Best Tournament Long Drive Format - Trackman

[cvhookem63]

I was playing in a tournament this weekend in Louisiana to raise money for the U of Louisiana Monroe golf team, and for their long drive hole they had a Trackman set up on the tee box. There was a tent set up and one of the assistant golf coaches was manning the station all day. They had everyone's name (in order of starting hole) pre-loaded that had entered the tournament and kept track of total distance leaders using the Trackman data. After the tournament, they emailed out the swing video/data to each participant so they could see it in detail.

 

I know the long drive contest at these tournaments is always a point of contention, and the winner usually gets a lot of mumbles from the crowd saying "that was probably just the last group to play the hole". This format seems like far and away the best way to do it. That being said - not every tournament is run by a D1 golf team, so it wouldn't be possible or feasible to have a launch monitor at every tournament, but I thought it was a great idea.

 

I play in quite a few of these around East Texas/Louisiana, and this is the first time I have seen a launch monitor used to track the long-drive hole. Does this happen regularly at other tournaments or is this an outlier?

[goosekee2]

That's awesome. I don't think many tournaments around would have much of a set-up like that but would be awesome to see and participate in. How far did you hit your drive and did you win? If not, how far was the winner's drive? Was the Trackman pretty spot on for accuracy?

[cvhookem63]

That's awesome. I don't think many tournaments around would have much of a set-up like that but would be awesome to see and participate in. How far did you hit your drive and did you win? If not, how far was the winner's drive? Was the Trackman pretty spot on for accuracy?

 

I overcooked my drive and it ended up 275 total (265 carry I believe). It's funny what the presence of a Trackman will do to your pshyche ha. Swing speed was 116 mph on that one. When I went back after the round was done to hit some more I was consistently 115-117, but my launch angle was too high so I wasn't getting the distance I should have. I maxed out at 289 but never hit one directly on the screws. I started hitting TP5x balls but I finished hitting shag balls when I realized how much work it was going to be going to pick them all up. Later that day I picked up a Tour Issue M1 440 driver head with 8.5* of loft instead of the 460 with 9.5* I was using - we'll see if that helps, but there is no Trackman that I can access around here to confirm ha.

 

The morning wave winning drive was 298.5 with a 119 mph club head speed, and as of the time I left the afternoon wave leader was 291.5 with a 117 mph swing speed.

 

I think the Trackman was pretty spot on for accuracy. It was a wide open straight tee shot, but there were some hills on the right side of the fairway, so I could see a scenario where a ball could have hit that and rolled out a little further than the launch monitor was registering it would.

[bandrz]

that is awesome! I graduated from Louisiana Monroe. Underrated school and it's on the rise. You will be hard pressed to find a more picturesque campus.

[buckeyefl]

I can imagine a lot of broken hearts and bruised egos if a LM was involved.

[Bonneville85308]

Sounds like a great way to do it. I've always been very suspicious of the "moveable stake in the fairway that you write your name on" method as it is ripe for cheating.

[cvhookem63]

I can imagine a lot of broken hearts and bruised egos if a LM was involved.

 

Most definitely. There were a few guys in the afternoon wave that had some sour looks on their face after getting their numbers read back to them.

 

Since the older crowd could hit from the next tee box up and there was no Trackman there, they could hit one just for numbers from the back tees and then go play their actual shot from the forward tees. Those were the most fun guys to watch. Most of them seemed to give the "oh wow, I am just fine with that distance these days" reaction.

[rawdog]

ULM using an LM.

 

Appropriate.

[cardoustie]

We do that on some of our men's nights off of #1

 

Award both longest and straightest

[rawdog]

We do that on some of our men's nights off of #1

 

Award both longest and straightest

 

Do you deem "straightest" to be closest to center line, or angular dispersion?

 

If so, the shorter guys have a massive advantage.

[cvhookem63]

We do that on some of our men's nights off of #1

 

Award both longest and straightest

 

Do you deem "straightest" to be closest to center line, or angular dispersion?

 

If so, the shorter guys have a massive advantage.

 

They did a hybrid long drive / closest to the center line contest here. From 200-250 was the "straightest drive" yardage, and if you hit it further than that you were in the "longest drive" category. That covers your long hitters and shorter hitters all at once.

[clevited]

I wish we had that for the handful of scrambles I play in. Would be fun to see who the heavy hitters are even if they don't get it in the fairway.