These experiments were conducted with the Flares and Hurtles as I started up a 4-player game.  Player 1 shot a B2, player 2 shot a B1, and player 3 shot a B3, and I recorded all the distances.  Then I took a picture of the relative lies of each shot from player 4′s perspective on the tee.

Driver – Right off the bat, I was surprised to see that B1 and B3 shots with the driver do NOT come back to center!  You can see the results below, and how much distance is lost:
B2 – 341 (center)
B1 – 304 (left)
B3 – 311 (right)

5-wood – similar results were seen:
B2 – 271 (center)
B1 – 245 (left)
B3 – 258 (right)

2-hybrid – this also surprised me a bit, as these B1 and B3 shots did not quite find their way back to center either:
B2 – 257 (center)
B1 – 245 (left)
B3 – 249 (right)

By this point I’m wondering if any shots will actually angle back to center.  Then I got to the irons and found what I was looking for…

2-iron – both the B1 and B3 cross over center:
B2 – 241 (center)
B1 – 229 (right)
B3 – 230 (left)

5-iron – this one surprised me, as even with a medium-lofted club, the B1 and B3 shots still crossed over center:
B2 – 168 (center)
B1 – 161 (right)
B3 – 162 (left)

6-iron – these shots all ended up bunched together in the middle:
B2 – 159
B1 – 154
B3 – 157

7-iron – I’m surprised again here, as these shots still end up bunched together as well:
B2 – 148
B1 – 139
B3 – 143

8-iron – finally, the loft is enough that the B1 and B3 shots don’t make their way back to center:
B2 – 137 (center)
B1 – 128 (left)
B3 – 128 (right)

9-iron:
B2 – 121 (center)
B1 – 114 (left)
B3 – 115 (right)

9-wood – about what I expected:
B2 – 208 (center)
B1 – 188 (left)
B3 – 197 (right)

LW – forms a nice triangle:
B2 – 44 (center)
B1 – 40 (left)
B3 – 40 (right)

CONCLUSIONS: When determining final relation to center with your B1 and B3 shots, loft isn’t everything — whether or not you’re hitting an iron matters more!  Drivers and hybrids don’t cut back to center, while low/medium-lofted irons will cross over center, and lofts up to a 7-iron still end up back in the middle.

Also, B1 shots tend to sweep out farther and end up shorter, while B3 shots don’t angle out as much and travel a bit farther.  This is likely due to the nature of the trackball and its rollers, and it’s also why left-breaking putts seem to break more.

Finally, don’t forget to consider the distance lost when playing these shots as compared to straight B2 shots!

I was very impressed with my findings.  I was able to nail every distance from 45 up to 350 yards with no more than 3 yardages missing between any of the distances!  For instance, I hit a shot 344 yards and another 348 yards, but I was not able to hit 345-347 during this test.  There were only a few gaps this large, as I was able to hit most of the distances.

An interesting note is that I needed to thumb some shots to the side towards 1 or 3 to achieve different distances.  Shooting straight forward limits the distances you can achieve.  So, while it’s not practical, you could nail a different distance by rotating right once and thumbing a shot out towards 1.  The type of shot matters too, as I used one-thumb flicks to two-thumb shots to hammers with the palm.

45 yards was the shortest I could get.  I did this with both an angled shot towards 1 or towards 3.  51 yards was the shortest I could get shooting towards 2.

348 was the longest shot I had (again, this was with no pullback).  That was a hammer straight ahead.  I was able to hit 331 yards with the firmest thumb shot I could muster.

I noticed something very interesting when flicking thumb shots out to the side.  You can actually see the ball curve back towards center, as if you were hitting a B1 or B3 shot!  You’ll notice it dive down a bit too, as if you were throwing a slider.  And, because of this, shots to the side with the same speed carry less distance.  Since the ball has a slight curve back towards center, it hasn’t traveled in a perfectly straight line, and thus it has lost distance to a shot straight ahead.

The home edition lets you perform a trackball test in the setup mode, where you can make sure the ball is rolling smoothly in each direction.  You can also observe a number related to the speed of your shot.  For instance, I was able to hit forward with a minimum distance rating of 16 and a maximum distance rating of 136.  The sensors correlate to one of these numbers which helps determine your yardage on the course.

Each person’s touch and feel could potentially achieve different distances, so I believe that although I didn’t hit all the yardages, it should be possible!  When you factor in a pullback, you can certainly achieve any distance below the max with any club given a flat fairway ahead.

Some greens in Golden Tee are so large that you can leave yourself with a literally unmakable putt.  So what is the cutoff distance?  I’ve found that it’s right about 145 feet.  Anything longer, and you cannot get the ball to the hole, no matter how hard you hit it.  Keep this in mind if you’re trying to reach the green from a lengthly distance — you’re better off leaving yourself a chip so that you actually have some chance of making it!

Some of you know that I invested in a 2012 Golden Tee Unplugged that I got set up in my basement right before the Super Bowl this year!  It’s been incredible.  Not only do I hope to improve my game, but my mind was also racing with ideas for experiments to run with the luxury of free play and mulligans.

I’ve been playing a lot of games, but I’m also eager to get started on some of these ideas, and I plan to share my findings on the site here to help spread a lot of additional knowledge that’s much more difficult to get from your local bar!

Below are some ideas I’ve come up with so far.  Please let me know if you have others — I’ll be happy to give them a shot!  Check the Home Experiments category to track my progress, and I’ll keep you all updated so we can benefit from the findings!

• Find the footage at which turbo putts begin, validating against different holes
• Show how B1/B3 shots vary by club.  Take pictures after 3 shots with each club, marking total distance, lay protractor over to get angle, and see how far apart they end up.
• Do the same as above with other types of shots, such as a A.5-1.5, A.5-1, A-1.5, to show how accuracy and distance are affected.
• Show how C2 shots differ from C3 shots, in terms of distance, angle taken, and how far left of center each shot ends up
• Given a straight headwind and tailwind, show how much distance is affected with a static speed for each club.  Then repeat for side winds for shots into the wind (no angled pull-back applied) to end up straight ahead to see how much distance is lost.
• Draw a grid with incremental degrees around the trackball, and use this for the mapping exercises below.
• Start mapping ideal club, speed, pull back angle, and forward angle of all approach shots given any particular wind and a flat elevation.  Disregard slope for this exercise.  Goal is to develop a formula or table to predict the shot that will come closest to the hole for any distance and wind condition.
• Show how total distance is affected by roll, backspin, bite or nothing given no wind, flat surface and static speed for all clubs.
• Show how distance is affected by high tee, low tee, medium tee, given no wind and static speed for all clubs.  Perform for B2 shots as well as A1/C3 shots.
• Show how total distance is affected by appling backspin, roll, bite or nothing to both high-teed and low-teed drives.
• Demo chush shots, and show how far they go with each club and with roll or backspin applied.
• Figure out how far I can pull back any particular club with a full forward swing to achieve a particular distance, such as 200 yards, 100 yards, 50 yards, etc.  This can help with distance control on shots between clubs.  It would also be good to measure carry on these shots.  A benefit may be finding a way to hit a half-pullback 7-iron or something on Royal #16 to stick the green while minimizing wind damage.
• Figure out a way to train players on bump-and-run chip shots.  Need to pick just club long enough to carry the green to minimize wind damage and get the ball rolling on the slope.  Faster is better — chip with confidence (even using roll) where able to keep as straight a line as you can!
• See how many distances I can achieve without a pullback for a driver shot to a flat fairway.  Intention is to see how precise the computer reads the speed of the trackball.

1. What are the only two courses to feature six par 3s and six par 5s?
2. What is the only course to feature six never-drivable par 4s?
3. Name the six courses where every par 4 has been driven.
4. Which course can see a six-stroke swing in GT Par depending on the setup?
5. Which two courses feature only three par 5s?
6. Which three courses could set up for a GT Par of -32?
7. Which two courses may only set up for a GT Par of -24?
8. TRUE or FALSE: Every opening hole has been a par 4.
9. 30 of the 35 courses feature a par 4 as the 2nd hole. Name the only three courses to feature a par 5 for hole #2:
10. 30 of the 35 courses feature a par 4 as the 2nd hole. Name the only two courses to feature a par 3 for hole #2:
11. TRUE or FALSE: There has never been a par 5 as hole #3.
12. Name the only 3 courses to feature a par 4 as the 3rd hole.
13. Which year of courses features a par 5 as the 4th hole on all 5 courses?
14. Heading into the turn, only one course features a par 3 as the 9th hole.  Name it.
15. Heading back out, only two courses feature par 3s as the 10th hole.  Name them.
16. Similarly, only two courses feature par 5s as the 10th hole.  Name them.
17. Which course features three consecutive par 5s?
18. Which year of courses features a par 5 as the 16th hole on all 5 courses?
19. Which year of courses features a par 3 as the 17th hole on all 5 courses?
20. Name the only 2 courses to feature a par 5 as the 18th hole.
21. Name the only course to feature a par 4 finishing hole that is not always drivable.
22. There is a year of courses where only two par 4s have never been driven.  Name it.
23. Which course features three par 5s that have been driven?
24. Which three courses feature only two always-drivable par 4s?
25. GT Par never varies on only 4 courses.  Name them.
26. Name the only 4 courses that feature always-drivable par 5s.

How did you do?  Open the sheet here to see the answers and the statistics behind the following analysis.

The “Hole Pars” tab shows not only the par for the hole, but it also breaks down how often you can expect to be able to drive each hole (you can also hover over the comments in the cells to see a bit more how I break down each classification):
n = never been driven
e = drivable in extremely rare conditions
r = drivable in rare conditions
s = sometimes drivable
a = always drivable

Towards the bottom, you can see the average minimum and maximum GT Par for any given course (reminder: GT Par is the score you are expected to shoot without any fairway hole-outs).  GT Par sets up between -28.7 and -26.7 on average for the LIVE courses, but it’s skewed by easier setups in the original LIVE year.

The next tab is “Hole Par Stats”.  It breaks down how many times each scoring classification applies to each of the 18 holes, and then also in percentage form at the bottom.  What’s fascinating here is finding how many par 5s and long par 4s have actually been driven at one time or another!  I’ve got pictures of each hole on the site, so check them out!

Finally, there is “Stats Summary”.  At the top, you can see how often each of the 18 holes sets up as a par 3, 4, or 5, sorted by the percentage.  Below breaks it down by driving category, also sorted.

Now for fun, let’s predict how a Golden Tee LIVE 2013 course might break down, given the data we know from the past 7 years:

HOLE #1: A long, flat, undrivable par 4.
HOLE #2: A dogleg par 4 that’s only drivable in extremely rare conditions.
HOLE #3: An easy par 3.
HOLE #4: An easy par 5.
HOLE #5: A challenging but always drivable par 4.
HOLE #6: A par 4 that’s only rarely drivable with a great setup.
HOLE #7: Another easy par 3.
HOLE #8: A bit more challenging par 5.
HOLE #9: A par 4 that’s sometimes drivable depending on the setup.
HOLE #10: A tough, never drivable par 4.
HOLE #11: A tough, never drivable par 4.
HOLE #12: A moderate par 3.
HOLE #13: A challenging par 5.
HOLE #14: A very challenging but always drivable par 4.
HOLE #15: A very challenging but always drivable par 4.
HOLE #16: A very challenging par 5.
HOLE #17: A very difficult par 3.
HOLE #18: A very challenging but always drivable par 4.

If you play it clean, you’ll end up between a -26 and -28!