I had planned on going out on a new course today, but Mother Nature had other plans. It snowed yesterday, just enough to cover the ground and then froze solid overnight. I decided to treat myself to a Top Tracer practice round at the SPGC since I’m generally too cheap to buy a launch monitor. An hour on Top Tracer and a bucket of 80 balls cost $18. I ended up hitting half and three-quarter sand wedges, pitching wedge, 8-iron, 5-iron, 4-wood and driver. For some unknown reason, I am a worse ball striker on the range than I am on the golf course. Perhaps it’s hitting off the mats, getting tired from hitting that many shots in a short period of time or it could be that I subconsciously trying to squeeze just a little more distance out of a club since you get automatic feedback on the results. Whatever the reason, I don’t play to my 18.1 handicap when I go there.
If you haven’t done Top Tracer or used a launch monitor, it’s pretty sweet that they can pull that much data together each time you hit the ball. Top Tracer reports the carry distance, total distance, ball speed, launch angle, peak flight height, landing angle, hang time, how much the ball curved left or right and how offline the shot was. After each shot, you can look at the monitor in your bay to see the results, including a graphic, and while that is interesting, I find it much more helpful to look at the data collected on my phone after I get home and potentially comparing it with future practice sessions. If you want to do that, you need to download the Top Tracer app on your phone (before you go to the range) and set up an account, all of which is free. When you get to the range, you pay for Top Tracer in the pro shop and then scan the QR code in the bay to get it to sync with your account. In addition to SPCG, Top Tracer is also available at the Mountain Branch Golf Course in Joppa and the Pine Ridge Golf Course in Timonium. The app also allows the user to play several games that require you to hit a ball at specific targets, but I haven’t tried any of those yet. If you don’t have a launch monitor, you should try it. It will only cost you $18.
What were the big takeaways from the range session? First, it appears that about 95% of my wedge shots landed left of the target. That wasn’t something I had picked up during my last couple of rounds, but it does explain the number of greens that I’m missing. And now that I’m thinking about it, I was almost always chipping towards the pin from the left side. Until I can get back to the range and check my alignment, I’m going to start aiming toward the right side of the green to try to improve my greens in regulation. Second, there was a lot more consistency with my 4-wood off the deck than I’ve had in the past, and it was a little more than 10 yards longer than my 3-iron. I probably should pull that out on my second shot at the par 5s and maybe even on the tee shot on some of the tight, short par 4s. Lastly, my 5-iron was erratic at best, meaning my longer irons need some attention.
And no, I’m not getting anything from Top Tracer or the SPGC. Clayt