Is it worth buying a golf launch monitor? Yes & Here Is Why!

Is it worth buying a golf launch monitor?

For avid golfers looking to truly improve their games, investing in a quality launch monitor may be the best decision they could make. Launch monitors have become ubiquitous for professionals like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and amateurs alike. But what makes them so valuable?

In this post, we’ll cover what launch monitors are, highlight the top portable launch monitor options, and dive into the biggest reasons launch monitors are worth their price tags for golfers serious about dropping strokes or just having fun at home. 

What is a Golf Launch Monitor and How Does it Work?

Before diving into why launch monitors are so game-changing, it helps to understand exactly what they are and what they do. 

A golf launch monitor is an electronic device used to track detailed data about your golf shots. As you strike golf balls on a tee, fairway, or hitting mat, sensors in the launch monitor measure key swing and ball flight metrics.

Launch monitors track data points like clubhead speed, ball speed, launch angle, backspin, side spin, carry distance, and more. 

This wealth of swing and ball flight data helps golfers understand precisely how different aspects of their swings and golf equipment affect real-world results.

Modern launch monitors use either radar or high-speed camera systems to capture ball and club data immediately after impact. Portable launch monitors provide the same great tech in a small, movable package.

See our post on How Launch Monitors Work for more details.

Now that you know what a launch monitor is, let’s get into why they are so invaluable for golfers.

Game-Changing Benefits of a Launch Monitor

Here are 8 key ways launch monitors can benefit your golf game and make them well worth the investment:

Know Your Yardages

One of the best on-course benefits a launch monitor provides is dialing in your actual carry distances across all of your clubs. By getting highly precise carry data during practice sessions, you can determine empirical yardages for how far you hit each club.

This allows you to make smarter, more aggressive decisions during a round to score better. Confidently pull an iron knowing you carry your 7-iron 150 yards to clear a hazard rather than laying up.

Trust you can fly your 3 wood 215 off the tee rather than hitting driver on every hole regardless of the hazards. 

Eliminate uncertainty around how far you hit each club thanks to hard data from your launch monitor.

Being certain of your carry distances for all shot options frees you up to attack pins and fire at sucker pins rather than protecting against uncertainty. Knowing your yardages on approach shots will minimize penalty strokes and lead to lower scores. 

Improve Your Full Swing

One of the biggest launch monitor benefits is understanding how changes in your full swing impact ball speed, launch angle, backspin rates, and carry distance.

One of the biggest benefits a launch monitor provides is the ability to fully understand how various changes and tweaks impact your full swing technique.

For example, simply adding a few degrees of loft to your driver or slightly altering your swing plane can produce noticeable differences in ball speed, launch angle, backspin rates, and total carry distance. 

Use Data Not Guessing

Without using a launch monitor, you may try these swing adjustments but have no way to accurately measure if they helped or not. You’d simply be guessing based on feel. But launch monitors give you real, tangible feedback.

See for yourself that adding 2 degrees loft drops spin rate by 300 rpm. Or that shallowing your swing plane by 3 degrees increases your driver carry by 5 yards instantly. Now you can precisely dial in an optimal driver swing, knowing the exact effects small tweaks make rather than guessing.

Launch monitors completely remove the speculation around what swing adjustments work or don’t. No more guessing – you’ll have the data and can immediately see true, real-world results from changing your swing mechanics.

Being able to experiment with your full swing technique and get instant feedback is invaluable. Launch monitors help you iteratively improve your swing until you are consistently maximizing ball speed and launch for maximizing distance.

You can perfect your full swing to optimal levels through the feedback launch monitors provide.

Dial In Your Short Game

Chipping, pitching, and bunker play account for significant scoring opportunities. But it’s difficult to judge spin, carry, and roll out subjectively on short shots.

Launch monitors provide concrete data like spin rate, shot height, and carry distance for dialing in every aspect of your short game with precision.

Being able to master short shots like chipping, pitching, and bunker play is so critical in golf. These short shots around the green represent some of your biggest opportunities to save strokes.

But it’s incredibly difficult to get a true sense of how your technique on short shots is impacting the spin, carry distance, and roll out. Judging these factors by eye leaves far too much margin for error. 

Launch monitors eliminate the guesswork and provide concrete numerical data to help dial in every facet of your short game. 

See exactly how much backspin your 50-yard pitch shots generate with a sand wedge vs gap wedge. Check that switching from a pitching wedge to an 8 iron on bump and run chip shots reduces back spin by 500 rpm for better rolling out.

Launch monitors give you real, measurable feedback for honing in short shots to your exact ability level. You’ll learn to vary spin, carry distance, and roll out purposefully by seeing shot data.

Your up-and-down percentages and proximity to the hole on approaches will improve dramatically thanks to launch monitors helping master your short game through precision data.

Optimize Your Golf Equipment

Modern drivers, irons, and golf balls are highly engineered for launch and spin. A launch monitor helps determine ideal equipment combinations for maximizing carry distance and total yardage. 

Seeing swing speed, launch angle, and spin with different clubs and balls makes proper fitting much simpler.

Today’s drivers, irons, and golf balls are highly advanced pieces of technology engineered to produce optimal launch conditions and spin rates for maximum distance.

With so many equipment variables, it’s extremely difficult to determine the ideal combinations to maximize your driving and iron play through trial and error alone. This is where a launch monitor becomes invaluable for properly fitting equipment to your swing.

Seeing quantitative data on ball speed, launch angle, backspin, carry, and total distance provides the information needed to determine ideal driver, shaft, and golf ball matchups.

For instance, if your current 10.5° driver produces excessive spin resulting in limited carry you could swap in a lower spin 9.5° model with a low launch shaft. For some players, they will pick up 15 extra yards of carry by reducing spin and optimizing launch angle.

Other Ways to Optimize

Dial in proper irons by testing various heads and shafts to determine the right launch and spin pairing that maximizes both distance and peak trajectory for your swing speed. 

Fit golf balls by monitoring sidespin reduction and choosing a 3 piece model that adds distance through lower spin off the tee and higher spin from irons.

Launch monitors take the guesswork out of optimizing modern golf equipment by giving you the comparable data needed to determine the best combinations of gear tailored specifically to your swing.

Practice Anytime, Rain or Shine

Portable launch monitors mean you can practice golf shots indoors or outdoors. Take swings into a net or hitting mat and get the same detailed swing feedback.

No need to be limited by weather – a launch monitor enables indoor practice rain or shine. And for urban golfers, it may be your only option.

Analyze Your Swing and Ball Striking

Even without changing anything, observing your baseline numbers for swing speed, ball speed, launch angle, spin rates, etc. provides key insights. 

A launch monitor helps you learn what your natural swing produces and what different shot shapes require at your ability level.

One of the simpler but highly valuable uses of a launch monitor is tracking your baseline metrics over time to better understand your natural swing tendencies and capabilities.

Before making any compensations or changes, collect data for your normal swing – observe averages and ranges for your swing speed, typical ball speeds, launch angles, spin rates, carry distance, and other factors. 

Having this baseline data will provide tremendous insight into your innate ability and where there’s room for improvement. See that your average swing speed is 93 mph but ball speed is only 135 mph indicating inefficiencies in energy transfer.

Notice you naturally hit down on drivers resulting in low launch and excessive spin. Quantify how much lower your 7 iron launch angle is compared to your pitching wedge. Learn how different you compress the ball between longer clubs and short wedges.

Understand your spin profile tendencies across the bag. Launch monitors illuminate the true outputs your current swing produces, highlighted areas for improvement, and requirements for shaping various golf shots.

Armed with this baseline knowledge, you can then make more informed changes and practice more purposefully.

Observe swing changes that increase clubhead speed. See that adding loft simultaneously increases launch and reduces spin on drives. Learn that shallowing your attack angle raises launch and carry distance with mid irons.

Let the data guide your improvement once you truly understand your starting point through launch monitor feedback.

Compete Virtually

Many modern launch monitors connect to simulation software for playing virtual rounds on famous courses. Compete with friends locally or online with real performance data impacting your scores.

Portable launch monitors like SkyTrak enable building a golf simulator affordably. Get the experience right at home.

Practice More Purposefully

Launch monitor data helps you practice more purposefully and efficiently. See clear results from swing changes immediately rather than guessing after 100 reps.

You can even target specific weaknesses and tailor practice plans to improve. Monitor progress over time as you implement changes.

One of the most valuable long-term benefits of using a launch monitor is enabling purposeful, efficient practice. Launch monitor data helps you understand precisely which changes generate tangible improvements – and just as importantly, which changes fail to help. This allows for focused, productive range sessions.

For example, you may have a slice that you try correcting through 100 reps making a more closed clubface. But the launch monitor shows closing the face simply reduces distance while maintaining the same sidespin on shots – no benefit.

So you adjust to focus on shallowing the swing path through practice, which the data proves reduces your slice dramatically. Being able to see meaningful results immediately removes wasted time from fruitless changes and keeps your practice highly focused.

You can also use the data to create tailored practice plans targeting your biggest weaknesses. See that your wedge spin control needs significant work – set goals for improving spin reduction month over month.

Track that your downward driver attack steepens as you tire – schedule shorter driver sessions. Let areas of priority shine through. And monitor your progress through data over time – are you trending positively or still struggling?

Without a launch monitor, none of this purposeful, targeted development is possible. You will undoubtedly make faster gains through data-backed practice centered on your personal needs.

Buying a Launch Monitor – What to Look For

Convinced of the value in owning a launch monitor? Here are the key factors to evaluate when selecting the right model:

Accuracy

Both Camera-based & Radar-based launch monitors provide excellent accuracy once you get about $1,500. Below $1,500, the accuracy is not reliable due to inferior components.

Price

Budget models start under $500, but expect to invest $1,500 to $5,000+ for useful accuracy and features.

Portability

For indoor and outdoor use, compact, camera-based launch monitors are essential. Unless you will be using it exclusively outdoors, I recommend a camera-based launch monitor.

Data and Analytics

Look for extensive club and ball flight data, trend analysis, and virtual simulation capability.

Brands

Trusted brands like SkyTrak, FlightScope, Uneekor, Bushnell, and Foresight Sports dominate portable launch monitors currently

Prioritize your needs like price, simulation, and accuracy to select the launch monitor that will best help you achieve your golfing goals.

We have an article on launch monitors with all the details you need to find more info on reviews, features, and how to improve using launch monitor metrics.

Launch Monitor Recommendations 

Which launch monitor is right for you depends on numerous factors including, available space, indoor or outdoor use, type of metrics required, and budget.

See our Golf Launch Monitor Wizard for a step-by-step process to identify the best launch monitor for your space & needs.

Time to Improve Your Golf Game

Now you understand what golf launch monitors are, how they work, and why investing in a launch monitor can pay huge dividends for your golf skills and enjoyment.

Launch monitors remove the guesswork and provide the feedback you need to build an excellent, repeatable swing. And portable launch monitors mean you can use them anytime, anywhere to practice golf your way.

The amount of data generated can seem complex at first. But focus on understanding your own baseline metrics and make small tweaks to improve. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the data.

If you’re ready to take your golf game to the next level, get your hands on a launch monitor and put it to work for your benefit. Your scores will drop once you can perfect your swing and equipment. Good luck!

Frequently Asked Questions