Is a Launch Monitor Worth It for Amateur Golfers?

The short answer: a launch monitor is worth it if you use it to measure a few specific things and practise with a purpose. It isn't worth it if you just chase numbers after every swing. For most amateurs, the value comes from three things: knowing your carry distance with every club, using smash factor to check strike quality, and using face-to-path to understand why the ball curves.

Two types of launch monitor

Before the numbers, it helps to know how your device gets them.

• Radar units, such as TrackMan and FlightScope, use Doppler radar to track the ball in flight. They're excellent outdoors and need space for the ball to travel.
• Camera units, such as Foresight's GCQuad, photograph the club and ball around impact. They work well indoors and in small spaces.

Many lower-cost units calculate some numbers rather than measuring them directly, especially spin and club data. That doesn't make them useless, but treat those numbers as estimates and look at trends rather than single shots.

The numbers that matter, and what they mean

Club speed. How fast the clubhead is moving just before impact. It sets your distance potential, but on its own it tells you nothing about how well you used it.

Ball speed. How fast the ball leaves the face. This is the number most closely tied to distance. Two golfers with the same club speed can have very different ball speeds because of strike.

Smash factor. Ball speed divided by club speed, which makes it the best single measure of strike quality. With a driver, about 1.5 is the practical ceiling: swing at 100 mph, and a perfect strike sends the ball off at around 150 mph. Irons have more loft, so their smash factor is naturally lower, and a well-struck 7-iron sits closer to 1.3. If your driver smash factor is well below the low 1.4s, you're almost certainly mis-striking it.

Launch angle. The vertical angle the ball leaves the face. It comes mainly from the loft you deliver at impact, so shaft lean, attack angle and strike location all change it.

Spin rate. Backspin, in revolutions per minute. Irons need spin to stop on the green. With the driver, too much spin makes the ball balloon and lose distance, and if your driver spin is regularly well above 3,000 rpm there's usually distance being left out there.

Attack angle. Whether the club is moving down or up at impact. With irons it should be negative; TrackMan's tour averages put a 7-iron at around minus four degrees. With the driver, hitting slightly up helps most amateurs launch it higher with less spin.

Club path. The direction the clubhead is travelling at impact, relative to the target. In-to-out is shown as a positive number and out-to-in as negative.

Face angle. Where the face is pointing at impact, relative to the target. This controls most of the ball's starting direction.

Face-to-path. The difference between face angle and club path, and the number that explains your curve. A face closed to the path curves the ball left for a right-hander. A face open to the path curves it right. Strike location also plays a part, especially with the driver: a toe strike tends to curve left and a heel strike right.

This is the most useful number for a golfer who slices. If your path is out-to-in and your face is open to it, you now know it isn't just "a bad swing". It's a face and a path, and you can work on each one.

When a launch monitor really helps

• Gapping your bag. Knowing your average carry with every club is one of the fastest ways to lower your score. Most amateurs overestimate their carry distances and come up short. If you're trying to break 90, this alone is worth it.
• Checking strike quality. Smash factor tells you whether a change is helping you find the centre of the face.
• Confirming a swing change. If you're working on your path, you can see whether the number is moving across a session, even when the ball flight isn't perfect yet.
• Wedge distances. Learning carry numbers for half, three-quarter and full wedges sharpens your scoring zone.
• Speed training. If you're working on swing speed, club speed is the scoreboard.

When it doesn't help

• Chasing every number on every swing. Twelve numbers on screen is information overload. You end up thinking about data instead of the shot.
• Practising without a plan. A launch monitor doesn't make random range balls useful.
• Trusting mat data blindly. Hitting off a mat hides heavy contact, so your carry numbers can look better than they are on grass.
• Not yet making consistent contact. If you're still hitting a lot of thin and fat shots, focus on strike first. The other numbers won't mean much until contact is reliable.

Drill: the one number session

This is how I want you to use a launch monitor in practice.

1. Pick one number before the session starts, and only one. For example: smash factor with the driver, or face-to-path with a 7-iron.
2. Set a baseline. Hit ten balls with your normal swing and write down the average for that number.
3. Work on one feel that should change it, such as a centred strike or a less open face.
4. Hit three sets of five and write down the average after each set.
5. Finish with a carry check. Hit five balls with one club, throw out the best and worst, and update your carry distance card.

One number, one feel, written down. That's how data turns into improvement.

Common mistakes I see

• Swinging harder to chase club speed, which usually lowers smash factor and ball speed.
• Judging a swing by one shot. Look at averages across a set.
• Using total distance for club selection. Carry is what gets you over hazards and onto greens.
• Changing everything at once because the screen shows a lot of things you don't like.

You don't need to own one to get the benefit, either. A session with a coach on a launch monitor, or a simulator bay with a plan, gives most golfers what they need.

Want to know what your numbers mean for your game?

My Ultimate Driver Fix and the Perform Golf library show you how to improve strike, path and face so the numbers, and the scorecard, start to improve together. Start at perform.golf.

Kerrod Gray is a PGA of Australia Professional, Advanced in Coaching, and the founder of Perform Golf.