It’s a data-driven world and not only is golf living in it, but the game has made itself quite comfortable in its new home wallpapered in numbers. Technology drives the data, and with each new piece of tech comes more numbers, measuring things you didn’t even know were things.
Bushnell Golf has found a way to collect the data, bundle it and hand it back to you to answer whatever golf question you think is most vital. For many players, it’s: What club do I hit for this shot?
Bushnell’s Link ecosystem allows golfers to combine the new Tour V7 Shift rangefinder with the company’s newest version of the Launch Pro — the Circle B — using Foresight Golf’s app to record virtually all of a player’s swing metrics. And by pairing the Foresight data with the Tour V7, the rangefinder will not only give you the “playing-as” yardage for each shot, it also will recommend the club to hit based on your launch monitor numbers.
Starting with the Launch Pro, if you’ve never used a launch monitor — or even if you have — the first thing you should notice is that you probably don’t hit the ball as far as you think you do. Don’t be alarmed if the distance numbers are shorter than you believe they should be.
Range balls can vary from location to location in brand and condition, which can cause distances to come up a bit shy of what you might be expecting. The Foresight app attempts to address that with its Ball Normalization, in which you can plug in a virtual Callaway Chrome Tour series ball on the software to replace the brand of range balls you are hitting. The software will calculate the data as if you were hitting a premium ball.
The Circle B Launch Pro utilizes a three-camera system to capture each shot, which allows it to be used to the side of the ball instead of behind, as is the case with radar-based launch monitors. The Launch Pro’s initial screen features a trapezoidal area that shows you where the ball is positioned so the cameras can see it.
“We're able to capture about 24 inches of ball flight right at the moment of impact,” says Tim Tiel, director of marketing for Bushnell Golf. “So, with our high-speed cameras and our infrared cameras, as well, we're able to track exactly what the ball is doing. We can see the dimples.
“We're able to precisely, accurately track that, and basically give you an instant reading once you hit that ball. We know exactly how far it went, we know spin axis, we know carry distance, we know ball speed, we know everything as quickly as possible, the main difference between that and competitors that are radar-based or Doppler-based is that those are usually sitting behind you and they're tracking ball flight, so they're not actually seeing what's happening at impact.”
The Launch Pro basic (free) subscription measures ball data that includes carry distance, ball speed, total spin, vertical and horizontal launch angles, spin axis, backspin and sidespin. To measure club data — clubhead speed, smash factor, club path and angle of attack — an upgrade to a Silver subscription ($199 a year) is required.
The Foresight app also calculates the yardage based on your altitude, as well. The University of Arizona golf team used this feature for the players to become accustomed to how distances would be affected at sea level as the players prepared for the NCAA Men’s Championship at La Costa Resort in San Diego, California. The Wildcats reached the semifinals of the match-play portion of the tournament, falling to UCLA.
Golfers can customize data with MyBag in the Foresight app, which allows the choice of each specific club in the bag to measure, including hybrids and specialty wedges. The data for each launch monitor session is stored in the Foresight app and can be edited to remove shots that might be outliers.
The Foresight app pairs with the Launch Pro by Bluetooth and serves as the data storage since the Launch Pro does not record the data directly on the unit. Users can set up the clubs in the bag in the Shot Analysis section of the app and start recording data. Once that is established, the user can go into the MyBag section and record yardage and dispersion for each of your clubs.
The Tour V7 Shift is paired by Bluetooth with the Bushnell Golf app, which receives the Launch Pro data from the Foresight app. The MyBag data is automatically transferred to the Tour V7. When the golfer shoots the flagstick or any other distance, two club recommendations will appear in the upper-left corner of the rangefinder display.
“I play competitive golf and I was surprised that I would get as much benefit from it,” Tiel says. “It definitely changed my game a lot, especially understanding my carry distances more than anything.”
The Circle B Launch Pro ($2,499) can be used indoors and outdoors with equal accuracy. Indoors, it usually pairs with simulators and with a Silver subscription, users get five simulated courses, whereas the Gold subscription ($499 a year) comes with 25 simulated courses.
