The Skytrak Bag Mapping feature is one of the best reasons to buy Skytrak. I think it’s fantastic. As a golfer improves and lowers his or her handicap, it becomes more and more important to know how far you hit each club.
The Skytrak Bag Mapping feature allows you to plan out your golf bag, learn how far you hit each club and what gaps you have in your yardages. You will gain invaluable insight into your game.
On this site, you’ll find articles on all aspects of building a golf simulator. I will also link to other sites where you can buy some of the simulator components. Some of these links may be affiliate links, which means if you click them I gain a small commission at no extra cost to you. This really helps out me and my site so thank you in advance! Thanks, Alex @ MyGolfSimulator
What is Skytrak Bag Mapping?
There are many good golfers who should know how far they hit each club but still take a bit of a guess. You can work out where in your golf bag you have large yardage gaps and where your yardages are too close together. This means you can work out which clubs you need and which you could shove in the garage. It will allow you to become more comfortable with your clubs and will give you a greater insight into your game.
A great many of the poor approach shots hit in a round are due to taking the wrong club. If you could reduce the number of poor club choices you will definitely shave strokes off your handicap. The Skytrak Bag Mapping feature aims to help you do just that.
with thanks to Rain or Shine Golf
Which Skytrak subscription package do you need for Bag Mapping?
You will need either the Game Improvement Package or the Play and Improve package to benefit from the Bag mapping feature. You won’t be able to access it from the basic (free) version.
The Game Improvement membership plan costs $99.95 per year or $299.85 for three years. Unless you plan on playing the World Golf Tour simulation software in your simulator, then this is probably better value than the Play and Improve package which is more expensive.
We will look in more detail at the differences in these packages in a future article.
How do you access Bag Mapping on Skytrak?
You can access Bag mapping from the SKytrak home screen by going to Game Improvement and then clicking on Bag Mapping.
with thanks to Rain or Shine Golf
You’re then presented with a screen where you can configure the clubs in your bag. You have to tell Skytrak which clubs you will be hitting in the practice and measurement session you’re about to do.
How does the Skytrak Bag Mapping session actually work?
After you’ve inputted your choice of clubs and how many shots you wish to take with each one, the practice session will start and you can start hitting your shots in Skytrak’s driving range.
Be careful here though, if you choose to hit too many shots with each club you will get tired by the end of the session. This may make the data from clubs used at the end of the session inaccurate. Any inaccuracy here will invalidate the whole session because it is the gaps in yardages you’re really interested in.
You can also set a target yardage gap before beginning the session (with a gap tolerance too). You can then assess your performance compared to your target yardage gaps.
The Skytrak Bag Mapping process looks like this:
- Start up Skytrak and ensure connectivity, Open Bag Mapping
- Tell Skytrak whether you’re left or right handed
- Add your club choices
- Choose how many shots to hit with each club
- Choose how many of these shots count (Skytrak can delete any outliers or poor shots)
- Tell Skytrak what your intended yardage gap is, along with your gap tolerance.
- Go to Skytrak’s driving range and hit your practice shots
- Learn and improve by comparing the data to your expected and target results
After completing the range session where you actually hit your shots, you’ll be presented with a wide variety of data showing you:
- The average yardage you hit every club
- The gaps in your club yardages (are they too big or too small and can you alter your arrangement of clubs to improve this and encounter fewer situations where you’re ‘between clubs’)
- Are any clubs producing a different shot shape than most? Do you need to accommodate for this in the weight placement of your woods or your choice of shafts or the clubs themselves? Do you need to address this in your swing with some lessons?
Can you save your results and come back to it later?
You can save this bag setup as a preset bag to come back to later. You can give the bag a name. I’ve made two bag presets in my simulator. They differ as I use a different combination of clubs between 3 wood and 4 iron, and also a different configuration of wedges. I have so many wedges!
Does the software allow you to delete poor strikes?
Yes!
You can choose to save only a certain number of shots and delete the poor ones. For example you can designate saving 4 out of 5 shots or 3 out of 5. This is especially good for golfers who know they frequently thin or fat a shot.
The mapping of your bag will be a representation of the yardages you hit on a ‘good shot’. You could argue it would be more accurate to include the poor shots but the really rubbish ones would skew the data a bit too much I feel.
Will the Skytrak Bag Mapping feature give you surprising results?
I think Bag Mapping is such an excellent exercise for a golfer to undertake. It gives you so much insight into your golf game. I recommend taking a moment to reflect on your game before starting the process. Download our yardage template below and fill it out just based on what you think you should be hitting.
This will help you answer questions like these:
- Are you overestimating your yardages? (Common!)
- Are you underestimating them (probably less common)
- Where do you think the biggest yardage gap is in your bag?
- Are there two clubs you think you probably hit the same distance? This is quite common with longer irons for higher handicap golfers.
- Thinking about your skill level as a golfer, is it worth continuing with clubs such as 2 or 3 iron? Would you be better hitting a hybrid?
- What is your wedge setup? Do you have the right yardage gaps here? Gapping your wedges is a slightly more complicated matter and there is a whole separate feature of Skytrak called Wedge Matrix.
We discuss this below and have a dedicated article on how to use Wedge Matrix to better your game coming soon.
You may get a good excuse for a new golf club or two!
If you use the Bag Mapping feature and come to the conclusion that you have a glaring hole in your yardages that your need to fill, this is a GOOD thing!
It means you’ve identified a small weak spot in your golf game that you can now fix. Lots of sports coaches talk about making marginal gains to see long term improvement and this is one of those times.
The other exciting positive of finding such a gap is that it means you have a good excuse to buy a new golf club to plug the yardage gap!
Can the Skytrak Bag Mapping feature help me get custom fitted for new clubs?
Yes!
You can show really results got your bag Mapping session to your local golf pro. This will provide the pro with a rich source of information to inform the custom fitting process.
You can help them further by writing down the lofts of your clubs if you know them (though they’ll be able to work this out of course).
As well as distances for each club, you’ll gain information on the dispersion of the balls you hit. The feature will tell you whether there are certain clubs in your bag that usually produce a draw when all the rest produce a fade (or an alternative pattern).
Your pro should be able to work out whether this is related to your swing or your golf club and advise you accordingly.
The Skytrak Bag Mapping feature allows you to give your golf pro the most information possible to help you improve.
Avoid ambient light problems from halting your Bag Mapping session
Some Skytrak users have found that when using Skytrak outdoors or at the range that they have problems with light. A few users have foun that the unit struggles to register shots in the bright fluorescent ligh that comes on at the range after the sun goes down. This then means when they’re far though their Bag Mapping session they lose the ability to continue and have to start over another day.
To avoid this problem, ensure you begin your outdoor Bag Mapping session when there is adequate sunlight.
If you’re struggling to pick up the shots midway through a Bag Mapping session when playing indoors then address the level of ambient light you have in your simulator space. If then you may have to reset your Skytrak. This is a helpful setup guide for Skytrak. Check it out to ensure there are no steps that you missed.
Will Skytrak Bag Mapping allow you to improve your ‘three quarter’ shots?
Yes!
Once you’ve used the Skytrak Bag Mapping feature once, practised your distances and refined your bag further, you should be much more confident knowing the distances you hit your full shots.
The next level in this practice is to work out how far you hit a three quarter shot. I recommend learning to hit the same three quarter swing with every club. This may take a lot of practice and you should spend a fair bit of time doing it on the driving range before assessing your results on a ‘three quarter swing bag map’.
Many golfers use a imaginary clock face to ingrain these shots and imagine swinging back to 10pm. Other golfers do it more on feel. Here is a link to a video that has helped me a lot when learning to hit these shots.
Once you’ve spent this time practicing three quarter shots and have gained confidence, go to your Skytrak Bag Mapping portal and create a new bag preset. Call is ‘My ¾ Bag’.
Go through the bag like you did originally and learn your three quarter yardages.
The goal here is to have an alternative shot for certain distances and fill any gaps you still have in your yardages.
I think it might be beyond the skill level of many club golfers to consistently hit three quarter shots to a yardage every time. My handicap is 6 and this is one of the goals I am aiming towards. I have been working hard on my iron game this year and have improved in hitting more controlled shots.
This has helped my game in the wind too.
Recap – The 9 benefits of Skytrak Bag Mapping for YOUR game
I hope this article has whetted your appetite for Skytrak Bag Mapping and the added confidence it will bring to your golf game.
The Skytrak Bag Mapping feature will allow you to:
- Learn how far you hit each club so you can make a more confident and informed decision next time you’re between clubs
- Learn where the big gaps in your yardages are (and the small ones), so you can address this and find yourself between clubs on fewer occasions
- Examine your dispersion and direction with each club in your bag and look for any outliers
- Make an evidence based decision on your next club purchases
- Assist your golf pro in your next custom fitting
- Learn to count on yardages for three quarter shots
- Gain a valuable insight into your golf game
- Produce a reference list of your yardages for use on the course
- Have more fun improving your game
Check out this video to recap all the above points about Skytrak Bag Mapping.
We’ll soon be uploading our printable cheat sheet, ‘My Yardages‘, that you can download for free and stick inside your golf bag so you never forget your yardages when you’re between clubs. You could even laminate it and attach it to the outside of your bag.
Are you ready to take the plunge and purchase Skytrak? You won’t regret it!
Click here to buy Skytrak in the US.
Click here to buy Skytrak in the UK
It’s such a fantastic launch monitor that will help you play more golf, play better golf and enjoy your golf!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello! My name is Alex and it is my mission to bring you all the information you need to build your own home golf simulator! I hope mygolfsimulator.com helps you on your journey to better golf at home!
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On this site, you'll find articles on all aspects of building a golf simulator. I will also link to other sites where you can buy some of the simulator components. Some of these links may be affiliate links, which means if you click them I gain a small commission at no extra cost to you. This really helps out me and my site so thank you in advance! mygolfsimulator.com and all related social media accounts are property of Awonline LTD.
