Workaround for Distance Penalty

Law5 27 days ago

Many (including myself) have posted about the R50 distance calculation. Empirically, I have witnessed there are algorithmic aspects applied to the shot carry and total distance result. That is, if the device reads a ball-club contact that is not perfect, it will deduct respectively--distance. If it’s any consolation, I’ve experienced the same penal calculation with a $25,000 Trackman. On the course, we have ball and club technology to overcome much of this less-than-ideal contact penalty.

One way around the punitive penalty with the R50 is to set the elevation to the maximum: 10,000 feet. This returns some of the distance lost to less than perfect contact.

0 Law5 21 days ago

Since this post I've dialed the elevation benefit back from the maximum of 10,000 to 7,500. At 10,000 I had to tell myself after flushing a 7-iron "never have you hit a 7-iron that far" LOL. For the 20% of my hits on-center club contact the distance at 10k was so amazing to be unrealistic; after dialing it back to 7,500 the flush shots and the mishits evened out to be a realistic compromise.

0 9766880 15 days ago

I‘m pretty sure camera based systems like the r50 use only the ball telemetry like launch angle, ball speed, spin rate and spin axis to determine distance and shape. Impact, contact, and any club data wouldn’t matter to the calculation. It could be that the Garmin algorithm isn’t accurate but it won’t be because of a penalty for ball contact misses. Same for a trackmann except it uses radar to pull ball flight info. All calcs are based on ball movement not impact or club. At least as far as my research before buying the r50 led me to believe.

0 Law5 15 days ago in reply to 9766880

You are correct and I concur with all of your statements. Still, I can't deny the affect of cranking-up the elevation value--give it a try yourself. And on the other side: if you consider how these machines apply a 10-20% distance penalty for being in the "rough" or "sand"; the only way to implement that penalty is to apply an algorithmic deduction against the captured telemetry.