I am an engineer and care about club path, club face, and ball flight. I am interested in analysis, not simulating courses. I have owned a computer for the last 40 years and never have played a game. I have zero interest in simulating courses. I like camera monitor approach because I don’t need room behind me to develop ball flight. All radar monitors need a lot of room ~10ft min behind the monitor in addition to ~12ft in front. So if you have a radar based monitor, you need a longer range for acurracy. I don’t have that room. I opted for keeping my cycle shop plus the driving range.
Subscription - I have range software from Foresight for a year, then $250 a year after the first year. I will be buying better software for less money after the first year.
My SkyTrak is also photometric, and it only measures ball data directly, so I can’t get accurate data on club path or face angle from my current set-up. (The newer SkyTrak+ measures both club data and ball data.) From what I’ve read, your Bushnell Launch Pro looks like a great piece of equipment, especially if you don’t need to buy any course simulations.
On the other hand, I do enjoy playing Cypress Point on my basement simulator while the snow piles up outside the windows.
Radar & Camera - can use a more compact range w/ strictly camera based set-up. In addition, I have used the Garmin R6 - radar based and hated it… also used the SC-300 and hated it. I have dropped 2 shots out of 500 w/ this set up… I love this set up.
Forgot - it is scarey accurate and base a lot of club selection on what I see w/ this monitor. When I transition the shots to outdoor range, the BLP is very accurate.
Mats - I have a Rain or Shine 5ft X 5ft mat that I love. Can use tees and feels really good using. I have used many mats and find this one excellent. In addition I can rotate it 90degrees every year to extend life due to its geometry.
Guess I’m on the Rory bandwagon, even though Wyndham Clark is from my part of town (not where I live now, but where I grew up).
I’m basically for anyone not LIV. Oddly, I’ve never been fond of any of those guys, but even cheered for Sergio (up there with Patrick Reed for my least favorite golfer on the planet) one time.
Not being a golfer it looks like a huge waste of time, energy and water to me. But I have never been a stick and ball fan in general so there’s that issue.
I dont understand why you would want to hit a little ball with a club as hard as you can, go looking for it in the tall grass, find it and repeat.
I have sympathy for this position. I’m especially sensitive to water usages. The water most courses use is “recycled” water that’s not safe for drinking. I suppose some people think that class A amps, or similar audio usages, are also a huge waste of energy.
A golf addiction thrives on hope and intermittent reinforcement. Golf is too hard to hit a perfect shot every time, but being able to hit a good shot at varying and unpredictable intervals simply strengthens the hope that the next shot will be a great one. Those people who never develop enough skill at golf to hit even an occasional good shot are unlikely to enjoy the game or stick with it.
For me, some of the best memories of my youth revolve around warm summer evenings playing golf with my dad and brother.
My golf skill has declined greatly from 10 years ago, but I enjoy walking four hours per round on beautiful courses, three times a week. That has kept me fit and doing something different from sitting all day. This is a great sport for a retiree.
My wife is happy that I am not home every single day listening and tweaking the audio system.
One of my lifelong friends is a golf geek though and I do understand the attraction.
He builds his own clubs, builds and adjusts clubs for others.
We use one of my CNC machines to position his fixtures to get the lie and loft angles dead nuts where he wants them for the particular use he has in mind. We made some custom tooling to bend the heads with.
He also fusses with different duro grips, shaft materials (metals and carbon fiber) and lengths among other tweaks.
He designed a few really cool putters that I converted to CAD and machined them from billets of aluminum for him.
They had changeable tungsten nose and tail weights. That was a fun project.
He just turned 80 and has been golfing since he was in grade school. It’s a cool hobby just not for me.
Edit:
I did enjoy watching Tiger from childhood and do watch the Masters but that’s about it for me.
