5 years in the past, launch displays had been specialty instruments. They had been, by way of worth, complexity and accessibility, out of attain for us “regular people.” That wasn’t essentially an issue since we regular people wouldn’t have been in a position to arrange or function one and even make heads or tails of what the rattling factor was telling us, anyway.
Immediately, nevertheless, private launch displays are downright mainstream. They’re less complicated to function and current information in a way more digestible type.
Which brings us to a 28-year-old world firm that you just’ve most likely by no means heard of.
GolfJoy is the launch monitor arm of China’s Shenzen Hengtaixin Know-how Firm. It touts greater than 400,000 platform customers worldwide with over 10,000 related units, 160 flagship showrooms, greater than 120 distributors, 650 business installations and, most importantly, over 270 items of protected mental property.
Why is that vital? Fairly easy, actually.
GolfJoy is pushing its chips in and betting that the following part of the launch monitor business gained’t be gained by whoever builds the most costly know-how or elaborate merchandise. It believes the winner will likely be whoever makes that high-end know-how accessible to extra golfers.
On behalf of “regular people” in all places, I sincerely hope they’re proper.
Who is that this GolfJoy, anyway?
As we stated, it’s most likely an organization you’ve by no means heard of.
The Hengtaixin Firm was established in 1998 as a follow vary tools provider. Its merchandise included synthetic placing inexperienced options, ball washers and dispensers and a patented 3D hitting mat. By 2012, it reestablished itself as a know-how model, specializing in golf-specific sensors and software program, together with golf simulators.
Hengtaixin established the GolfJoy model in 2019 and opened its U.S. headquarters in 2024 in Southern California. Immediately, GolfJoy is a full-service launch monitor supplier providing all the pieces from business programs and driving vary options to residence setups and a full-featured private launch monitor, the Spica 3.
“We need to blaze our personal path right here,” GolfJoy’s U.S. Enterprise Improvement Supervisor Christian Anderson tells MyGolfSpy. “It was silly costly or silly low-cost to get right into a launch monitor. We need to kill that space in between.”
So you possibly can say GolfJoy is a challenger model making an attempt to redefine the launch monitor class. Nonetheless, the issue with making an attempt to kill that “space in between” lies with a query lots of you could be asking proper now.
“Yeah, however is it correct?”
Effectively, is it correct?
That’s a query we posed immediately to Anderson. His reply spoke volumes.
“In comparison with what?”
All launch displays, be they camera-based or radar-based, depend on algorithms to extrapolate most of their efficiency metrics. That’s to not say they guess however they do estimate.
Some estimate higher than others.
So earlier than we are able to decide whether or not GolfJoy’s launch displays are correct, we must always most likely take a second and attempt to outline what “accuracy” actually means. Does it mirror the truth of a shot to the ninetieth percentile? The ninety fifth percentile? How do you determine and, extra importantly, how have you learnt?
“The business had this come-to-Jesus second that TrackMan 4 is the litmus take a look at for accuracy,” explains Anderson. “Trackman is seen because the business normal proper now as a result of it’s used on (the PGA) Tour.”
As golfers, we belief what we see on Tour broadcasts. We belief what we see in retail becoming bays and we even belief the numbers we see at golf simulator facilities. Something outdoors that circle or outdoors of a “acknowledged” model, nevertheless, is commonly met with skepticism.
“We’ll hit hundreds and hundreds of golf balls. Then we’ve got somebody bodily stroll on the market and tape the distances to confirm our distances are correct,” Anderson says. “We take a look at with skilled golfers and with robots. We’ve examined aspect by aspect in opposition to GC Quad and Trackman and our information is correct consistent with theirs.”
Everybody desires accuracy however most of us don’t know methods to quantify it. On the planet that issues – which means the one between our ears – our concept of accuracy is usually a matter of belief.
“Trackman is seen because the business normal,” says Anderson. “That’s principally due to the Tour.”
GolfJoy and the seek for validation
Golfers have a tendency to guage accuracy emotionally relatively than scientifically for one easy motive: emotional selections are simple to achieve and even simpler to defend. If the numbers match the numbers we anticipate, then it’s correct. If it doesn’t, effectively …
Fame, Tour use and third-party validation all matter, as does familiarity. All these retail bays have GC Quads, proper? There have to be a motive.
At this level in its journey, GolfJoy is aware of its merchandise ship what it defines as a excessive diploma of accuracy. What it wants is third-party validation.
Its Spica 3 launch monitor, for instance, is a vision-based photometric system constructed round three high-speed cameras, synchronized lighting, a devoted processing engine and GolfJoy’s proprietary AI-based algorithms. To realize the validation it wants, the corporate has partnered with the China LPGA Tour and is a co-sponsor of the Volvo China Open. In 2025, it signed on as an official associate for the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Nationwide Championship. It’s additionally the official launch monitor of Final Lengthy Drive.
“The partnerships we’ve got now, working with skilled excursions and stuff like that, is nice,” Anderson says. “However on the finish of the day, it nonetheless feels prefer it’s paid.”
We’ll see how GolfJoy stacks up in MyGolfSpy’s upcoming private launch monitor testing however we are able to say preliminary, casual testing is promising. As marketed, the Spica 3 is straightforward to make use of. Its primary performance is similar to that of a GC Quad. You’ll be able to see the necessary numbers proper on the unit’s contact display screen together with carry and complete distance, launch angle and route, descent angle and all of the spin numbers you possibly can ever need. Moreover, the GolfJoy Professional app opens up a complete new world of information, simulations and video games, all of which may be performed on the driving vary.
Yeah, however is it correct?
That query gained’t go away, will it?
For the likes of you and me, the query shouldn’t be, “Is it precisely proper?”
The query actually needs to be, “Is it correct sufficient to assist me get higher?”
Official MyGolfSpy testing will inform a deeper story however my casual driving vary expertise has been enlightening. Organising the Spica 3 is easy and utilizing the touchscreen is a breeze. In motion, it operates very very similar to any GC Quad you’ll see in a retail hitting bay.
As for the numbers, all I can let you know is the outcomes matched my expectations. My 7-iron did what I anticipated as did my 9-iron. Wedges, metalwoods and each different membership within the bag did likewise. I did discover a gapping difficulty between my 5- and my 6-irons however that wasn’t actually a shock.
Finally, I might use these outcomes to assist me perceive what my swing was doing. There’s sufficient information to guage slight swing adjustments, examine golf equipment and, in the end, use on the course.
One characteristic that significantly impressed me was its pace. The Spica 3 had the outcomes of the swing on the display screen actually earlier than I might flip my head again down to take a look at it. GolfJoy’s literature says response time is designed to be 0.3 seconds. I can’t confirm that particular quantity however no matter it was, it was quick. And spectacular.
If you deliver the GolfJoy Professional app into the equation, issues get attention-grabbing. The app provides you a driving vary view and simulated ball flight. Moreover, you’ve got entry to a number of extra items of ball and membership information (when utilizing membership stickers). Additionally, the app can entry your machine’s digital camera and report a rear or aspect view of your swing and synchronize the video to your ball flight.
Talking of driving ranges …
One of many issues I take pleasure in most about these model profile tales, apart from digging into an organization’s ethos, is studying the scope of its choices. GolfJoy’s attain is broad, together with overhead launch displays, private and business simulator kits and a singular driving vary package deal referred to as the GDA21.
“It’s an all-in-one, ready-to-go answer that’s simple to arrange,” says Anderson. “Our message to driving vary homeowners is that you just don’t must spend $100,000 with Trackman or Inrange to get this began.”
The GolfJoy GDA21 is a completely self-contained unit. It features a Spica 3 launch monitor, all of the {hardware} and processing tools and a 21.5-inch HD touchscreen show. It additionally includes a 120-frames-per-second swing digital camera and full connectivity to bigger shows and the web. Outfitting driving ranges is the obvious market. Nonetheless, Anderson says golf academies, teaching facilities and indoor golf facilities are rising markets.
Moreover, he says, it makes for a dandy residence simulator package deal.
“That is for the man who doesn’t have a launch monitor, projector, display screen or a separate laptop. They don’t want any of that. They only want energy, a mat and a web.”
The GDA21 presents primary follow suggestions and shot tracing together with simulated video games and course play. For the driving vary market, it’s a product that’s simple to put in bay-by-bay.
“My gross sales guys will put one of their automobile and do a demo at a driving vary,” says Anderson. Every self-contained unit runs about $11,500 and GolfJoy presents the driving vary proprietor per-bay financing package deal.
Talking of pricing …
You knew we’d get again to that.
GolfJoy isn’t bashful about claiming its Spica 3 is each bit as correct, detailed and sturdy as a $25,000 Trackman package deal or an $18,000 GC Quad. That the Spica 3 sits at $3,200 makes that comparability, on one stage, pretty unbelievable. A $6,000 GC3 from Foresight can be a extra apt comparability however Anderson is sticking agency.
“As soon as individuals begin seeing extra of the GolfJoy story and see the validity of our information, they’ll be like, OK, this isn’t some random band. We’re hoping to be seen as one of many top-tier launch displays, not an entry-level one. We don’t need to be lumped in with the Rapsodos, the Mevos or the Blue Tees. We’re not in that class.”
Once more, on the floor, a $3,200 launch monitor, irrespective of who makes it, going toe-to-toe with business requirements that price six to seven occasions as a lot merely doesn’t compute. The eyeballs can learn it however the mind can’t settle for it. Sooner or later, nevertheless, accuracy stops being a technological problem and begins changing into a matter of belief.
GolfJoy is out to point out the world that the standard relationship between worth, fame, accuracy and belief is not legitimate.
“Launch displays are on a really related path as GPS and rangefinders had been on 10 years in the past,” Anderson explains. “Again once I was taking part in competitively, solely the wealthy youngsters had them.”
Now, everybody has them. Options you used to pay by means of the nostril for, like slope, at the moment are normal in just about each worth vary.
Are we beginning to witness the identical shift in launch monitor know-how? Not surprisingly, Anderson says completely.
“I feel that inside three to 5 years, everybody’s going to have a way of producing efficiency metrics whereas they’re working towards.”
