Launch Monitors, what stats do you need ?

We've had a couple of email questions in the ForeGolf inbox about launch monitors and the data or numbers they produce.

Every machine from Trackman to Vector has been touted as the “BEST” machine for getting the correct numbers. Tour players use them, top golf companies test with them and even TV production companies use them to get shot data for their live broadcasts.

The normal club golfer has lately become obsessed with the data from these machines and it’s starting to be more important to get the “right” numbers rather than the right club.

Amateur golfers should really focus on their individual course stats and not their golf equipment stats. On Tour there is a firm focus on playing stats like percentage of fairways in regulation and putts per round. Focusing on how fast your ball speed is dangerous, if your fairways in regulation is not good.

We use a Flightscope X2 and before that a MATT-I machine. So what do we use it for? Well essentially all the machines do the same thing. The information they produce on what the ball is doing and in turn what the player has done helps us to back up what we see in the air.

We use the machine mainly to check three parts of the ball flight (1) Ball Speed  (2) Launch Angle  (3) Spin Rate

These three factors determine - distance and can highlight a certain amount of flight control.

We would check these numbers - to make sure we are close to the optimum factors for each golfer’s ability or to help explain our findings.

So, the question is   "why do people need to focus on what these numbers are"  ? The truth is they don’t and it won’t make any difference to the success of the fitting or whether the club will work or not!

What is important, is how the club is built to match you.

Well, it’s a bit like the ingredients of your favourite cake. You know you like the cake and when you eat it you enjoy the taste so do you really need to know what it’s made of? Will this new found knowledge somehow make the cake taste better?

I remember working on Tour and while being trained in the US my tutor was very reluctant to let me near a launch monitor. He said I would not develop the “eye” for the ball and he was right.

He also said that "the use of a launch monitor as the only route to success will leave the technician “one dimensional” and “detached” from the players real needs".

The machine cannot fit for feel nor can it do anything other then what you tell it. The numbers say the club is perfect but the player cannot feel the head nor does he like the look and colour of it – in that case do the numbers really matter?

Golfers are getting lost in the stats and are missing the important things like how the club is built and the quality of the build. If the fitting session and the results revolve around the stats and then the club is built wrong – the numbers don’t matter.

A better use of the stats of ball speed and spin, is to determine the best golf ball to use. Many golfers are using the wrong golf ball and these stats of speed be analysed to determine the right type of ball for your game.

Launch monitors in the right hands can be very helpful, but they won’t make hitting the ball any easier or better. It’s the interpretation of the data; the quality of shaft component and how the club is built, that will make you hit the ball better and more consistently.

Ultimately, It’s the club-maker that makes the ball flight better, not the machine.

-Derek