Swing Caddie SC200 Plus

Swing Caddie SC200 Plus Product Review

The Swing Caddie SC 200 Plus is a breakthrough piece of technology. Typically, before Swing Caddie launched their series of monitors, you would be looking at spending at least $1,000 dollars minimum just to get the cheapest launch monitor on the market. The best part? You wouldn’t even need or know, how to use half the features or data those expensive monitors provide.

In the past, launch monitors were made for club professionals and club manufacturers to test equipment and help club pros fit clients with new equipment like new irons or new driver shafts.

Launch monitors would give club fitters all the data they would need to accurately fit them with the correct weight and shaft.

Whereas now? Well, golfers are utilizing and taking advantage of the data to better their swings and get a better understanding of how far and fast they swing each club thanks to cheaper portable launch monitors like Swing Caddie.

Here’s how a lunch monitor’s features could help your game:

Launch Monitor Data:

Ball Speed

Ball speed, without sounding obvious, is the speed at which the ball travels post-impact. This is an important number to monitor, as distance control is better controlled through consistent ball speeds over swing speeds. So having this data available at your fingertips is important.

Club Head Speed (Swing Speed)

A golfer’s swing speed is shown on a lunch monitor as the ‘club head speed’. When Bryson DeChambaeu is swinging for the green on a Par 5, it’s because he’s been able to monitor and improve his swing speed thanks to this data been made available on portable launch monitors like Swing Caddie and their SC200 plus.

Smash Factor

Now we’re getting into the more complicated readings like a player’s ‘smash factor’. A smash factor is essentially how efficient the golfer has struck the ball. Club head speed, ball speed, and smash factor go hand in hand.

A portable launch monitor can’t show it has a smash factor without knowing a shot’s ball speed or how fast the club was swung. This is because the smash factor is a ratio between the two numbers and shows the golfer how well the transfer of energy from the club swinging was transferred into the ball. A smash factor can never go above 1.50 as this is a perfect shot.

Carry

A club’s carry is the total distance the ball traveled in the air before hitting the ground. Not to be mistaken with total distance, the carry is strictly in the air, whereas total distance is after the ball has landed and either finished rolling forward or spinning back.

Carry distances is one of the most important bits of data golfers should utilize when practicing, as the importance of club selection can be the difference between carrying a bunker or not and ultimately be the difference between you breaking 70/80/90.

Loft Angle

The loft angle of a club is the angle the club is delivered through impact. For example, the more shaft lean you have, the more you might struggle to get the ball airborne or vice versa. Therefore, this is another key piece of data to monitor.

Remote Control

The Swing Caddie Launch Monitor comes with a remote control which is small in size and light in weight, ideal for keeping in your pocket while playing. The remote allows you to adjust your settings without having to reach down and manually adjust the launch monitor settings.

Stat Tracking

The Swing Caddie SC200 Plus also tracks and stores all your shot data for later analysis. It records how many times you swung, as well as providing an average of distance, swing speed, ball speed, and loft angle data for each club as well as your avg for the last 100 shots.

The Different Sc200 Plus Modes:

Practice Mode:

If you’re looking for a quick range session to gather some numbers, then the mode you’re after is practice mode. Practice mode provides golfers with their swing speed, ball speed, smash factor, loft angle, and carry. The best part about the sc200 plus is the voice caddie feature which reads out your numbers after each shot.

The Swing Caddie SC200’s practice mode is ideal for anyone wanting some key data while they practice without having to worry about all the irrelevant numbers launch monitors like trackman provide.

Target Mode:

Target mode lets SC200 plus users set out a target distance. This mode is designed to help golfers improve distance control and consistency by recording their next 10 shots and giving the shots a score out of 10 to show how close or not they were to the target distance.

This allows golfers to partake in purposeful practice and for golfers to feel tournament-style pressure when practicing alone on the range.

Approach/Random Mode:

Random mode is similar to target mode, however the target distance changes for each shot. Users set the clubs they wish to use and the portable launch monitor does the rest. The practice of such skill is key for simulating real on-course conditions.

The better golfers get at controlling their distance, the better their scores will be. Shot distance control is one of the most important parts of the game.

Practice Swing Mode:

One of the biggest differences between the SC100 and SC200 is the practice swing mode. In the past, a launch monitor required a ball to be hit in order to record club and ball data. Thanks to the sc200 plus, this is no longer the case.

Now golfers can swing freely without the requirement of a ball. This has allowed golfers to practice with swing speed training sticks and work on their swing speed training.

Swing Caddie SC300 vs SC200:

If you’re looking at spending an extra $150 dollars, the new Swing Caddie SC300 has just been released. The difference? Let’s take a look:

SC200 Features:

Voice Distance Output:

The SC200 plus has integrated speakers allowing for an automated distance output voice feature. The voice feature reads the data of each shot allowing users of the portable launch monitor to know the carry, distance, swing speed (even on practice swings) all without having to bend over and read from the device.

Barometric Pressure Calibration:

Barometric pressure calibration is what both SC200 and SC300 use to calibrate the doppler radar technology. This enables the launch monitor to calibrate to the terrain (even on golf courses) so the radar is as accurate as possible. These features make the Sc200 plus the ideal training aid for any golf game.

Loft Angle Adjustments:

The radar comes with a remote which enables you to switch the club at the click of a button. This allows the radar to adjust to the lie angle of the club to help read the launch conditions.

Ball Speed and Smash Factor:

The SC200 plus uses the ball speed data and the club speed data as mentioned before, to calculate the smash factor of each shot. Ball speed and smash factor are two of the most important features of ball data and a key part of data provided by the SC200

Shot Count:

The shot counter is another feature of all swing caddie launch monitors, it tells users how long they’ve been practicing and how many shots they’ve hit during their practice session.

Device Portability:

Weighing only, 7.3 oz the SC200 plus is as light as a lunch monitor comes, allowing it to be easily carried in a golf bag and even easy to use and set up while on golf courses.

SC300

The SC300 is the news version of Swing Caddie Launch Monitor. The SC300, like the SC200, is extremely portable and provides all the required ball flight metrics. The key difference is the SC300 contains all the measurements found in some of the professional equipment, including companies such as trackman or flight scope.

Essentially, the SC300 is a more advanced model and not recommended for the beginner. As the data it provides is so advanced, unless you know how to use it you’ll be wasting your time and money!

SC300 Features:

Doppler Radar Technology:

Golf launch monitors (including the SC200 plus) use doppler radar technology… Don’t worry, it’s not important or anything you need to learn how to use. It’s simply just the way the machine records the data. A radar sends pulses and listens for the returned signal.

Consequently producing velocity data about objects at a distance. This is how launch monitors are able to produce distance, swing speed, ball speed data.

Apex Readings:

Arguably the biggest difference between the launch monitors is the apex rating. The apex is essentially the trajectory and the height the ball flew.

The apex is ideal if you’re working on swing changes, choosing a new ball, or working on flight windows. As we mentioned before, unless you’re advanced in golf and working on trajectory control, the apex feature is really not essential.

Spin Rate:

Another key difference of the SC300 over the Sc200 plus is the radar’s ability to record spin data, specifically ball spin data. This is another important reading for the advanced golfer as they might be working on getting more spin on certain shots to hold greens. This reading lets you know your angle of attack and other ball reading data.

This data, however, is only relevant if you’re at a level when you are good enough to manipulate club face conditions. If you go to the range to just hit balls to try and improve, knowing your spin rate isn’t going to help you much. Leave this data to the teaching professionals to stress over.

Professionals use ball spin numbers to even work on increasing driver distance. The biggest reason for short drives is not a lack of speed, but rather a lack of optimal ball flight conditions. Therefore, knowing the spin numbers enables direct feedback on whether or not you’re reducing spin.

SC300 App Connection:

The final difference between the Swing Caddie SC200 and the Swing Caddie SC300 is the ability to connect to SC300 to the launch monitor app.

The SC300 has the ability to connect to your mobile device. Goodbye to the days of trying to read the numbers off the machine. Thanks to Bluetooth technology, golfers can now check their swing speed straight from the sc300 mobile application.

The mobile app doesn’t just highlight swing speed but shows all the key data in an easy to use, and user-friendly way.

Specs:

• Dimensions: 5.89″ x 3.20″ x 1.08″
• Weight: 7.3 oz
• Color: Navy Blue
• Display: 4″ LCD
• Frequency: K band 24 GHz
• Battery Type: Alkaline Battery (AAA x 4 each)
• Battery Life: Up to 20 hours
• Sensor: Doppler Radar Sensor
• Accuracy: +/- 3% (ball speed), +/- 5% (carry distance)
• Measuring Range: up to 320 yards
• Voice Caddie Swing

How Tour Pros Use the SC200 Plus:

The main thing Tour Pros check for is carry distance. Any launch monitor review will tell you, carry, ball speed and swing speed are the key metrics to use and understand. The Swing Caddies are no different, as they preach the same philosophy.

Conclusion:

Overall, the Swing Caddie is a fantastic launch monitor and has a fantastic ability to read all sorts of ball-flight data. The key benefit of the SC200 launch monitor is its simplicity- no messing about with metrics no one understands.

The launch monitor focuses on carry distances, ball speed, smash factor, and shot distance while even reading the data out to you thanks to the voice caddie technology.

FAQs:

How Accurate is the Swing Caddie SC200?

The launch monitor uses Doppler Radar Technology, which is as accurate as ball data comes. It sends pulses and listens for the returned signal. This consequently produces velocity data about objects at a distance. This is how launch monitors are able to produce distance, swing speed, ball speed data.

Is Swing Caddie Any Good?

The Swing Caddie is the perfect gateway into the launch monitor world. It’s cheap, portable, and easy to use and understand. All the fancy metrics have been left out, making it one of the easiest monitors to use on the market.

The portability and weight allow it to be easily carried in any golf bag and its swiftness to set up allows it to be easily used on the course. Without a doubt, it is one of the most popular radars on the market.

What is the Difference Between Swing Caddie SC100 and SC200?

Without diving too much into the metrics, the key difference is the voice reading technology. The actual data isn’t much different be the ease of use is far greater.