Hitting at an indoor simulator?

[bradleybusch92]

I am just getting started playing golf. I have played about 6-7 rounds now and started about 2 months ago. I have been making good progress on my swing and have played what I feel like is ahead of the curve, even played 18 holes of match play against a friend who has been playing for two years now and managed to win 4 holes and tie 5 of them. I have been trying to make a real determination of my length with all my clubs though, as it's hard for me to tell the exact distance I'm hitting on the outdoor range. There is a local golf shop that has a very nice indoor simulator that I was at first intimidated by due to my inability to hit the ball every time, but at this point I feel pretty good about my contact and just want to figure out my gapping between all my clubs in my bag I have pieced together from eBay purchases. Is that something I can just call ahead for like I'm making a tee time and pay an hourly fee to use their screen hitting bay? Or is that frowned upon since I haven't bought any clubs from them? I have used their outdoor range in the past but never bought anything other than range balls since all my clubs so far have been used.

 

Please let me know what I should do here! Also, if I get to hit in front of the sim, is there anything I should try to work on or look for? Thanks in advance!

[Neverfadeaway86]

Just call them and ask, thats the easiest way. There are some places where it is an indoor simulator where you can play a course and it shows you the hole and you play it "mostly" like you would outside or there are places where they hit into the screen and it tracks your shot based upon a fixed target and gives you distance and numbers.

 

it sounds to me like you are looking for the one with a fixed target that gives you distance and numbers, just ask if they have something that can help you with that

[Stuart_G]

I've payed for 1/2 or so just to practice - most sim's have a driving range or practice area. I doubt the owners will care but it generally will be more expensive than a real driving range.

 

Also, an important consideration is that there are a lot of different indoor simulator hardware (and software). Some can be very accurate - some are no more than just full size video game with little connection to the real results that you'd get. So get more details on what hardware and software the place uses and do your research on it before you start relying on the ball flight it shows you or any of the numbers and distances that it spits back out at you.

 

[jwortsman]

Agree with above posters. I know that PGA Superstore has rental bays with launch monitor time available and I may have seen the same thing at a local golf galaxy.

 

I believe both use GC2

[bradleybusch92]

> @Stuart_G said:

> I've payed for 1/2 or so just to practice - most sim's have a driving range or practice area. I doubt the owners will care but it generally will be more expensive than a real driving range.

>

> Also, an important consideration is that there are a lot of different indoor simulator hardware (and software). Some can be very accurate - some are no more than just full size video game with little connection to the real results that you'd get. So get more details on what hardware and software the place uses and do your research on it before you start relying on the ball flight it shows you or any of the numbers and distances that it spits back out at you.

>

 

The one this place has is supposedly the nicest one in the state. It's at The Golf Nut in Fort Smith, AR. I think it will probably be fairly accurate. I know that they regularly have different manufacturers in house to do fittings on their equipment from following their Facebook page. They use "FlightScope". I will just have to call today and ask them about it to see. Just wanted to be sure that it was a regular service to ask for before I stuck my neck out. There's a lot of golf things that are obvious to lifetime golfers that I'm trying to catch up on as a new one. Lol.

[Stuart_G]

If it is Flightscope - then yes it will generally be reliable. Same for the Trackman and Foreseight (GC2, GCQuad, GCHawk) sims. Even skytrack is decent - but you usually wont find that commercially.

 

EDIT: just make sure you use the metalic dots on the balls to get accurate spin numbers.

[smashdn]

I tried to do the same thing locally here with the few places I knew that had simulators. Your Edwin Watts and Golf Galaxy places don't want to do it unless you are buying clubs.

 

I contacted a few "golf academies" and courses that I knew had launch monitors. I had to really explain to them what I wanted as nobody had apparently ever wanted to know how far they hit their clubs. One guy was willing but he was basically going to be selling me an hour long lesson. I had hoped that I could just hit about 10-15 balls with each club while a buddy of mine wrote down the data and vice versa.

 

He also told me that people, no matter how good or bad or new or experienced, hit the ball differently indoors as opposed to outdoors so he recommended finding someone with a high quality outdoor set up to do what I wanting.

 

I was trying to create my shot cloud as outlined in _Lowest Score Wins_.

[Stuart_G]

Another thing to add - the type of mat can effect launch and spin when hitting directly off the mats (not tee'd up). So sometimes there can still be differences between indoors and grass even with accurate LM's. The harder and firmer the mat, the more likely there will be differences. The Fiberbuilt and other thicker mats tend to do better.

 

> @smashdn said:

> I tried to do the same thing locally here with the few places I knew that had simulators. Your Edwin Watts and Golf Galaxy places don't want to do it unless you are buying clubs.

 

Just a minor point on semantics. There is a difference between places that have "simulators" - and places that just have launch monitors for lessons or equipment fitting (although there can be some overlap between the two). Full blown simulators allow customers to play a full round of golf on various courses that might be available in the software. A bar and food services are not uncommon either. They are more popular in Asia where it's hard to get on a real course or where the golf season doesn't last year round and courses have to close down for the winter.

 

Some fitters and pros may offer their services for "gap fitting" - rates may vary and may or may not include the same cost as the lesson. But as you pointed out, others do not. Services can vary widely between different fitters and pros - so it never hurts to ask around.

 

[bradleybusch92]

> @smashdn said:

> I tried to do the same thing locally here with the few places I knew that had simulators. Your Edwin Watts and Golf Galaxy places don't want to do it unless you are buying clubs.

>

> I contacted a few "golf academies" and courses that I knew had launch monitors. I had to really explain to them what I wanted as nobody had apparently ever wanted to know how far they hit their clubs. One guy was willing but he was basically going to be selling me an hour long lesson. I had hoped that I could just hit about 10-15 balls with each club while a buddy of mine wrote down the data and vice versa.

>

> He also told me that people, no matter how good or bad or new or experienced, hit the ball differently indoors as opposed to outdoors so he recommended finding someone with a high quality outdoor set up to do what I wanting.

>

> I was trying to create my shot cloud as outlined in _Lowest Score Wins_.

> @Stuart_G said:

> Another thing to add - the type of mat can effect launch and spin when hitting directly off the mats (not tee'd up). So sometimes there can still be differences between indoors and grass even with accurate LM's. The harder and firmer the mat, the more likely there will be differences. The Fiberbuilt and other thicker mats tend to do better.

>

> > @smashdn said:

> > I tried to do the same thing locally here with the few places I knew that had simulators. Your Edwin Watts and Golf Galaxy places don't want to do it unless you are buying clubs.

>

> Just a minor point on semantics. There is a difference between places that have "simulators" - and places that just have launch monitors for lessons or equipment fitting (although there can be some overlap between the two). Full blown simulators allow customers to play a full round of golf on various courses that might be available in the software. A bar and food services are not uncommon either. They are more popular in Asia where it's hard to get on a real course or where the golf season doesn't last year round and courses have to close down for the winter.

>

> Some fitters and pros may offer their services for "gap fitting" - rates may vary and may or may not include the same cost as the lesson. But as you pointed out, others do not. Services can vary widely between different fitters and pros - so it never hurts to ask around.

>

 

Yes, I could see the difference in spin and distance vs actual real life coming in. I just want to really get a good idea on my gapping to see if there's anything I need to keep in mind when switching clubs. It gets fuzzy to me on which clubs I should be hitting on the extreme upper end and lower end of my bag. I.E. I can't hit my 4 iron very well so it may go shorter than my 5, and I might not even hit my 60 degree any shorter than my 56. I just think some info will help me out. I will give them a call today and find out what the price and procedure is. They do also have the type of simulator where you can play a course, I saw them advertising that you could play a round at Portrush a couple weeks ago. I will just be using it for the range though.

[march11934]

I would give them a shout and be honest. Nothing to loose and the worst they can do is say no. I have been practicing on outside ranges and indoor simulators for years. You are making some great progress if you think you are ready for verifying your club gaps. Just a recommendation on dialing in. An outdoor range should have at least 4 flags. Yardages are around 100, 140, 180 and 220. you should have 4 clubs that are about that. I dont know your distances. For me 100 is a full 60. it all measures up from there visually. you should be able to spot three or four clubs between 100 and 140. You should be able to eyeball your clubs from 100 to 140-ish. For example i would be around 100/60 110/56 120/52 then PW around 125-135, 9 iron is 145. So between the 100 and 140 flags you can see you are measuring out 5 clubs. The same between 140 to 180, then 180 to 220.

Something else i would recommend is evaluating how well you hit the ball with one swing. Again outside range. 4 flags and 4 clubs that dial into those flag measurements. If a natural swing takes you a little short or long makes no difference. As long as you can hit it repeatedly. Have the 4 clubs out and its one swing, one ball. at each flag. Go in rotation 10 times. Keep track of how many are within proximity. This gives you good idea at how strong your short mid and long game is at so many out of 10. The fact that you can't hit the same club more than once will give you a better idea on how you will perform in a real game.

Just a few things you can do with any outside range cheap or high end. Indoor range is whatever you dial into the computer i suppose.

march11934