Driving Range Feature

Hi Jim and Damico,

Golf Pad Tags track your location while you're on the golf course. Tracking on a driving range would require a launch monitor like Trackman that actually uses radar to track the golf ball itself. 

The purpose of Tags is to track your shots on the course, keep track of distances, provide statistics, give club recommendations etc. We often get requests for driving range capabilities but the technology just isn't meant for that.

Please reach out any time to support@golfpadgps.com if you need any help using the tags on the course! Our support team is very responsive and will get back to you quickly!

Annie

I posted earlier about my disappointed with this product, how it fell short of my expectations by not offering a driving range mode. I'm posting as a follow up to explain how that opinion was based on a misunderstanding of how the product functioned and what its limitations are.
 
Golf Pad Tags could never supply accurate distance or other swing statistics because it is not designed for that. It does not contain an accelerometer or any other data sampling hardware. 

It's simply a tag that activates the input of your location and club selection into the Golf Pad app on your phone while you are on the course. It is supposed to remove the step of pulling out the phone and doing this manually. Hit the ball, move to the location of the next shot, tap the club to your phone and continue. If it worked seamlessly for this, it might be worth the money.  
 
That's it.
 
If you could pace out each shot at the range, tag the distance and go back to the tee and hit another it would work as advertised. But that would a dangerous process and generally not recommended. So the idea of using it at the range is misguided and this expectation belies understanding the functionality of the product.
 
The real question is "does it work as advertised?" 
    
 Based on several months of rounds in real world use my answer to that question is, sort of. 
    
 If the Golf Pad app worked seamlessly and if the tags registered the club accurately, every time, and didn't require you to open the phone to confirm that the data was captured. Well. Then on the whole the product would be well worth the hundred bucks. But it doesn't.  Not counting random lockups, incorrectly opening of other NFC features and app crashes
    
 My experience with the Golf Pad app and tags can be described as "fiddly."   I cannot trust that it will consistently capture the shot data without dragging the phone out, opening the app and confirming the info is registered and then moving along. This takes time, whose focus would be better dedicated to playing a difficult game and it also requires that I actually remember to go through the process on every-single-shot.
  
 I can confirm that on multiple occasions I have; thought that I had captured the tag successfully, hit my shot, traveled to the next and found that the previous was not registered. Frustrating. So I wind up carrying my phone in my hand, everywhere. No I do not have a google watch, maybe that'd make it easier.
    
 I've seen people demonstrate that the tag will register while the phone is in their pocket. This has not worked for me. 
    
 I have tossed the tags into my closet full of old golf equipment.

It’s Father’s Day and I’ve just opened my Golf Tags and as a new golfer was super excited!!! I tagged every club and got ready to head to the driving range because its literally 5 mins away and tried to search for the driving range mode and couldn’t find it. So I checked the instructions and couldn’t find it. I went to YouTube, google, etc… I finally stumbled on this thread and realized that IT DOESN’T EXIST. This is a waste of money. 

As many others have already stated, I am only able to use this PRACTICE AID when I’m NOT practicing. For a good golfer I think that’s fine because you know what you’re doing. But, for a newbie like myself it’s a total waste. I don’t have the time nor the money to wait to use this TRAINING AID during my game. 

But ok, I get it, “there is no way to program it for a driving range”. But no one answered the question about being able to at least import data from Top Tracer, which my driving range uses. 

But if Golf Pad will not be using the billion technological advances to add a “practice feature”. They can at least stop misleading the consumer. NO WHERE on the box does it say you this is not compatible with driving ranges, nor does it say you must be on a golf course to use this golf aid. 

Based on this comment thread, this was an issue several years ago. Not only has Golf Pad not fixed this issue, they have continued to allow people to buy this product KNOWING that consumers still believe that this can be used to “Track  every shot with a simple tap”. Well that’s not true and it’s misleading and borders on false advertising, because I cannot track EVERY shot. The shots I take in practice on the driving range cannot be tracked. 

I’m very disappointed and saddened that people still find the need to mislead the consumer, knowing full well their product has been misunderstood by previous consumers. 

This product appears to be an awesome product so there is no reason why a small disclaimer can’t be added to say “Only compatible during actual games.” Or “No practice mode available.” Or “Not compatible at a driving range.” It’s just that simple.  

I think people have misunderstood what Tags are for. Including Arccos, Shot Scope. Garmin or any others. They are for tracking your game whilst playing on a course. There are no Tags that allow you to track your shots at a golf range without actually going to where the ball landed. For that you need a Launch Monitor, they range in price from around £200 to £25,000. 

I got rid of mine because of that feature not being available.

Imaging my disappointment when I installed my new order of tags and was unable to actually practice with them. How can you design a golf aid that doesn't support practice? You can only build a sample database of how far you hit each club by playing an actual round? Idiotic. I feel like I've wasted my money.

This needs to be added ASAP. Would be great in shot calculation recommendations on the course. The general benefit of tracking consistency and game improvements as well will be a huge value. I think this needs to be addressed quickly given the mobility options of shot trackers now, with an actual mobile phone app being developed as well. Obviously you guys aren't doing that so at least a manual data input would keep most people from migrating to these other platforms. Maybe partnering with Skytrak or whoever else to upload or sync data: although building in your own system would probably be more likely to happen than those companies doing that. Personally, Im working on a R10 set up at my house and now I'm thinking about going full time to Garmin after this membership because I get to the range as much as on the course with family time constraints, so range data is really important to me. Thanks for listening.

Hi Robert - there is no way to import data into the app other than playing a round or manually entering shot information. I'll pass it along as a suggestion to the development team. Thanks for posting! 

Hi Lenard, thanks for the follow up question. Golf Pad receives many suggestions from our users. We appreciate and frequently implement these suggestions. The development and management team have many things to consider when implementing new features - technical details, demand, resource availability and our overarching service goals. This feature has not fit into that plan as of yet.  I will be sure to notify the team of this continued and renewed interest in a driving range feature. If you'd like, you can send us details about what you'd like to see for this or any other features via email to support@golfpadgps.com. We appreciate your continued interest and support. -Jon

Hi Lenard - We have not implemented a driving range feature. Although, this idea and the associated details have be noted on our possible future features list. -Jon

Hi Stacy - we do not have a driving range mode, though the suggestion has been noted. - Cindy