local driving range adds new toy

[N.V.M.]

One thing that’s really bothered me at our local driving ranges is how do you actually know how far you are hitting the ball? Just as importantly, are you hitting it consistently with whatever club you are using? Sure there are markers out there, and there’s a map posted in every stall with the yardages, but what good are they when one day you’re on the far left stall, the next day on the far right? Are the yardages marked from the center area? Even worse, both the local driving ranges in my area have a hill near the back, just past the 200 yard mark. Although only a couple feet high, there’s no way you can tell where your ball is landing back there,sucks.
Problem solved! Up at Takaya Driving Range(Deep Cove) they have an electronic distance monitor system in place, albeit they are only in 8 or 10 stalls, for now. For $2, you can use it for an hour, and today it was free so I gave it a whirl.
The software is easy to use, and if you’ve used a laptop with a touchpad, you’re good to go. The touchpad is on top of the frame of the LCD monitor, so all you have to do is double click on “New Game”, select which club you are using, and double click on the area you are focusing on…easy!
First, I tried my seven iron. As you can see in the following picture I should have highlighted the 150 yard area,but I screwed up and had 170 selected(no way I can hit a 7 iron 170 yards!). The reason I mention this is because when you hit the ball into the selected area, there’s a round of applause that come out the speaker system,nice! Just keep hitting balls, and every shot is recorded on the screen, you can see the pattern develope . Hopefully you’ll see a cluster, near the target, like this:




Pretty cool,huh? Ball speed, launch angle,distance.
You can also zoom in on your target area,which I did here with my 9 iron:





Next, I decided to see how my new wedge set does. I bought a 52,56,and 60 degree set recently and wanted to see the yardages. I hit 10-12 balls with each wedge and got a readout, and here they are. 52 on the left,56 center and 60 degree on the right.



Gotta like that! I’ve been trying to research the system, but all I know is that it’s called “Hard Drive”. I’ve met the fellow who owns it. He said he’s trying to make a full time business out of it, one range at a time, or at least put one in every stall for now. Hopefully it catches on, and although no matter how well it works, convincing people to use them can be a challenge as I witnessed more than a few times.

[mddubya]

Thats pretty sweet looking. And damn good grouping, on the wedges especially.

Which set did you get?


And can an individual buy that, and if so, how much?

[SilverUberXeno]

That is BEYOND cool.

[N.V.M.]

Which set did you get?


And can an individual buy that, and if so, how much?

F2's, you know, the face forward designed wedges.

and no, you can't buy this to use for yourself because you need a huge area to install it on, not to mention there's posts with reflectors installed every 50 yards or so all the way down the range right down to the back net/fence, with a "transceiver" mounted on the roof of the top deck. you were thinking maybe that this was like some sort of portable device you could just mount in front of the mat? no, it's a lot of hardware to install.

[slickpitt]

That's pretty stinkin cool!

[eclark53520]

Yeh...instead of the LM calculating the distance through the SS LA and other numbers it reads, this system actually senses where the ball lands through i would imagine a similar system that reads bar-codes and relays that to the screen....

Sounds friggin awesome though....how far does it reach? Can the big hitters still throw them out there 300+ and have it read on the screen?

[N.V.M.]

the range is only 280 long, so if you do manage to hit the net(i wish!), you won't get a true read-out.

i should mention that the system is networked to a PC, and you can choose to print out your results and take it home when you're done.

[TheTrueReview]

the range is only 280 long, so if you do manage to hit the net(i wish!), you won't get a true read-out.

....

Hit the net & I'll call you 'Bubba jr'

[ezra76]

Very cool. I think it would be a hit at a lot of ranges. I'd personally love to use it. Especially to see my launch angle with a driver.

[MGP]

They'd have to turn that thing sideways to measure my drives. :laugh:

[N.V.M.]

Hit the net & I'll call you 'Bubba jr'

don't like that guy! how about JB jr?(Holmes)

[LeftyHoges]

That is AWESOME.

I truly wish that someone would open up a range anywhere NEAR where I live (closest is in Geelong, 3 & 1/2 hours away) let alone have that sort of technology installed. For $2 I'd play that every time.

Enjoy your toy you lucky SOB.

[N.V.M.]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned that i have a natural draw, but since you didn't know i'm a righty, i'll let it go...

[TheTrueReview]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned that i have a natural draw ...

... aint a natural draw a beautiful thing ... but perhaps we're biased (or is that "draw biased"?)

[LeftyHoges]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned that i have a natural draw, but since you didn't know i'm a righty, i'll let it go...

We can't tell, those could be pulls. Or you could've started them 30 yards left and brought them back but not enough. rop: