Call me a skeptic… Call me crazy… Call me normal, but I didn’t even begin to believe the hype behind the Voice Caddie – Swing Caddie 200. The thought that this crazy little cellphone sized contraption would work as well as the $15k-20k swing monitors was completely nuts. I read the reviews online about the accuracy issues and how it sort of worked, but I was still intrigued. Luckily, I was fortunate enough for someone to lend me one of the units to take out to the range for a test drive. I wasn’t expecting much, and let’s just leave it right there for the moment.
For those of you that don’t know what the heck a Swing Caddie even is, well, to put it in a nutshell for you, it’s a portable launch monitor. It measures your club head speed, ball speed, “smash factor”, and uses pre-entered lofts to determine the distance your shot would go. Again, it’s not quite those $20,000 launch stations you find in overpriced retailers, but it gives you a good assortment of data. This data can be used for various things, like fitting shafts, learning club gaps, playing games and a few other fun tricks. Most of all, it gives you consistent data that you can use to measure progress as you work through swing changes and your clubs. It’s supposed to just be one of those tools that helps you build consistency. The question is, does the Swing Caddy 200 work?
First things first, getting the Swing Caddy 200 set up takes a few minutes. You enter in your clubs and lofts and you are ready to go. Literally, just a few seconds a club and you are up and running. I found it was best to set the Swing Caddy 200 about a meter behind the ball (or about the length of a range mat) to get the best readings. If you are using the front rubber tee on the mat, just set it at the back edge like the image above shows. Also, make sure you put something under it to elevate it to a ‘flat’ point with where the ball is sitting for best results.
From there, the Swing Caddy 200 has 3 different modes you can use: Practice, Target and Approach. Practice mode allows you to freely swing the iron that you select using the handy remote that is included with the Swing Caddy 200. If you start with your 7 iron, press the 7 iron button on the remote, check the lower left hand corner of the display to make sure it says 7 iron and swing away. To change clubs, simply use the remote, check the screen and swing away again. Target mode lets you specify what distance you want to hit and lets you keep trying to do it. Approach mode automatically changes distances that are commonly found into the green. I’m not sure if it basis these off your driving averages, but mine were mostly in the 40-80 yard range. I have to admit to having the most fun with this mode as it really started making me dial in my sand wedge.
So, just how well does the Swing Caddy 200 do in the real world? In a throw down between the 200 and the distances that I plucked from my GolfPad GPS data, the results were a bit surprising. Taking my pitching wedge for example, my data from GolfPad showed my average shot was 139 yards. The Swing Caddy 200 pinned me at 137.4 over the 5 test shots I hit. The 9 iron was 147 in GolfPad and 148.2 in the Swing Caddy 200. In other words, the ‘carry’ prediction of the Swing Caddy 200 is scary accurate. This makes me want one to use off a mat in the garage during the winter like you wouldn’t believe. The fun continued as I worked up and down through my bag. Pitching wedge down to 3 iron and back. My 5 ball drill just let me see it all, from start to finish. the one “mystery club” in my test was my 6 iron. My predicted yardage on that club was 190 yards, but the 203 yard average that I got was blowing my mind. I’m going to keep in locked at 190 in my head until I blow over a few greens though. I’m hopeful that it just was either 5 of the best swings I’ve ever had, or something was wrong with the unit on all 5 swings.
That brings me to my final thoughts, who is the Swing Caddy 200 made for? Well, if you are a 15 handicap and working on consistency to get to the next level, this is just the sort of device that can help with that. If you are a 5 handicap that is trying to shave off that last few strokes, I think this one is a pass. I would also skip this one if you are above a 15 and looking for a magical solution to get better. The Swing Caddy 200 definitely has the data to help you analyze your game, but it won’t help you swing better. I would say that the Swing Caddy 200 is the right training aid for those really working their swing, both in tempo and trying to build that consistency. It’s also a heck of a lot of fun to see how hard you can swing, but that’s a different thing all together. For the majority of you, I would recommend passing on the Swing Caddy 200, but for those looking to build that consistency, it could be just the right item for you. If the price of the Swing Caddy 200 has you a bit scared, and the $300 price point is a bit tough, the $100 drop to the Swing Caddie 100 could be a great option for you.
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