Maine High School Golf Teams Embrace Launch Monitors, but Not All Coaches Are Convinced

BIDDEFORD — On a recent afternoon at the Biddeford-Saco Country Club driving range, Ryan Johnson of Thornton Academy paused after nearly every swing, eyes dropping to the turf. A small device sat just behind his ball, recording each shot's data in real time.

The device is a Foresight Sports GC3 Launch Monitor, and across Maine, more high school golf teams are adding similar technology to their practice routines. The question now being asked on driving ranges from Saco to Cape Elizabeth is whether the numbers help or hurt young players.

Johnson, a Golden Trojan, is firmly in the pro-monitor camp. He said the ability to gather precise yardage information at the range has been a game changer, especially since teams can't spend unlimited time on the course.

"I think it's awesome, especially because we can't be out on the course all day, every day," Johnson said. "So being able to go to the range and get those yardages kind of locked in, ready for the round, is definitely helpful."

At Gray-New Gloucester, coach Jason Maschino pointed to the instant feedback the monitors provide. Rather than wondering why a shot went awry, his players can see the numbers and adjust on the fly.

"I think if a player uses this often, they're going to be able to get very good shot feedback," Maschino said. "It's just good to know so you can fix it on the next swing instead of just keep wondering what you're doing wrong. You can see exactly what you did wrong and immediately adjust."

But not everyone is sold.

Chris Whitney, a longtime Maine high school coach who has led programs at Cape Elizabeth, St. Dom's and Morse, brings a unique perspective to the debate. Before his coaching career, Whitney worked as a club professional in Florida and spent time with TaylorMade, where he used a Trackman system with PGA Tour players including Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson. His concern is that the technology, in the wrong hands, can breed bad habits among developing players.

"Even the better golfers on some teams, it's not like they've been fit for their clubs or anything like that," Whitney said. "All I've ever wanted to do as a coach is just teach a kid consistency, contact, confidence, getting that stuff down. I think when you pull out a launch monitor, all of a sudden you have, 'What's my swing speed? What's the ball speed?' They don't care about what the tool is actually for, and that's getting your spin rates and your launch angles and that kind of stuff."

Whitney's concern about swing speed is echoed by Winthrop coach Lonney Steeves, who uses monitors sparingly — just a couple of times per season — primarily to calibrate yardages.

"So they'll swing harder to try to raise their swing speed," Steeves said. "Now they're hitting everything all over the planet, rather than a nice, smooth swing and putting it in play, which is what we want them to do. It can lead them to try to do things that aren't helpful for them in high school golf. The ability to dial in numbers, or if a kid's really got a bad hook or a bad slice, to be able to see the path, that stuff is good to use."

Despite his reservations, Steeves took the Ramblers to the Alexa Re Rancourt Golf Learning Center at Maine Golf's headquarters in Freeport during the preseason. The facility features a Top Tracer system, the same technology television networks use during PGA Tour broadcasts.

Putting the Numbers to Work

At Thornton Academy, coach Jeff Camire has found a specific use case that fits his team's developmental needs. Rather than chasing long drives, his players focus on the short game, working with monitors to control shots inside 150 yards.

"We use it a lot more with our shots inside of 150 yards, just to get the kids to get the accuracy and understand how to hit those intermediate or shorter shots instead of coming out here blasting drivers," Camire said.

The team uses a "ladder drill" during warm-ups. Starting at 30 yards and progressing up to 100, each player has 15 shots to land the ball within an acceptable range before moving to the next distance. Camire said the exercise has helped his players learn how their wedges perform under different conditions.

Thornton's Henry Litwinetz said understanding spin rates has practical value on the course.

"The spin, it's different on different greens, but more spin can be helpful for a front pin to spin it back, or a short pin to roll one up there," Litwinetz said. "Being able to control that can help in different scenarios."

Gray-New Gloucester took its data analysis a step further. After acquiring a Bushnell Launch Pro this offseason, coach Wayne Martin mapped out the irons for one of his players, Marcus Waldron-Little, and uncovered a clear correlation between swing speed and accuracy.

"We mapped his clubs out, and he was consistently at 88-89 miles per hour with his irons," Martin said. "That tells us that when he was swinging 92-93, the ball was pulling to the left. When he was too slow, he was pushing it. Or he was slicing the ball."

Armed with that information, Waldron-Little now knows to keep his clubhead speed in the high 80s to keep his shots on line.

Windham High School took a different route entirely. After weather repeatedly disrupted outdoor practices, the Eagles purchased a GC3 from Bates College a few years ago. This offseason, they upgraded to a Garmin R50, which connects to any device with an HDMI port. Coach Adam Manzo plugs the unit into a projector in the auxiliary gym at the middle school, creating an indoor hitting bay when the elements won't cooperate.

From the Range to the Course

For Steeves, the proof is in the results. The Ramblers tied for second at the Class C state championship last fall, and he credits some of that success to the data his players gathered with monitors.

"You could see their distances had improved," Steeves said. "They were hitting it straighter, their impact was better, and stuff like that. So those kinds of things, you can measure stuff. It gives you a true measure of improvement."

Johnson said the technology has already changed how he thinks his way around a golf course. Standing over a 100-yard shot, he now trusts the numbers he's seen on the range.

"It definitely does help because, you know, I had a 100-yard shot right there, and I might have hit a different club that I didn't know before," Johnson said. "So going out there, using the launch monitor to my advantage is going to help on the course."

As Maine's high school golf teams head into another fall season, the debate over launch monitors is likely to continue. For some coaches, the technology is an indispensable training tool. For others, it remains a distraction from the fundamentals they believe matter most. Either way, the devices have found a permanent spot on the practice tee.