This is my second visit to one of the newest Toptracer ranges in the New Orleans area. The first time was the Bayou Oaks at City Park Driving Range, but I accidentally deleted all the videos. This time, I visited the only other location, Timberlane Golf and Recreation.
Before I get into what a Toptracer range is, I want to say that the range setup at Timberlane is far better. They have more space for your range session, including picnic benches where you can rest during your practice or enjoy the many games Toptracer offers with friends. Additionally, the mats at Timberlane are the Real Feel Golf Mats. This is better for two reasons. One, they feel more like hitting off of real grass than the hard rubber mats Bayou Oaks has. Two, they are better for your clubs and your body. The true turf feel allows for more forgiveness on mishits like real turf. The hard rubber mats can cause injury to your wrist or, as in my case recently, your shoulder. They can also cause the lie angle of your clubs to change from repeatedly hitting them on a hard surface. A minor inconvenience at Tiberlane is they do not accept cash, everything is card only now. Bayou Oaks still accepts cash payments.
What is Toptracer?
Basically, Toptracer is what you see when you watch professional golf and they show the shots being traced on the screen. It is a technology using radar to track the golf ball's flight and give data on many factors like carry distance, ball speed, apex (height), and much more. A Toptracer range is an interactive way to make practice practical, purposeful, and fun. There are normal practice sessions, where you can track each ball you hit with each club you hit or you can play virtual golf, various games, and challenge friends. Toptracer is also a way to track your practice for game improvement using the Free app available on Google Play and Apple App Store.
Having visited both Bayou Oaks and Timberlane to test out the Toptracer I will say that is system at Timberlane is more accurate. The yardages were off compared to what I experienced on the golf course but Timberlane was only off 5-7 yards on average whereas Bayou Oaks was off 10-15 yards on average. When I mention this I am only talking about carry distance. The balls at each range are different and I know that makes a difference. Neither range uses tour quality golf balls but I think the Titleist practice balls Timberalne uses compared to the Pinnacle at Bayou Oaks is the difference. Just like with my Full Swing Kit Launch monitor there is a difference when I hit my golf balls on the course vs range balls. The Bridgestone golf ball I play is always accurate to what I experience on the course compared to when I hit a range ball. Wind may be taken into consideration with the Toptracer radar as well but I honestly do not know.
The variety of games is incredible. The first few times I ever used Toptracer it was only the practice available. Now you can play points games, which I show in the video below, long drive challenges, and even virtual golf at many top courses around the world. There is also Angry Birds, which I personally didn't like, but it could be a great game to work on punch shots as it seemed that's the type of shot it took to knock down the towers.
The virtual golf game may be my favorite outside of just practice so far. I played 9-holes at St. Andrews to test it out before I played a full 18 at Spyglass Hill. (Images above of the scorecards) It is just like playing a real round. You select your aim point for long shots and select each club for tee and approach shots. When you start you select the tees you'd like to play from and the system tells you the distance of each hole, your target range, and tracks the flight of your shot. It did take me a few holes to understand how the chipping and putting worked. When I first had a chip shot of 12 yards to the hole I had to select a shorter target for the short shots. Where I got confused is I thought you played the yardage it said. So when I was 12 yards from the hole I tried to chip it 12 yards. Instead, it becomes like a closest-to-the-pin challenge. I selected the shotest target at 51 yards and the object is to hit it as close to the flag on the fly and it would calculate your score. The closer the lower. The ring for the score also depended on if you hit the green in regulation or not. When I hit a green the ring to make par was larger than it would be if you were off the green and the ring for a birdie or eagle was small. If you missed the green and hit to inside 3 feet of the 51-yard target it would give you par. Outside of 3 feet was bogey but it depended on how many shots you hit to get to a point to try the closest challenge for your final score.
The points game was like a skills challenge. I still have more to learn about it but the targets would all have a set of rings around them and depending on where your ball landed and what distance target you hit at you would get a certain amount of points. This was also limited to get as many points as you could within a certain number of shots. I think it was 5 shots but to be honest I was having so much fun with It that I wasn't counting how many.
I will do more videos of using Toptracer as I learn more about the various games that can be played and how the technology can benefit your game. There is one main downside to this now being used. That is the price of a bucket of balls has now increased at both Timberlane and Bayou Oaks. Not by too much but it still cost more than it did prior to Toptracer technology being used. The benefits however are worth the extra cost. Now you can track range sessions no matter which driving range you visit around the country that uses Toptracer. This includes any indoor ranges or simulators that use Toptracer.
Side note about the video: Due to the amount of things I tested the video ended up being longer than expected. In future videos regarding Toptracer, i will break them down into shorter separate videos to cover each feature.