In golf today, there’s surprisingly only one comprehensive benchmarking system for shot results at various distances – ShotLink. ShotLink measures every shot made on the PGA TOUR to within inches, allowing players to, among other things, understand their shot making skills and abilities from any distance and situation.
This gives PGA TOUR players the unique opportunity to study shot statistics to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to every other player on TOUR. For example, ShotLink statistics for the 2009 season reveal that Steve Stricker was the best player for Approach Shots from 75 to 100 yards, with an average result at 13’0”, while Phil Mickelson’s rank for the same category was 112th at 18’4”.
Unfortunately, ShotLink data is available only to those players talented and fortunate enough to compete on the PGA TOUR.
Outside of big time tournament golf and self tabulated stats applications, shot making results data for the great majority of golfers is lacking. Consider the following scenarios:
- An 18 handicap amateur in Michigan wants to compare his shot making ability from 100 yards to PGA TOUR players, as well to scratch golfers and other 18 handicap amateurs around the world.
- Your client’s high school son or daughter wants to know if they have the potential to compete in Division I, II, or III college golf.
- You’re a golf instructor and want to set improvement goals together with your clients. You need to establish current skill level and demonstrate measurable improvement. You desire a standardized evaluation metric with a shorter feedback cycle than handicap index.
- A college golf coach would like a standardized golf test, similar to SAT score, allowing a quick assessment of a player’s potential in order to determine recruiting priority. The test can also be used with active team members to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well provide focused practice routines.
- A serious player wants to evaluate their equipment and technique strategy for various scoring zones.
The TrackMan Combine has been designed to address scenarios like this and more.
Objectives of the TrackMan combine:
- Standardized Test – Objective, easy to administer and repeat
- Time Efficient – 1 hour or less
- Immediate Feedback
- Test results automatically hosted online – always accessible to both coach/teacher and player
- Cover a wide spectrum of shot types
- Benchmark skill and offer global peer rankings, comparisons
- Initiate discussions about technique, equipment, and goal setting
- Offer TrackMan customers additional ROI
Combine Test Procedure
The combine consists of 80 shots and lasts on average 45 minutes. Upon completion of the test, the administrator (coach/instructor) uploads the test result data to www.mytrackman.com/Combine/Pro.html. Immediately following, test results are available online for administrator and player to review. The player can also log in later with his/her unique log in details to review results at home or in the office.
Every player will receive detailed and summary results on the following:
- Distance from Pin at every yardage
- Drive Distance
- Offline for Drives
- Percentile Rankings for every shot category
- TrackMan Combine Score
Beyond the score, shot results accuracy, and percentile ranking data, up to 21 TrackMan data parameters are measured and reported for every shot made during a combine session. This means that instructors and coaches have the opportunity to check combine data to review club delivery tendencies, and club fitters can use the Driver launch statistics including ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, and land angle to learn if the driver being used is optimal for the player.
Who can administer and upload a TrackMan Combine?
Combine tests must be conducted outdoors and any current TrackMan customer may administer a combine test and upload the data for analysis.
For more information about TrackMan Combine www.trackman.dk