Understanding How TrackMan Meaures Club Head Speed
There’s lots of talk about TrackMan club head speed readings, especially on the PGA Tour with Tiger Woods at the moment.
What happens with a club head at impact and how TrackMan is recording the movement of that club head is all physics. In this video, I explain a little bit about how TrackMan gathers information and the physics behind measuring objects moving in 3D space.
This past Monday, I played in the U.S. Amateur local qualifier at Rock Creek Country Club in Portland, Oregon. A full tee sheet from 7:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., the top 11 scores would make it to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying.
I teed off at 10:48 a.m.. With the 7:30 am tee time, you can get a feel for the leaders’ pace, and they were off and running on the challenging setup at Rock Creek.
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Getting to the highlight of the round on the par five 17th, a drive up the left side and 212 yards left to the front hole location. I took out a 5-iron with plans of middle of the green. The ball ended up 8 feet left of the hole, pin high. A slight downhill putt dropped in for an eagle 3 on the 17th. With the cut line looking to be anywhere from -2 to even par. This was the boost I had been waiting for all day.
With making par from the trees on 18, it was time to wait for a potential playoff with a posted score of one under par 71.
Three hours later, it was playoff time. 8 players for 6 spots. I made par on the playoff hole, which was good enough to advance to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying in July. USGA qualifiers sure deliver on all of the emotions in golf!
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Building my 2026 gamer WITB: Ranking the contenders and new putter projects – Club Junkie Podcast
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Brian also heads into the workshop to discuss several putter projects currently on the bench. From head options and shaft choices to build ideas and testing plans, he shares what he’s working on and which putters could become serious contenders for the bag this season.
If you’re a gear junkie who loves equipment testing, club building, and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect setup, this episode is for you.
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Pedro
Mar 16, 2018 at 9:55 am
Nice video. So do we expect ball speed readings are more accurate? And why does clubhead speed even matter? Isn’t it all about ball launch characteristics? Also, what factor does clubface rotation play in the transfer of energy to the ball? Isn’t the clubface speed at impact increased by rotation? I get that your point is the variation in clubhead speed measurements and that is well taken.
Clay
Mar 15, 2018 at 10:07 am
Would a machine like the foresight be more accurate then due to its position?
Ignat
Mar 14, 2018 at 5:07 pm
Trackman doesn’t match up to my high standards for launch monitor data and I reject it because it’s just not good enough for me. End of story.
Dave
Mar 14, 2018 at 3:45 pm
This explanation shows why you can get smash factors in excess of 1.50 but not quite what is happening when it reads the head fast, it has to do more with the mass of the head and how many different major mass parts there are in the head and why it mis-reads club head data from time to time.
Allan
Mar 14, 2018 at 3:38 pm
How did you find this out?