Use Trackman Data to Make the Most of Your New Driver
- Craig Sorensen
- Nov 1
- 7 min read
How to Improve Your Golf Driver Performance Using Technology
Overview
This content is a practical guide from Craig at Private Fairway, discussing how golfers can use technology—specifically Trackman—to better understand and improve their driver performance. Craig shares his personal experience with a new PXG driver and demonstrates how analyzing swing data leads to more effective practice and skill development compared to traditional range sessions.
Key Points
Buying a New Driver
Craig purchased a PXG driver promoted on Facebook for $199 and wanted to evaluate its performance.
Limitations of Traditional Practice
Hitting balls at the driving range alone does not provide the necessary feedback for improvement.
Understanding swing mechanics—such as club direction, face angle, and strike location—is essential for progress.
Role of Technology (Trackman)
Trackman provides detailed swing data, including club path, face angle, and strike location.
This technology allows golfers to analyze each shot like professionals do.
Example Analysis: Two Shots Compared
Shot 1 (Preferred Draw):
288-yard total distance, finished 16 feet left of center.
Club path: 1.2° inside-to-out.
Face angle: 0.7° open (relative to target), but closed to the path.
Result: Ball starts right, curves back left—a controlled draw.
Shot 2 (Missed Right):
Club path: Also inside-to-out.
Face angle: Much more open.
Result: Ball starts and stays right due to the open face.
Visual aids (club path as blue line, face angle as red arrow) help illustrate the differences.
Understanding Slices
A slice typically occurs with an outside-in club path and an open face, increasing the face-to-path angle and causing the ball to curve right.
Importance of Strike Location
Hitting off the toe reduces power and exaggerates shot shape.
Hitting near the center of the clubface produces better results.
Benefits of Using Trackman
Immediate, objective feedback on every shot.
Ability to compare shots and identify what causes different outcomes.
Helps golfers avoid repeating mistakes and accelerates learning.
Invitation to Improve
Craig encourages golfers to visit Private Fairway, try Trackman, and sign up for a free trial to maximize their new driver’s potential.
Practical Examples
Comparing two specific swings using Trackman data to diagnose shot outcomes.
Visualizing club path and face angle to understand why a ball draws or slices.
Reviewing strike patterns on the clubface to optimize distance and control.
Conclusion
Understanding the technical details of your golf swing using tools like Trackman is far more effective than traditional range practice. By analyzing club path, face angle, and strike location, golfers can make targeted improvements and achieve better results with their driver. Craig invites players to leverage this technology at Private Fairway for a more productive practice experience.
Full Video Transcript
Hey everybody, it's Craig at Private Fairway. Did you buy a new driver for this golf season? I bought that PXG They've been promoting on Facebook for $199 I wanted to see how it was If you want to get the most out of your driver, you can go to the range.
You could hit a few buckets of balls But that's not going to help you get better What's going to help you get better is to understand what's going on when you swing the driver Understanding what's going on with the club what direction it's moving What you're doing with the face angle where you're striking the ball on the face of the club And the only way you're going to know that is if you can practice just like the pros do and that's using technology like Trackman It'll give you all that information So I want to show you a little bit here of what I've got going on so I Got a couple of shots here that I hit with my new PXG driver and let's look at them So let's start with this one here that you see on the screen this one here that I like.
This is a nice little draw 288 yard total distance Finish 16 feet to the left of the center line or land is 16 feet to the left of the center line so Why did this do this? Why does this ball go this way or more importantly when you hit a shot like this where it ends up?
Where it ends up 90 feet to the right of the center line. What did you do there? What makes that happen and how do you fix it so that you don't do that?
As often as you do right now, so let's look at these two shots and see what's going on All right, so I'm going to put them up next to each other here using this compare feature So I'm going to look at I'm going to look at this shot Here And then I'm also going to look at this shot here like this So here are my two shots next to each other and the big thing that's going on right now That you need to look at is what's going on with my club path and the face angle So this blue line here represents the club path and the red arrow represents the face angle So on this shot here on the right the one that we like That ended up 16 or 20 feet to the left of the center line What's happening is my club path is traveling inside to out Just a little bit.
That's this one point two number or this blue line and My face angle is actually open just a tiny bit point seven degrees open, but it's closed to my line So my face the path is actually closed half a degree So what's happening is that that's why the ball is going out that way on this one where the ball ends up way out to The right my club path is inside to out.
So I have a nice inside to out club path But I've left the face way open So I've just essentially started that ball out to the right and because my face is open I'm just keeping it right out to the right You can see it actually if we if we watch this video if we come back and we watch this video you'll see Here I'm the club is traveling out to the right on this shot on the left and on the other one It's more straight and then the orange line is the ball flight and you can see the one is going this keeps going to the right And the other one Starts and comes back to the left So that's one of the things that you can do at the track man is look at look at the difference between those two shots The other thing you can do The other the other way that you can analyze this data is you can look at this data in a different way So we'll look at this shot here if I put if I pull up this Screen here.
This shows me that club path. So as we were talking about this is the one that's nice Just nice little draw club path 1. 2 degrees face angle 0.
7 degrees If I go to this one here that ended up to the right nice inside out swing, but the face is way open So I'm just starting it out to the left Starting it out to the right and keeping it out to the right now if you happen to hit a slice You want to know why that's happening a nice little slice happens when you have an outside in club path So if I were to put the video up here and we can look at that down here so now my club path is coming outside the end and the face of my club is open and So my face to path gets bigger gets wider and that creates this big slice out to the right So you can see that too.
If you look at this if you look here, this blue path is my club path This red arrow is my facing so if you're trying to get the most out of your driver, you need to understand what's going on when you swing it and You just don't get that if you're at the driving range getting a bucket of balls because you just don't know Am I now aiming this way?
Am I did I switch from inside out? Am I closing the face of my club? Am I opening the face of my club too much?
But when you come in here the track man doesn't lie and it'll tell you on every shot So the benefit of that is that you learn from every shot The other thing that you can do is look and see Where you're striking?
The ball on the face of the club that makes a big difference in terms of your distance and your power so For example, you'll see this one.
I'm out on the toe a little bit which is going to steal some power from you It's also going to accentuate some shaping of your shot This one here that I hit nice draw pretty close to the middle of the club I have some other ones here that you can see but you can see Generally, I'm I'm happy with my overall strike pattern But those are the things that you need to know if you want to get better the reason the pros use Technology like track man is so that they can learn from every shot They can look and see what was different between that shot and the other shot because unfortunately Golf is a game where you can't do the same thing twice so If you want to get better come in here.
See us at private fairway. Check us out on the website Sign up for a free trial and figure out how to hit that new driver better this year
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