Welcome to I Tried It, a GOLF.com series about golf items — apparel, gear, accessories, etc. — that we’ve recently taken out for a spin. We’re here to give our honest, no-frills takes on the latest and greatest golf or golf-adjacent items. So, scroll down to read about what we love about golf’s newest (or new to us) products.
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Golf is a game of mitigating your misses just as much as it is hitting brilliant shots. But how do we know exactly where we are losing strokes on the course?
PGA Tour pros have access to thousands of points of strokes gained data thanks to the ShotLink system that tracks every swing every week on Tour. Us regular folk? We don’t have that same access, but with Full Swing’s new FS Combine feature, we now have a great option to test ourselves.
Since I haven’t been shooting the scores I felt like I wanted to this season, going through the FS Combine session was exactly what the doctor ordered. And boy, was it humbling.
What is an FS Combine?
Full Swing’s new Combine mode asks users to hit six shots from a variety of distances, from 60 yards all the way out to tee shots. Each shot is then given a “Shot Quality” score between 0 and 200, which comes from Full Swing’s partnership with Clippd, an AI-driven performance platform.
Clippd’s “Shot Quality” metric uses Ai to build off strokes gained data and factors in lie, weather, distance, start line and end result to score a shot based on the 16 data parameters the Full Swing Kit personal launch monitor offers. And it’s more than just seeing how close the ball goes to the assigned target. The algorithm can also account for mishits that end up in a good spot and score them appropriately.
Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor
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Scores are grouped into five categories: 0-49, Needs Work; 50-79, Average; 80-99, Great; 100-120, Tour Level; and 121+, Exceptional. For reference, Clippd has scored some of the most iconic shots of all-time, like Bryson DeChambeau’s 55-yard bunker shot to four feet on No. 18 during last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst (181) or Phil Mickelson’s miraculous 6-iron off the pine straw on the 13th hole during the final round of the 2010 Masters (198).
During a combine, a player aligns their Full Swing Kit unit to a target and then hits six shots to a target 60 yards away on that line, then 70, 80, 90, 100, 120, 140, 160 and 180 before going to tee shots. Each shot is scored and your average of the six shots is your score for that target. Your scores from the 10 targets are averaged for a total score.
My results
For context, my current handicap index is 2.4, and I have the goal of getting back to the plus-handicap that I carried four to five years ago when I graduated from college.
After going through the FS combine, I can safely say that I have more work to do!
I knew going into the test that it would be challenging for me because hitting shots 60 or 70 yards just isn’t in my nature. I’ve always been a feel player and I typically don’t like to use a range finder around those distances. So for the combine, I looked along the target line I put my launch monitor on and tried to play to a spot that was 60 or 70 yards away.
That’s probably why I scored the best from 80 and 90 yards, because those are distances where I start to use distance as opposed to just visuals and feel.
My driving range was dead into the wind when I tried this, so I also had to use longer clubs than I would have typically for these yardages. In fact, at 160 yards, I even switched clubs because I wasn’t hitting it as far as I needed to reach the target.
I thought I would be able to gain some ground with the driver, but I had two misses (one each direction) that brought my score back down to 80, just two points higher than my overall score of 78. What was cool to see was that if I dropped those two foul balls, my score with the driver goes all the way up to 95, which is just below Tour level. It shows you just how much those two swings could cost me during a tournament.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking to identify weaknesses in your ball striking, going through an FS Combine can be a tremendous exercise.
It’s a long and grinding process — it’s 60 shots and took me about 45 minutes to complete — so make sure you are warmed up sufficiently and give yourself plenty of time so you don’t feel like you have to rush.
But getting the shot quality metrics can be invaluable. For me, I know I need to work on my 60-70 yard pitches as well as honing in my foul balls with the driver, which could save me several strokes during a round.
That’s easier said than done, but now I know where to look and I know how to test myself again.
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