Been looking at the S.C 300 and the Garmin g80. The reviews on both are all over he place.
Anyone have either of these?

I've used the SwingCaddy and found it to be inconsistent (i.e. not accurate). No experience with the garmin G80.

I do like the Flightscope Mevo. It's not perfect, but at the price point for consumer launch monitors, it's as good as I think you can get these days.

The next step up would be something like SkyTrak, which is leaps and bounds ahead of the budget products, but spendier (around $2K - but look for used).

My price range is under 500
Hard to spend that on something that is not consistent.

Try out the Mevo - $499.

Mevo ~ I really want a Mevo Plus but it is $2K.

For your budget, the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor appears to get pretty decent reviews. It uses your phone's camera. Cons: It doesn't do spin rate and people have had mixed success with it hitting into a net.

Here's is a review and review thread on it: Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor Review and Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor - THP Review Thread

Here's a recent thread on personal launch monitors on THP: Launch monitors for personal use

You might want to hold off until finding out whatever this, from one of the site staff, means, though:

quote:

Early testing for me though, we have a number of launch monitors that do function so I’m just hopeful they work for others

It seems to kinda sorta maybe imply they might be doing a personal/mobile launch monitor shoot-out. (Have never seen them do an equipment shoot-out, before, though.)

I bought a Garmin G80 via the Black Friday deals, when they sold for $100 less than normal. I looked at a lot of reviews and realized anything that costs less than $8k to $10k has many compromises. Rick Shiels' comparison video of the G80 is the final thing that pushed me to the G80. Rick stated that the club head speed and ball speed figures from the G80 are extremely close to the GC Quad, which is considered by many the most accurate launch monitor on the market.

I have not yet used the G80's GPS functions, as I haven't played golf yet. I can state that its course library is extensive, and that the distance data seems spot on for the local courses I've played.

My first time with the G80 at the driving range didn't set well with me. But it turned out my ball striking consistency that day just sucked. I live at a little over 5,000 feet altitude, and the G80's ball flight algorithms are set for sea level. This means I must always add 6% to the G80's carry distance figures to get more reasonable distances for me. Furthermore, realize that beyond 225 yards or so, the G80 tends to underestimate carry distances by quite a bit.

To make things even more fun, beat-to-hell POS range balls don't fly nearly as well as my preferred Titleist Pro V1 balls. So....the distance capabilities of the G80 aren't the best -- consistently underestimating them for me.

I compare the G80 when I practice indoors at the local PGA Superstore. They have a GC Quad in one bay and GC 2s in the rest. My G80 tends to show clubhead speed of 0-1 mph slower than the GC units -- which is fantastic IMO. Ball speed on the G80 tends to be 1-2 mph slower than the GC units -- not bad at all. Of course the G80 provides no data on spin rates. From the GC units I've found spin rates with my Titleist Pro V1 balls isn't an issue. I spin the ball pretty well when I hit irons cleanly. I'm told that a good spin rate is 1,000 RPM per club number -- as in 7,000 RPM for a 7 iron. But also understand that my irons are old. My 7 iron has a 33 degree loft. New clubs often have jacked up lofts of 30 to 27 degrees, which increases distance but reduces backspin.

IMO the greatest benefit of the G80 is the smash factor ratio -- ball speed divided by club head speed. This gives you the efficiency of your hits. The higher the smash factor, the closer your strike is to the club's sweet spot. Along with some Strike Spray (a powder spray on your club face that shows where you hit the ball), I'm slowly getting my old swing capabilities back.

A bit more on the smash factor thing. It's an eye opener on striking consistency, and on the differences between clubs. Short irons are less efficient in translating club head speed to forward ball speed. Some of the club energy is transferred into spinning the ball, and some is transferred to directing the ball at a steeper climb rate.

For a sand wedge, I don't get much more ball speed than club speed. Maybe a smash factor of 1.1 to 1.2.

A decent smash for my 8 iron is 1.25, although I have hit a few just short of 1.3.

When I really clock a 5 iron I obtain a 1.40. But a smash of 1.30 to 1.35 is more normal for me.

Perfect hits with my 5 wood produce a smash factor of 1.42. Unfortunately, my driver isn't up to the current standards of 1.50 for a perfect hit. The best I've done so far is a 1.38 with a dead-center hit. This tells me my 20-year-old TaylorMade 360 driver is costing me a good 20-25 yards on perfect hits, probably 30-35 yards on those slightly off center.

With that in mind, the G80 will likely lead to greater golf expense for me. Once this year's new Callaway demo clubs arrive at PGA Superstore, I'll be there for testing.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
A bit more on the smash factor thing. It's an eye opener on striking consistency, and on the differences between clubs. Short irons are less efficient in translating club head speed to forward ball speed. Some of the club energy is transferred into spinning the ball, and some is transferred to directing the ball at a steeper climb rate.

For a sand wedge, I don't get much more ball speed than club speed. Maybe a smash factor of 1.1 to 1.2.

A decent smash for my 8 iron is 1.25, although I have hit a few just short of 1.3.

When I really clock a 5 iron I obtain a 1.40. But a smash of 1.30 to 1.35 is more normal for me.

Perfect hits with my 5 wood produce a smash factor of 1.42. Unfortunately, my driver isn't up to the current standards of 1.50 for a perfect hit. The best I've done so far is a 1.38 with a dead-center hit. This tells me my 20-year-old TaylorMade 360 driver is costing me a good 20-25 yards on perfect hits, probably 30-35 yards on those slightly off center.

With that in mind, the G80 will likely lead to greater golf expense for me. Once this year's new Callaway demo clubs arrive at PGA Superstore, I'll be there for testing.

fritzey, baby. Ya gotta get a new driver! There is a ball smasher in ya just waiting to be unleashed!

Mevo or swing caddie. I have both, mevo provides better data and can be used indoors. Swing caddie is accurate to itself. Both are really good tools.

quote:

Originally posted by cne32507:
Ya gotta get a new driver! There is a ball smasher in ya just waiting to be unleashed!

Yep, my clubs are dinosaurs. Played a lot in the 2000s, but golf just fell off in the 2010s. Now that I again have folks in the office who play, I want to get back the game I had in the past. It won't be easy. My swing mechanics have been messed up by years of manually clearing our ranch lands of yucca with a pick ax.

In the fall I tried TaylorMade SIM and 790 irons indoors -- didn't like the SIM, was lukewarm with the P790. Might try their new P770. Tried a few different Callaways (Mavrik, Epic, Rogue), but the only one I liked was Apex 19. Will try the Apex 21 line of irons when they hit the stores. I suspect the DCB is more game improvement than I want. The regular Apex is probably the ticket. I like the old-school lofts of the Apex Pro irons, but I doubt my game is up to that level.

From what I see in reviews, the Callaway Epic Max driver is probably the ticket for me. FWIW, my current driver swing speed is generally 105-107 mph on warm days when I'm loose.

I have Apex 19 and they are the best, most forgiving irons I have ever owned and I am as bad with buying irons as I am with buying guns. Always falling for the "one". Apex are the real deal, at least for me.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Will try the Apex 21 line of irons when they hit the stores. I suspect the DCB is more game improvement than I want. The regular Apex is probably the ticket. I like the old-school lofts of the Apex Pro irons, but I doubt my game is up to that level.

You can always go with a blended set. E.g.: Apex 21 3-7 with Apex Pro 21 8-AW

I may be doing new irons this season. The Apex line is a strong contender. Though, if I go blended, it'll be the "Sweet Spot" combo: DCB 4-5 and Apex 21 6-AW.

I've also got my eye on the Srixon ZX4 and ZX5, and the Cobra RADSPEED. In the end, though, it'll be whatever the fitter recommends, probably.

quote:

Originally posted by dave7378:
I have Apex 19 and they are the best, most forgiving irons I have ever owned ...

The Apex 21 Pros are said to be as forgiving as the Apex 19 non-Pros

quote:

This tells me my 20-year-old TaylorMade 360 driver is costing me a good 20-25 yards on perfect hits, probably 30-35 yards on those slightly off center.

I bet it’s more than that!
I bet a dialed in driver gives you 40+ yds over that dinosaur 360...with less spin.

I should add that consumer launch monitors are generally not worthwhile for game improvement.
They simply don't provide enough data for someone serious about working on their game. It's nice to dial in your carry distances but it's not hard to do that without a $500 monitor. Knowing things like clubhead speed, ball speed and spin rate is nice, but there is very little you can do with the information to improve your shotmaking. To do something with the information, you need to know what is causing the numbers to be what they are and you get none of that info with the $500 and below consumer products.

To actually get data that tells you what you are doing and what you can work on, you need a high end monitor that provide complete data like spin loft, dynamic loft, club path, clubface angle, angle of attack, launch angle, dispersion, etc. That's the kind of information that tells you what is actually happening in your swing and guides you towards improving it.

I wouldn't actually recommend any consumer product. The Mevo+ or Skytrak at $2k is the minimum I would recommend for people wanting to improve their game. If that's out of your budget, I would save the $500 or use it for a clubfitting, which will provide more benefits.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
To actually get data that tells you what you are doing and what you can work on, you need a high end monitor that provide complete data like spin loft, dynamic loft, club path, clubface angle, angle of attack, launch angle, dispersion, etc. That's the kind of information that tells you what is actually happening in your swing and guides you towards improving it.

Hmmm... I wonder if a Blast Motion Golf Swing Analyzer might not be more valuable in this respect?

I haven't tried mine with an iron, wedge or driver, yet, but, putting, it measures:

• Tempo (actually rhythm) - time ratio of backswing to downswing
  
• Backstroke time
  
• Forward stroke time
  
• Backstroke length
  
• Impact speed
  
• Loft change
  
• Total stroke time
  
• Face angle at impact
  
• Backstroke rotation
  
• Forward stroke rotation
  
• Lie change
  

It measures different things for different club types. E.g.: One image on the page at the URL above shows it indicating peak hand speed. There's a list, further down the page, for other club types.

It's got a smart video capture mode that would appear to make it function much like a launch monitor. First time I can get back out to a driving range I'm going to give that a go.

There are videos on YouTube showing it used hitting into a net.

They're normally $150. I got mine on sale for $75.

I will say this: As an aid to improving putting I have mixed feelings about it. At first it seemed to improve my putting. Then, when I got more about chasing numbers on the thing, my putting degraded. Plus it has a very narrow "idea" of what constitutes a legitimate putting stroke and will simply fail to register if your putts don't fall into those parameters. This leads to annoyance and frustration.

So it's kind of been like my Orange Whip swing trainer: Fun to use, but...

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:

I wouldn't actually recommend any consumer product. The Mevo+ or Skytrak at $2k is the minimum I would recommend for people wanting to improve their game. If that's out of your budget, I would save the $500 or use it for a clubfitting, which will provide more benefits.

I agree 100%.
I have seen may vids of demo side-by-side comparisons and the $500 ones are less accurate (and consistent) and have less measurement points.
Been looking at the Mevo + but it hasn't been available lately also been wavering on spending $2K.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
The Apex line is a strong contender. Though, if I go blended, it'll be the "Sweet Spot" combo: DCB 4-5 and Apex 21 6-AW.

This combo works, due to the similar lofts of the Apex 21 and DCB lines. You'll have a 7i of 30.5 degrees, a 6i of 26.5 degrees, a 5 iron of 23 degrees, and a 4i of 20 degrees. In ballpark terms, figure a 3 yards distance change for 1 degree in loft change.

The blended set with the Apex Pro is problematic with the gaps between clubs. A Pro 9i is 41 degrees, the 8i is 37 degrees. The Apex 21 7i is 30.5 degrees, the 6i is 26.5 degrees. That's a whopping 6.5 degrees difference between the 8i and 7i, compared to 4 degrees for surrounding irons. In a split set my progression would more likely be a Pro 8i at 37 degrees, an Apex 21 8i at 34.5 degrees, an Apex 21 7i at 30.5 degrees -- which also doesn't make much sense, by having two 8 irons in the bag.

We're blessed with thin air around Denver, which effectively adds a club length in distance. I really don't need the added distance of de-lofted clubs to play the courses around here, even at my preferred course length of 6600 to 6900 yards. My current 8i has a 37 degree loft, which works just fine for 140-155. My 5i is 27 degrees and does well for 180-190 yards. A few months ago I tried Callaway's Mavrik "7 iron" of 27 degrees from a GC2 launch monitor and was consistently hitting it 190-200.

A blatant example of loft jacking occurs with Callaway's Mavrik irons. The Gap/Approach wedge came into mainstream maybe 20-25 years ago, when delofted pitching wedges required something to fill the "gap" between the PW and SW. "Gap" and "Approach" essentially meant the same thing -- not different wedges. Callaway has delofted the Mavrik set so much that they offer a SW at 56 degrees, a GW at 51 degrees, an AW at 46 degrees, a PW at 41 degrees, and finally a 9i at 36 degrees. Keep this up, and soon they will offer a "Tweener" wedge.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
I bet a dialed in driver gives you 40+ yds over that dinosaur 360...with less spin.

Quite possible. I'm giving up 10-12 points on the smash factor with dino -- which is roughly 11-13 mph of ball speed, which should translate to 20-25 yards carry.

The GC2 launch monitor shows my club center hits to produce spin of 3300-3500 rpm -- which is maybe 1000 rpm higher than optimal.

I don't recall my driver's launch angles at this point, but my peak ball height tends to be only 25-ish yards. Thus my launch angle is too low. Part of that is my swing mechanics. I need to look at the club head stats more when I'm using the GC2, but I believe my attack angle tends to be downward by a couple of degrees. And thus, yet another reason not to quit my day job.

On clubs GO TO A DEMO DAY ~ nothing like hitting them first.
You can't buy golf clubs on specs!
If you are an experience golfer then tweak it with a golf monitor or pro.