The Loop
It's a little disheartening to compare your swing to Rickie Fowler's, but it's really cool that you can
ORLANDO -- In a TrackMan-fueled era of golf, some of the game's fastest adaptors have been equipment companies. They figured out quickly that measuring every feasible aspect of the golf swing actually comes in pretty handy for clubfitting (and, ultimately, club selling).
I took a spin on GEARS, Cobra-Puma's latest addition to this fast-growing space, and it was pretty astonishing. Retailing for about $39,500, it's more geared towards high-end facilities and Cobra's custom clubfitters. All of Cobra's tour pros -- Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter among them -- have their swings stored on GEARS.
The way GEARS works is pretty simple: the user puts on a suit which features tiny, white sensors all over them. After standing still and facing the camera so it can recognize all the points it needs to, all you have to do is swing. GEARS will do everything from telling you your clubhead speed, to showing where you hit the ball on the face, to sketching a 3D simulation of your entire golf swing. It has a margin of error of about .2 of a millimeter, and it even allows you to overlay your swing onto one of Cobra-Puma's staffer's.
If you dare. . .