If you’re the type to wonder why certain golf brands exist, there’s always an official story. In this day and age, that story usually involves the founders being frustrated about the lack of an affordable version of whatever product they’re bringing to market.
Blue Tees Golf came into being in 2019 for precisely that reason. Its founder felt the market was missing an accurate, durable and affordable laser rangefinder. Over the past seven years, Blue Tees has expanded into GPS speakers, handhelds and watches, plus an integrated app that ties them all together.
Today, Blue Tees is adding a big piece to its connected puzzle: A Doppler-based launch monitor that gives you 20 performance metrics (including spin), is compatible with third-party simulation platforms and connects to the wider Blue Tees ecosystem.
The best part? It will sell for $599.
Do we have your attention?
Meet the Blue Tees Rainmaker
On the surface, the new Blue Tees Rainmaker is similar in size and in basic functionality to Shot Scope’s LM1 which the Scottish company announced last week. Scratch the surface and you’ll find some compelling features.
Not only does the Rainmaker give you ball and club speed, carry and total distance and smash factor, it will also give you spin rate, launch angle, descent angle and up to 12 additional metrics.
And it connects to other Blue Tees devices to share your info.
“Rainmaker is a natural next step for us,” says Blue Tees Co-Founder Brandon Francisco. “We’ve spent years building connected tools. With Rainmaker, we’re making launch monitor data more accessible, more intuitive and more connected to a player’s game.”
The Blue Tees Rainmaker is about the size of an iPad with a 4.3-inch LCD screen. It can be used indoors and outdoors and is powered by a Blue Tees proprietary algorithm. It also pairs with the Blue Tees LAUNCH app which lets you view your history, dispersion mapping and personalized club setup.
Additionally, Rainmaker can feed your data into Blue Tees GAME app which will give its Acout AI in-app caddie even more information.
Where Rainmaker fits in the personal launch monitor landscape
The fact that Rainmaker measures spin puts it in a unique space. The original Rapsodo MLM1 provides spin but only if you use Titleist RCT golf balls. At $249, it’s not a bad buy. The MLM2Pro is a big-boy personal launch monitor using a dual optical camera and radar to collect data. It runs $699.99 but both Rapsodos require additional subscriptions.
At $599, The Rainmaker doesn’t offer the same level of performance as the MLM2Pro but, at this time, Blue Tees only charges for an annual subscription to its GAME app. We can’t comment on its relative accuracy at this time. Blue Tees is just announcing Rainmaker today. It’s not ready for launch but we will run it through the ringer once we get our hands on one.
New rangefinders and a GPS speaker, too
Today’s a busy day for Blue Tees. The company is also announcing two new laser rangefinders: the Captain Air and the Captain Pro.
The Captain Air is the lower-priced of the two at $239. For that, you get Bluetooth integration with the GAME app which provides GPS distances for more than 43,000 golf courses. It features an LED display, 6X magnification, flag-locking with pulse vibration, a cart magnet and slope.
The Captain Pro has all the features of the Captain Air plus a crisper OLED display and a deeper level of connectivity with the GAME app. That includes GPS distances as well as shot tracking and advanced analytics.
The Captain Pro will sell for $299.
Additionally, Blue Tees is announcing an updated version of its Player+ GPS golf speaker, the Player Pro. The company says the new Player Pro features updated sound quality and on-device intelligence. Specifically, that includes AI-powered on-course club selections based on your historic shot-tracking data and session data synced from other devices in the Blue Tees ecosystem, such as the Rainmaker launch monitor.
The new Player Pro GPS golf speaker will retail for $199.
Presale for the Captain laser rangefinders and the Player Pro starts March 1 at www.blueteesgolf.com and through select online partners.
The company expects to start shipping on March 17.
PatrickG
4 months ago
Unfortunately there is no release date for these from the company. Can’t or won’t even hint. Bit annoying as this could tip someone into a different brand.
Marlon
4 months ago
The video from the Shot Show indicated a Father’s Day release date. They expressed optimism about the accuracy of the data, although the specific meaning behind that statement remains unclear.