A new golf facility in San Luis Obispo is helping the average golfer improve their game. TopTracer at Dairy Creek Golf Course is a driving range with real time statistics and data to show your strengths and weaknesses before you head out for a round.
Miscalculations, poor club selection, and just plain bad shots; all terms the everyday golfer knows all too well.
“We all think that we hit the ball farther than we do, but now, you’re actually going to know your actual data,” said Josh Heptig, SLO County’s Golf Course Superintendent.
TopTracer at Dairy Creek supplies you with what you need to become a better golfer; accurate ball speed, launch angle, apex, and distance. Here’s how it works: Reserve a bay, show up, download the TopTracer app, pick a club, and simply swing away. Cameras, that the PGA Tour uses, on the sides of the building take the coordinates of the ball flying through the air. The data is then spit out onto a touchscreen and your app to tell you how high and far the ball traveled, the amount of curve left or right, and the launch angle of the ball off the club.
Those are buzz phrases for golf, but how do they correlate to the average player wanting to better their game?
“The best thing you can know is numbers. If you’re standing out on a fairway and you have a certain shot to hit, if you don’t know definitively that this is the right club, it’s like you have no confidence. The confidence level can grow,” said Heptig. “You’re going to start playing a lot better golf if you actually know your numbers and know what yardage you actually hit your shots.”
San Luis Obispo resident, Logan Baumgartner, is what you would call your everyday golfer; he’s been playing a few times a month for the past six years. Having TopTracer on the Central Coast allows him to take his game to the next level.
“A driving range is cool, but you don’t necessarily know how far you’re hitting it because you don’t have the targets. This is rad because it tracks your ball speed, your trajectory, your spin; it’s good to know those extra statistics,” said Baumgartner. “If you enjoy golf at all, even if you don’t know how to golf, it’s a great place to learn. 100%.”
From kids games, regular practice rounds, playing golf courses around the world like Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black in New York, to long drive competitions, TopTracer is data-driven for golfers of all ages.
“It’s just a blast. We’ve had a variety of people out here. We’re seeing golfers, non-golfers, everybody in between; grandparents with grandkids, parents with kids, moms with kids in baby buggy strollers coming out that are looking for a way to socialize,” said Heptig. “It’s a real mix of everybody that’s coming out here. That’s really what our goal was; to provide something the entire community can use.
TopTracer opens at 10am and closes at 10pm. A one-hour minimum is required to make a reservation.
“We’re trying to keep it affordable. We don’t want it to be breaking the bank. We start at $15 at 10am, we go to $30 at 2pm, and then at 5pm, we go to $45,” said Heptig.
To reserve a TopTracer bay, click this link.
