or revamped radar system to make slower ball speed (which was why Trackman 3 couldn't read chip/putt but now Trackman 4 can using Dual Radar).

But for me, I get frustrated a lot by using Trackman for putting. It has so many non-reads which makes me repeat the putt again. Sometimes the short chip wouldn't read either (it's gotten better with the later firmware though). Until they enable lower speed putts, I don't really recommend you to use putting on Trackman. I mean seriously you cannot always 1 putt within 10ft, as even PGA pros can only make 40-50% on 10ft.

[JohnnyBill]

LEO MODE Thank you for your insight. Although I'm a little disappointed to hear that you feel the putting isn't on par with the rest of the unit. For what they charge I think it should work a little better.

What would you recommend for reading putts better? I would be using mainly for sim purpose & will have both left & right handed players. Would I have the same issues with Flightscope reading putts? Only other options I can think of would be the GC Hawk or Trugolf Truflight 2 which mount overhead.

I do like that Trackman 4 integrates with TGC & E6 connect though. It's nice to have software options. The putting is really giving me pause on Trackman 4 though. Maybe they will address the putting short comings with the Trackman 5 when & if it ever releases. In talking with the Trackman rep he indicated how committed they are in the simulation aspect of their product. He also mentioned that he thought they will be adding an online component to their simulator software as well by possibly end of this year.

[mthunt]

LEO MODE Thank you for your insight. Although I'm a little disappointed to hear that you feel the putting isn't on par with the rest of the unit. For what they charge I think it should work a little better.

What would you recommend for reading putts better? I would be using mainly for sim purpose & will have both left & right handed players. Would I have the same issues with Flightscope reading putts? Only other options I can think of would be the GC Hawk or Trugolf Truflight 2 which mount overhead.

I do like that Trackman 4 integrates with TGC & E6 connect though. It's nice to have software options. The putting is really giving me pause on Trackman 4 though. Maybe they will address the putting short comings with the Trackman 5 when & if it ever releases. In talking with the Trackman rep he indicated how committed they are in the simulation aspect of their product. He also mentioned that he thought they will be adding an online component to their simulator software as well by possibly end of this year.

Flightscope cannot read putts or chips. TM is really solid. I was impressed with putting and we played 8 foot gimmies on fast greens. The hawk is a really good option as well but you're stuck with their software. Another option people don't talk about enough is two GC2's. The thing about using 2 GC2's over a centered unit such as TM or FS or the Hawk is you can set up 2 GC2's in an offset room which takes your minimum width from 15 to 12. Something to think about.

[mthunt]

I didn't know FS got putting working. New one for me but my club has 2 2 GC2 sim's working fine without unplugging and plugging in. They are USB connected and it works fine.

[StuartG]

Which software?

[mthunt]

Foresight software

[PGA PB]

I own Trackman 4. The reason why they have set it to 8ft (and to be honest they should make it to 10ft) is because Trackman just simply can't handle slower putt (around less than 5mph putt). It's a hardware limitation. They would either need a much faster built-in camera or revamped radar system to make slower ball speed (which was why Trackman 3 couldn't read chip/putt but now Trackman 4 can using Dual Radar).

But for me, I get frustrated a lot by using Trackman for putting. It has so many non-reads which makes me repeat the putt again. Sometimes the short chip wouldn't read either (it's gotten better with the later firmware though). Until they enable lower speed putts, I don't really recommend you to use putting on Trackman. I mean seriously you cannot always 1 putt within 10ft, as even PGA pros can only make 40-50% on 10ft.

Are you using the metallic dots on the balls? We seems to find that it misses almost every time on putts and short chips when the metallic dots are on the ball but not when using a ball without the dots. Just wondering if others have found a similar result

[LEO MODE]

Are you using the metallic dots on the balls? We seems to find that it misses almost every time on putts and short chips when the metallic dots are on the ball but not when using a ball without the dots. Just wondering if others have found a similar result

No issues with metallic dots on putting for me. Not scientifically proven but I did have a better experience in capturing putting when I was using a yellow ball instead of a white ball. Why don't you try a yellow ball for putting and let me know how that went for you.

[jll62]

Are you using the metallic dots on the balls? We seems to find that it misses almost every time on putts and short chips when the metallic dots are on the ball but not when using a ball without the dots. Just wondering if others have found a similar result

I've seen the same behavior. When putting or hitting chips inside 10-15 yards, the shot is not picked up if the dot is aligned in the normal location. Hitting these shots without a dot has solved the problem for me. It was driving me crazy until I figured this out.

[Dax]

Are you using the metallic dots on the balls? We seems to find that it misses almost every time on putts and short chips when the metallic dots are on the ball but not when using a ball without the dots. Just wondering if others have found a similar result

I just tried some short chips and without a dot I was able to get chips with a total distance of 2.3 yards to register pretty consistently. When I used a ball with a dot the shortest I could get was about six yards. Uploading some software on my computer tonight and so was not able to test on on putting.

[Maburke]

Hey folks, I have TM4 and really don't have any issues with the putting or short chips. Never use the dots so maybe that is why I don't have problems. The only thing I find is that one out of every 15 or so 8-10 foot putts seems to take off and go about 30 ft. Not sure what causes that glitch yet but a quick mulligan solves it as it is obvious when it happens. I have my stimp set to match my turf at 9. I would also like to see shorter gimme range but would never think to play without putting. We find it very accurate. In fact, everyone in the room generally knows if the putt has a chance, is missing right or left when it's hit. Just have your radar in a consistent position and calibrate bang on before playing and it is golden.

[Dax]

Hey folks, I have TM4 and really don't ahve any issues with the putting or short chips. Never use the dots so maybe that is why I don't have problems. The only thing I find is that one out of every 15 or so 8-10 foot putts seems to take off and go about 30 ft. Not sure what causes that glitch yet but a quick mulligan solves it as it is obvious when it happens. I have my stimp set to match my turf at 9. I would also like to see shorter gimme range but would never think to play without putting. We find it very accurate. In fact, everyone in the room generally knows if the putt has a chance, is missing right or left when it's hit. Just have your radar in a consistent position and calibrate bang on before playing and it is golden.

Maburke when you say calibrate before hand are you doing both a calibration for the range and putting before hand or just the range? Also, what sim software are you using. I have a lot of putts in now, and have not seen the 30 yarder like you describe