TopTracer Range

[Alf. S]

Has anyone tried this at your local range?

[Alf. S]

One of our local ranges has had this installed lately, all the bays now have a TopTracer capability with loads of options to practice, play some top course, monthly competitions events, etc.

A friend (more a social golfer) raved about it over Xmas to me so I thought I would have a go yesterday. Here are my initial impressions.

I was looking to do a comparison between by FightScope Mevo and the Range and try out my re-griped clubs and a new driver.

I usually pay £8 for 100 balls this was £9.50 for TopTracer so having picked up my 100 balls I was  ready to go. I went through a registration process with my phone including downloading the App, this takes about 5 minutes, I didn't enter my club setup which would take another 10 minutes. You can then start the session by scanning a QR code on the screen. If you are going I would advise registering and setup before going.

I then used the range screen to drive my practise. The start up screen gives you 4 or 5 options from playing course to challenges or straight practise. For me it was straight practise.

After hitting my first 10 shots with driver I was beginning to get a bit frustrated at the numbers. I use Arccos so pretty much know how far I can carry a ball, my drives were consistently 10 to 20 yds shorter. I then started to use my Mevo (which my no means is gold standard) and on ball speed they were within a couple of mph, launch angles similar but the carry numbers were 10 to 20 yards longer on Mevo. I then started to go through my bag and consistently the system was under recording even visually you could see it from the distance markers on the range. 

I had a conversation with the guy in the next bay and he was seeing the same thing.

For the driver you are pretty much stuck at hitting it off the teeing point in the mat, for my 3w I moved it forward to the front and it seemed to be a bit better. I ended up looking more at relative performance rather than actual numbers.

After about 60 balls I stopped, this is about my boredom level at the range and moved over to course play. I had selection of 4 or 5 courses including Spyglass and the Old Course so I played the Old Course. This I found quite interesting taking into account I was having to hit 2 clubs more for any shot. The green play is interesting, 40 to 70 yds down the range there are 16 or so flags which are you target for pitching. When you are either on the green or near it come up with a screen of the mapped flags and you select one as your target. Depending on how close you hit your pitch it gives either 1-3 putts to get down.

On completion  I thought all my data would have been saved to my registered account but it wasn't so I must have screwed up the setup at the start. Being an old git I still think I'm technically savvy but this is probably operator error.

Final thoughts.

I think it is better than blindly hitting balls at the range but I was really disappointed with the accuracy numbers. In some cases it is a bit like a golf lounge capability where groups can go and compete, they have leaderboards on challenges positioned around the range. Will I go back probably but more for a fun day with friends if the weather is bad and we can't get out on the course.