Yesterday I had the awesome opportunity to test out Golf Discount of St. Louis’ FlightScope launch monitoring system. The FlightScope system analyses any aspect you can think of when it comes to your swing and ball flight. I spent over 2 hours on it yesterday as Josh at Golf Discount analyzed multiple shots from every club in my bag, measuring everything from club head speed and path, to ball speed, compression, ball height, distance, rpm. Basically you name it, and the FlightScope system can track it. You can get the gist of the system with pictures and a link to the FlightScope website here… http://www.golfdiscountstl.com/flight-scope/
Here are pics of the setup at Golf Discount South County...
I will be honest, when I first saw the system I thought it was just another Golf Galaxy/Golfsmith monitor set up. It was definitely much more than that, it analyzed things that I wasn’t even aware of, nevertheless cared about while playing golf.
The way this whole club and ball fitting worked at Golf Discount is easy. You can just call them (314-892-5885) and set up an appointment to get fitted and analyzed. Now before you stop reading this, it’s not your ordinary “Oh your swing is like this, well you should buy these $600 irons and this $400 driver”. In fact it wasn’t anything like that at Golf Discount; instead they do everything that they can’t to better fit you to what you have before suggesting a change in equipment.
You bring your own clubs and when you get there they get your height, measure the distance from your hand to the floor, handicap etc. You will also hit off the lie board to see if your clubs lie angle is correct for you (if it isn’t they offer the service of bending your irons to fit your need, I strongly recommend getting an annual loft/lie check on your clubs, it makes a world of difference when it comes to distance and ball flight as your clubs can bend and adjust over time from use). They then ask you what ball you usually play with. They get that ball from their selection and have you hit 2-4 shots with each club with the ball you normally play. They record all the info on that and then, based on your swing speed, ball impact, ball speed, ball flight, they suggest a few different balls for you to hit and may also suggest different degree drivers, different flex shafts or whatever they know will help to improve your game most. The great thing about Golf Discount is that they are doing these fittings to help you and your game, not to make money and sell you expensive equipment that you don’t need.
You can then hit whatever new club they suggest or a few of your clubs with the new balls they suggested and then compare the results. This is where my write up goes from boring to attention grabbing; it’s time for yardage gain results and comparisons.
After hitting every club I had in my bag with the ProV1x, Josh looked at the results and stats and suggested I try out the Srixon Q-Star golf ball (which I will be writing a review on soon). So I re-hit a few of my clubs with the Srixon Q-Star and had noticeably better results. **NOTE** I am going back to test more clubs and give yardages for each club*
ProV1x Yardage Carry Srixon Q-Star Yardage Carry
PW – 120 PW – 135
7 IRON – 152 7 IRON – 161
My balls landing radius also improved:
ProV1x Radius Srixon Q-Star Radius
PW – 14 yards PW – 6 yards
7 Iron – 41 yards 7 Iron – 18 yards
My spin rate on lower irons was significantly better with the Srixon Q-Star as well. Adding/Subtracting spin where it was needed.
ProV1x Spin Rate Irons = 2430 RPM
Srixon Q-Star Spin Rate Irons = 3490 RPM
ProV1x Spin Rate Driver/Woods = 3300 RPM
Srixon Q-Star Spin Rate Driver/Woods = 3025 RPM
Just from doing a ball fitting at Golf Discount I managed to improve in all areas, and significantly in the short game area. Not only that, but I was fitted for a different driver loft that worked better for my swing, and shaft which helped my ball flight a lot. That being said, I highly recommend heading over to Golf Discount in South County and get fit with your clubs, make sure the lie/loft is correct on them,
BUT ABOVE ALL GO GET FIT FOR A GOLF BALL!!
Here are pics of the setup at Golf Discount South County...
I will be honest, when I first saw the system I thought it was just another Golf Galaxy/Golfsmith monitor set up. It was definitely much more than that, it analyzed things that I wasn’t even aware of, nevertheless cared about while playing golf.
The way this whole club and ball fitting worked at Golf Discount is easy. You can just call them (314-892-5885) and set up an appointment to get fitted and analyzed. Now before you stop reading this, it’s not your ordinary “Oh your swing is like this, well you should buy these $600 irons and this $400 driver”. In fact it wasn’t anything like that at Golf Discount; instead they do everything that they can’t to better fit you to what you have before suggesting a change in equipment.
You bring your own clubs and when you get there they get your height, measure the distance from your hand to the floor, handicap etc. You will also hit off the lie board to see if your clubs lie angle is correct for you (if it isn’t they offer the service of bending your irons to fit your need, I strongly recommend getting an annual loft/lie check on your clubs, it makes a world of difference when it comes to distance and ball flight as your clubs can bend and adjust over time from use). They then ask you what ball you usually play with. They get that ball from their selection and have you hit 2-4 shots with each club with the ball you normally play. They record all the info on that and then, based on your swing speed, ball impact, ball speed, ball flight, they suggest a few different balls for you to hit and may also suggest different degree drivers, different flex shafts or whatever they know will help to improve your game most. The great thing about Golf Discount is that they are doing these fittings to help you and your game, not to make money and sell you expensive equipment that you don’t need.
You can then hit whatever new club they suggest or a few of your clubs with the new balls they suggested and then compare the results. This is where my write up goes from boring to attention grabbing; it’s time for yardage gain results and comparisons.
After hitting every club I had in my bag with the ProV1x, Josh looked at the results and stats and suggested I try out the Srixon Q-Star golf ball (which I will be writing a review on soon). So I re-hit a few of my clubs with the Srixon Q-Star and had noticeably better results. **NOTE** I am going back to test more clubs and give yardages for each club*
ProV1x Yardage Carry Srixon Q-Star Yardage Carry
PW – 120 PW – 135
7 IRON – 152 7 IRON – 161
My balls landing radius also improved:
ProV1x Radius Srixon Q-Star Radius
PW – 14 yards PW – 6 yards
7 Iron – 41 yards 7 Iron – 18 yards
My spin rate on lower irons was significantly better with the Srixon Q-Star as well. Adding/Subtracting spin where it was needed.
ProV1x Spin Rate Irons = 2430 RPM
Srixon Q-Star Spin Rate Irons = 3490 RPM
ProV1x Spin Rate Driver/Woods = 3300 RPM
Srixon Q-Star Spin Rate Driver/Woods = 3025 RPM
Just from doing a ball fitting at Golf Discount I managed to improve in all areas, and significantly in the short game area. Not only that, but I was fitted for a different driver loft that worked better for my swing, and shaft which helped my ball flight a lot. That being said, I highly recommend heading over to Golf Discount in South County and get fit with your clubs, make sure the lie/loft is correct on them,
BUT ABOVE ALL GO GET FIT FOR A GOLF BALL!!