Here we will publish our Golf related expiriences…
Do not expect too much.
We have started in 2010 with this, and are still on the way to get our first handicap.
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ES12 - Digital Golf Assistant by Ernest Sports
The ES12 is a portable launch monitor, combined with the Ernest Sports App (available for Android & iOS), this device is a great tool for analyzing your practice sessions. Specially if you are indoors or not on the driving range, where you can see your ball flying.
The device will be delivered with a bag and the Quickstart Guide. A 9v battery is already included, so the device is ready to use.
Just hit the Power button and select the club.
Position the device on the ground with the front facing downrange, the direction you like hit your ball. Place it 30-35 cm from the ball and 30-35 cm in front of the ball.
Then you can hit your range balls an have immediate feedback for the ball speed and flight distance (calculated). The values were displayed in the display, first the speed and then the distance.
If you download and install the "Ernest Sports ES12" app to your iPhone or Android Phone, and pair the device with Bluetooth, each shot will be recorded.
For each shot, the volicity and distance will be tracked. You can save the practice sessions, to review them or send a .csv file to aour email for further analysis.
After some sessions, you are able to see the historical statistic for each session or club. It will show you the longest, shortest and the average distance for the club selected.
The App is offering some more features for the ambitioned golfer:
There is a Video Analysis tool, a scorecard, notes and the Course Caddy which helps you with the club selection. The Weather part is unfortunatelly only working in US, and not in Europe.
I will test the other tools as soon i have time, and will update this review.
The ES12 can be ordered directly by the inventor, Ernest Sports here. They deliver to Switzerland very fast. Price is 250$ with 57$ Tax and Fedex priority shipping the device costs 307$.
GSA Pro - Golf Swing Analyzer by 3Bays
The new GSA Pro Golf Swing Analyzer for Apple iPhone is like a reduced Trackman to record the swing motion and sends about 10'000 measured data points streight to the iPhone APP to analyze and visualize the swing.
The device needs to be plugged at the end of the club, where the hole is from the grip. Then it has to be alligned with the mark on the grip for the correct position.
After this, the device is ready and the iPhone APP has to be started and the club has to be selected to use. After this, the device will record every swing and transmit the data after the swing directly to the APP. Befor the swing, you have to make sure, the blue light from the device is continiously on, then the device is ready. Sometimes the club has to be positioned in the pre shot position for 2 seconds, that the device recognizes that the player is ready to swing.
There is not intervention needed from the user after the swing, so it's possible to hit a lot of balls with the same club without watching to the iPhone.
After this, the swings can be reviewed.
The swing can be reviewed from the front or from the side. The swing can be reviewed in realtime or in 1/4 or 1/8 slow-motion.
The body showed is static and has always the same moves. The relevant point is the end of the orange line which represents the current swing. The green line ist the best swing selected from the past.
To switch beween the recorded swings, just swipe with the finger to the right or left.
The following data will be analyzed:
Club Head Speed and ASD (Attainable Shot Distance) are very important for each golfer. As the device is not able to recognize if the golf ball was hitted correctly, this is only a theoretical value. If you hit the ball perfectly, then it would fly that much long.
We did several tests and the ASD looks very accurate.
By tab into the boxes of the values, the history graph of the data will be showed for the selected club:
The APP is done very well and it works very stable and fast on an iPhone 4s. The transmition of the data is stable as well if the distance to the device is not to far away. Best is to place the iPhone into the ballbox in front of you where you practice your swings.
Pairing the device the first time is very sinple and guided by a wizard. After this, there is a function to verify the connection before practice:
Conclusion
The device works very well and can help you the make your swings more stable and consistent. It will not help you to hit the ball correctly, but with a perfect swing, it's easier to hit the ball.
It will save you the money for the Trackman sessions and waittime to use the Trackman infrastructure.
I can recommend this utility for beginners and high handicaper's like me. The device shows exaclty what my Golf Pro is always telling to me. But to be honest, it will not replace the regular Pro sessions you need to go forward and lower your handicap.
In Switzerland the device is available here: XLGolf.ch for CHF 259.-
First round with Golf Buddy Voice
After the first round with the Golf Buddy Voice clipped on my hat, I can say, it's a really usefull and simple device to use. At the first tee we enabled both our Golf Buddy Voice devices. We have used it with the german language setup. After one minute the device told me, I should wait as the course data will be loaded. After another 20 seconds, a friendly female voice told me: "You are at hole one."
After I pressed the main button she told me: "Hole one 292 meters".
We were suprised as we both were on the same tee box and we had quite signifficant different distances to the hole. We then saw, that one unit was setup with meters and the other with yards. At this point we both recognized that we both had not the "Quick Start Guide" with us. I was able to find out by myself, how to change from yards to meters on the wrongly set device.
Positive expirience
The device works very well with the selection of the holes. As our Home course is very small, and we had to go from hole one to hole two in between the tee boxes of hole 9, the Golf Buddy Voice told us "You are at hole nine." while passing the tee boxes. But arrived at the tee boxes of hole two, she selected the correct hole and told: "You are at hole two."
Things to change in the future
Every time you push the main button, the device tells you the hole and the distance to the green (front, center or back). In German, there is not enough pause (silence) between the announcement from the hole and the meter. Serveral times I understood on hole five, that it's over 500 meters to the green. "Hole five hundred twenty one meters."
Another very uncomfortable thing is the way how to measure the distance for your strokes. As I had no quick reference quide with me, it was not as intuitive as it should be and I was not able to do this. I tried it several times, with no success. Back at home I consulted the guide and was suprised how "unfriendly" this has to be done:
Overall
Very good device to tell you the distance between you and the hole. Hopfully the negative points can be changed with an update to make this to the perfect Golf Buddy Voice.
More information about the device you can find at Golf Buddy.
A new gadget clipped to my hat...
We received a new gadget for measuring the distance to the hole.
I's very tiny and easy to use. We will try it next time we will play a round. I have updated the device with all courses around the word, to be prepared… ;-)
Golf Courses played
Golfpark Holzhäusern (often played):
http://www.golfparkholzhaeusern.ch
Gloria Golf Belek, Turky (one week in March 2011):
http://www.gloria.com.tr/de/GolfClub.aspx
St.Moritz Golfclub (June, 2011):
http://www.stmoritz-golfclub.ch/de/
Golf Samedan (June 2011, first time 18 holes played):
http://www.engadin-golf.ch/de/golfanlagen/samedan
Golf Madulain-Zuoz (June 2011, one of our favourites):
http://www.engadin-golf.ch/de/golfanlagen/zuoz-madulain
Chervo Golf Lake Garda (One week end of October 2011):
http://www.chervogolfsanvigilio.it/
Antalya Golf Club, Turky (one week in March 2012):
http://www.agc.com.tr/AGC-LANG/2/EN/ENGLISH.aspx
Carya Golf Belek (once played in March 2011, very beautiful course):
http://www.caryagolf.com/
Golfpark Otelfingen (recently played):
http://www.golfotelfingen.ch/
Golf Rastenmoos ( near Lucerne, nice 9-hole course, recently played):
http://www.golfrastenmoos.ch
Finca Cortesin, Andalusia, Spain:
http://www.fincacortesin.com/en
(played May 22, 2012, directly after Volvo World match play turnament)
Costa Casares Golf, Andalusia, Spain (played May 21, 2012):
http://www.casarescostagolf.com/index.php/en
Club de Golf La Canada, Andalusia, Spain (played May 23, 2012):
http://www.lacanadagolf.es/index_ing.php
Almenara, Andalusia, Spain (played May 24, 2012):
http://www.hotelalmenara.com/en/almenara-golf/
The San Roque Club, Old Course, Andalusia, Spain (played May 25, 2012):
http://www.sanroqueclub.com/
La Reserva, Andalusia, Spain (played May 26, 2012):
http://www.sotogrande.com/websotogrande/golf/la_reserva_club_de_golf/presentation_en.php
Golfclub Lenzerheide, Switzerland (played July 1, 2012):
http://www.golf-lenzerheide.ch/deutsch/index.php
Golfpark Moossee, Moosseedorf, Switzerland (played in June and July 13, 2012):
http://www.golfpark-moossee.ch/
Golfclub Gams-Werdenberg, Gams, Switzerland (played in August 17, 2012):
http://www.golfgams.ch/
Golfpark Oberkirch, Switzerland (played in September 10, 2012):
http://www.golfpark-oberkirch.ch/
Golf Emmental, Oberburg, Switzerland (played in September 11, 2012):
http://www.golfemmental.ch/homepage/homepage.htm
Golfclub Ybrig, Studen, Switzerland (played in September 14, 2012):
http://www.golfybrig.ch/home.html
Golfclub Heidental, Stüssligen, Switzerland (played September 17, 2012):
http://www.golfheidental.ch/
Golfclub Engelberg-Titlis, Engelberg, Switzerland (played September 21, 2012):
http://www.golfclub-engelberg.ch/
Our first 18 hole round...
… was in St. Moritz Samedan
… score? Unknown ;-)