Review: R-Motion by Rapsodo Golf Simulator

The R-Motion by Rapsodo is a golf simulator that any golfer can acquire for the low price of $199.99 (it is currently on sale for $129.99) on the Rapsodo website. Your purchase will come with a sensor/tracker that has to be used on the club that is being swung, 1 clip that holds the tracker on the shaft of the club, a free app download which brings up the range and 15 courses to play. The purchase will also come with a simulator that you can run on your PC (not Apple compatible, see below for PC requirements). I did notice that the phone app shows a little bit more detailed information than the simulator on the PC. Angle of attack was showing on the phone app, but did not show on the simulator on the PC. You can also use the phone app at your local range to get some swing data for better practices!

Below is a short video of the R-Motion in action!

What I Liked About The R-Motion!

• The price!
  • To be able to get your hands on a simulator that is around $200 is a steal when you have simulators like Skytrak, GC quad, and Trackman all $1,000++++.
• Gameplay
  • For being so inexpensive, I was concerned that the software would look and feel really cheap. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, flowed, and all around reacted to the shots. The game play feature on the PC allows you to see overviews of the hole, zoom into the green, see yardages to trouble, adjust aiming, etc. The visuals of the game feel very similar to the ones you would see at a pay to play golf simulator. (TIP- We learned that if you want to rewind a shot that read incorrectly during a game, you have to wait until that player comes up again, you can’t just rewind the shot after it switches to another player. If you rewind the shot without waiting until that player is up again, it will mess up the entire order of shots.)
• Accuracy
  • The R-Motion measures club information and not ball information. We tested the swing speed against a Swing Speed Radar machine made by Sports Sensors, Inc. and they were usually within a few MPH of each other. When hitting shots, we would try to call out where we thought it was going, or how the shot should look before the simulator did, and for the most part it was reacting as we anticipated. Obviously, since the R-motion is reading club data, and not ball data, there is a lot of math that goes into what they show the ball doing. The R-Motion takes your club data and shows you how a ball would or should react to that swing. This would not be a good tool to use to fit clubs, as it is not reading the ball, however it is a good tool to help with swing mechanics.
• Auto Rewind Feature
  • The Auto Rewind Feature allows you to hit the same shot over and over again. For Example, if you find a par 3 tee shot that you wish to play over and over, this feature allows you to hit from the tee over and over again. I like this feature because if you want to practice hitting shaped shots into a specific hole location, or a specific drive on a hole, this allows you to do it without having to keep resetting the hole manually.
• Swing Data
  • The swing data that shows on the PC after each shot is very thorough. It includes swing path, backspin, sidespin, spin axis, smash factor, club speed, ball speed, club face, ball path, carry, total yards, face relative to path, and a few other things. It shows attack angle on the phone app as well, but not the PC simulator.
  • Remember that the sensor is only reading the club data, so I would take the ball data with a grain of salt.
• Battery Life
  • I was impressed that such a little sensor could hold a charge for so long. We played a round for about 2 hours, hit a ton of range shots, and still had about half battery life remaining.
• Fun!
  • If you are in the middle of a cold winter like most of us in the upper parts of the United States, this is a great option to get some swings in, and get some club data. It is a fun piece of equipment and you get a lot for under $200.

What I Didn’t Like About The R-Motion!

• Cumbersome
  • The R-Motion uses a small sensor that you attach to each club that is being used. Every time you switch to a new club, you have to move the sensor. The sensor clips make it a little bit easier and quicker but the problem is that the standard kit only comes with 1 clip. We played with 3 people and each of us had our own clip, so if you knew you were hitting a driver, you could start attaching your clip while someone else was hitting. I would recommend getting extra clips if you plan on playing with other people. You can buy extra clips for around $10 per piece.
  • If you are hitting the same club over and over again on the range, moving the sensor is a non-issue.
  • The sensor is supposed to be lined up a specific way based on your club face, so obviously there will be some human error involved with the positioning of that.
• Fat/Thin Shots
  • Since the R-Motion is reading only club data, it doesn’t really pick up fat or thinned shots very well. There were multiple shots that were hit thin or fat that ended up with a nice looking high ball flight. This wouldn’t effect the better players since they are hitting less shots like this, but if you are a higher handicap, this may make you think you are hitting the ball more solidly than you actually are.
• Reading Short Chips
  • We found that chips that were just barely off the green that needed a very small swing were not picked up consistently. We got around this by changing the club to putter and actually putting these from off the green.
• Club Information
  • One of the main problems I saw with the system is that you have to put in your club specs for each club, and select the club when you are going to use it. This becomes an issue when you are playing with multiple people who have different club lofts, lengths, etc.
  • When entering your specs into the machine we were unable to find a way to add a club. For example – we both have 52 degree wedges, but R-motion only had sand wedge or lob wedge in the system. They also do not have a hybrid option, however you can just add your hybrid specs to the 5-wood or 3-iron club and it should react more closely towards your specs.
• Computer Requirements
  • The R-Motion has specific computer requirements. See link to the manual for all requirements. https://rapsodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Rmotion_manual_v12.pdf

Final Thoughts

Is the R-Motion perfect? Nope! Is it worth it? Absolutely! In my opinion, if you are looking for a simulator and don’t have thousands of dollars to spend, this is a perfect option. The ability to get club data on swing path, angle of attack, and club face can help you practice, and the game play is very fun. Once you get used to moving the sensor and clips on your clubs, it becomes less and less cumbersome. I would definitely recommend this to a golfer on a budget who is looking for some way to get some swings in this winter!