DD lighting issues affecting driver shots

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anybody would have any idea's / suggestions for me to try. I've set up my DD in my studio and when I hit my driver or woods It's registering as a massive hook. The swing path is usually straight but the club face is closed 20+ degrees. When I hit my irons they seem to be fine.

I'm wondering if my lighting is playing a big part in this as I have halogen lights on a dimmer switch throughout the studio. I've tried dimming the lights right down with pretty much the same results. I've also made sure the pad was in line with a target and that it's in alignment.

I was wondering if I should be taping my woods as they seem to be the only clubs not registering properly. My irons seem to be good but with the driver I usually hit a slight fade and when I'm swinging I can feel this is the type of ball flight I should have. I have set up my clubs manually already and haven't really noticed a difference.

I guess the question I'm asking if anybody has any suggestions for the optimal set up that would be great. I'm sure most of this has been covered already in this thread but reading through the entire thing has taken a long time and doesn't always pertain to DD setup.

I plan on getting a florescent light and put it directly over the pad tonight and give that a try.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Disco

Hard to say disco2424. I have had limited success with the dd and the driver. Some claim no issues. My problems were with the club face angle registry as well as the clubhead speed (usually extremely high or very low). Now that was not all the time but on average once every 5 hits. Do try taping the driver as they do with the p3pro. Check your lighting, clean your sensors regularly, check your setup/alignment, check the alignment again. Good luck and let us all know how it goes.

One other thing you can try if it's consistently coming up closed, is to play with the "Offset" adjustment for your driver and other woods. That will force the angle to be adjusted, so you may be able to get it to a usable state that way.

If you read through this thread, problems with reading drivers and fairway woods is a general challenge with the DD. There are ways to improve it, but you also may want to consider swinging a 3 iron or a hybrid (if you have one that reads correctly) in place of a driver and just leave the club selection set on driver. You can add a distance boost so that you get typical driver distances even though you're swinging a 3 iron.

That is what I ended up doing with my dd but really wanted to swing the big stick.

You should have "flourescent" light directly above the simulator pad. Make sure you tee the ball as low as you can, even off the deck if you have to. Alignment is also extremely important. I am one of the fortunate ones as my driver works without taping or lowering the tee height. All my clubs work extremely well with DD.

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Originally Posted by psace

You should have "flourescent" light directly above the simulator pad. Make sure you tee the ball as low as you can, even off the deck if you have to. Alignment is also extremely important. I am one of the fortunate ones as my driver works without taping or lowering the tee height. All my clubs work extremely well with DD.

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I'm going to pick up some florescent bulbs after work today and I will give your suggestions a try. I plan on giving my DD a good work out tonight and figure this thing out. It looks like to much fun to give up on already.

Edit: Sorry I forgot to ask if there is a recommended hight that your lighting should be above the pad. I was thinking of taking an adjustable lamp I have that I can bend it so it's right above the pad about 12 inches or so. (it doesn't affect my swing)

The flourescent light never worked for me but it may be worth trying. I do think the technology behind golf sims and launch monitors is fascinating. They are very useful tools for fun and game improvement. For me personally the sims have helped my maintain my ball striking and allowed me to develop different shots with practice (now hitting a draw with my irons). I personally am not scoring any better (handicap still at 4) as I think to get to scratch from here would involve and improved short game which I don't think the sim has helped me. My short game is really a feel thing and no matter how well or poor my ball striking is going one need a good short game to score. Has anybody found these sims helpful for you short game?

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Originally Posted by disco2424

I'm going to pick up some florescent bulbs after work today and I will give your suggestions a try. I plan on giving my DD a good work out tonight and figure this thing out. It looks like to much fun to give up on already.

Edit: Sorry I forgot to ask if there is a recommended hight that your lighting should be above the pad. I was thinking of taking an adjustable lamp I have that I can bend it so it's right above the pad about 12 inches or so. (it doesn't affect my swing)

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We'll I've changed out my lighting and tried taping my driver with no luck. I'm at a loss. My irons all seem to be dead on distance is pretty accurate and flight is very close.

It's to bad as one of the reasons I bought this was I was having a rough time with my driver all season and was hoping to work on it over the winter. I've checked my alignment of the pad and it looks good but I was wondering how everybody else checks theirs and what you guys believe is the best way to do this. I would assume if my alignment was off I would be noticing this in my irons as well.

I went with the DD because of costs and at the time the graphics looked great but I'm wondering if I made the wrong decision. :(

I don't think the DD is a great tool to work on your driver. I think some brands of drivers work somewhat well, and people have had reasonable success trying things like taping and hitting balls off the turf with no tee, but there's no doubt that the device works a lot better for irons than it does for a driver. It's an amazing system considering the price though...there are just some limitations you have to live with or work around.

disco the issues with the driver is one of the reasons I upgraded to the P3pro. The driver just never worked for me. I never liked the idea of hitting my 3 iron and registering as a driver or hitting the driver of the deck which I would never do in real golf and fear it may actually mess up my swing. Look some have found their drivers to work and others are happy to live with just hitting irons, to each's own. The other reason was the ability to add a launch angle measurement to truly determine haw solid and what trajectory my ball flight is. P3pro has such but the launch integration with the new P3pro GSA courses have not happened as of yet :(.

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Originally Posted by bubba22

disco the issues with the driver is one of the reasons I upgraded to the P3pro. The driver just never worked for me. I never liked the idea of hitting my 3 iron and registering as a driver or hitting the driver of the deck which I would never do in real golf and fear it may actually mess up my swing. Look some have found their drivers to work and others are happy to live with just hitting irons, to each's own. The other reason was the ability to add a launch angle measurement to truly determine haw solid and what trajectory my ball flight is. P3pro has such but the launch integration with the new P3pro GSA courses have not happened as of yet :(.

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Thanks for the replies everybody, I think you might be right about having to upgrade to a P3pro. The reason I purchased this originally was to work on my game over the winter. I do like to see the technical side of the swing (path, face and swings speeds). One of the reason I went with the DD was the courses were included and having to purchase the add ons on top of purchasing the sim gets pretty expensive. Tough to justify to the wife buying a sim for 3 thousand that will keep me outside in the garage/studio every night especially when that's what I pay for my membership that keeps me away everyday during the summer.

I hear ya. The cost of the p3pro has really dropped to be more competitive. Keep trying with the dd to see if it can work for you. As rdh said play with the offset, taping, alignment and lighting. If your ok with things hang in there. However you chose, having a home sim is fun. You will get more info with the p3pro such as angle of attack, ball speed, club height through impact and optional launch so it is a better club analyser but at a higher price point. You can try to save some money by getting a used p3pro (ebay has referbed units a little cheaper) but they may not have the software needed for GSA course simulation so at the end you may pay more. Talk with Cory at Par2pro.

Unfortunately, the driver is everybodies favourite club and the one most practiced. My father had the same trouble with his R9 on my DD. He usually hits a fade but was hooking everything. It might have been due to how he set up the R9. My Callaway driver has a draw bias but always works for me. My Callaway Big Bertha woods all work fine, as well.

Must be a Taylormade thing. I have a r7 and upgraded to an r9 this season and neither register well. What Callaway driver do u have psace?

I'm playing an R9 driver as well. I do have a new Titeliest driver as well but I don't have it here with me. I should bring it home in a few days and maybe give it a try before I totally give up on this.

A friend of mine and I both have Callaway FT-3 Fusion drivers and neither have any trouble (with the driver that is)