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Golf Simulator Distances

I believe the sims at the GolfTown near me are quite accurate. I've never seen crazy long shots consistently and the distances are usually less than I would see on course in firm conditions.
 
Interesting finding, something I'll look for the next time I'm in a bay. The last time I hit on a monitor, all the numbers where near what I was expecting, so that one must have been set correctly. Good to know though if I'm pumping up to Gary Woodland distances with an easy swing. ha
 
I've never had a problem with inflation when I went and got fitted at a store, but I did to a golf simulator a couple months ago at a private place(the type where you play at an entire round a specific course) and I could definitely see some inflating numbers there. I have know idea what the specific device they used but I know the guy that worked there told us that it picks up on the acoustics of the ball, to help determine the distance, so if it sounded like you made better contact it added to it. Considering I play a Rocketballz driver which is extremely loud, that's the only explanation on why I was getting some of the distances I was. I'm normally a low 100s swinger with total distances around 260-270 depending on conditions and there were times that my speed was registering 115 or so and distances well over 300. But like I said, I never experienced these inflated distances at a private fitting though.
 
I played on a simulator last weekend and saw an option for Shot Boost. We ended up asking the attendant and he stated you could add a boost to your distance. Not sure why anyone would want to do that as distance is so difficult to control as is, IMO.
 
So I guess the question is, do you have an issue with inflated number? And which are the inflated numbers on the monitor?
 
In my area there are 2 golf stores that I go into and will get in their simulators and I find the opposite to be true. My distances on one of the simulators is usually shorter than what I get out on the course and the other one is just about right on.
 
Bumping since some have posted some distances on a simulator.

What's your take on sim golf? Do the distances correspond to what you are seeing on the course outside? The sim I played on yesterday was one of the aboutGolf PGA sims. It has a rough area to hit off when your ball is in the sand/rough on screen.
 
It depends on the sim, but generally they are fairly accurate for me. My main issue is the turf interaction is wonky at most places. I end up hitting my irons a lot better than I normally do but hit my woods worse.

I don't typically put too much in stock what I see on a sim though. It's fun and gets you swinging when the weather is cold.
 
For me, the distances are at least in the ballpark of where I can expect to see on course, assuming something hasn't been tweaked with. As Philly said, turf interaction is not the same, but some simulators are better in that regard than others. It's still better than swinging into a net - if I get face to path, spin, and launch info, I can avoid having my swing get too far off in the winter.
 
I would have to see the distances we saw at the Michigan gathering were pretty spot on. I was hitting irons the exact distance I would expect to on the course. They were the About Golf PGA simulators.
 
While I think they are generally "in the ballpark" I struggle with the total distance numbers being accurate, especially off the tee. As an example, I played with Russtopher yesterday and it said that a few of my drives went 300yds, which was fun to see but not accurate. I think the sims give you a good idea of general carry yardage and keep you swinging in conditions that aren't fun to do so outdoors.
 
MPlefty said:
I think they have an option somewhere to have it fly like you were in high altitude so that it would be accurate if you played in dever....
Click to expand...

I know this for a fact because I was at a Golfsmith in Colorado when I got fitted and asked them to adjust the altitude to sea level and they confirmed that all their monitors are set up for their current altitude.
 
I thought the distance was pretty decent with irons @ the Team Michigan get together on Sunday. About what I would expect to see. I think there were a couple we were scratching our heads about how far over the target they carried. Didn't hear any complaints. The wedge spin was low but that may be the sim balls. I thought one of the sim bays was hotter with the driver than the other 2. Could be settings within the software.. Who Knows. . I have played on sims with the E6 software and thought it was a little more user friendly and graphically appealing than the AboutGolf. All in all I have no problem with sims. Better than shoveling snow.
 
After playing yesterday on the sims again I will say the distances were pretty much exactly what I was expecting.
 
And another thing about these sims. When I'm testing new irons, I always bring my own 6 and 7 iron with me for a baseline. When testing a new driver, I always bring my current driver with me for a baseline. This way regardless of what the monitor says distancewise, I'll know if the newer tech is giving me an advantage. Every time recently I've determined "it's not the bow, it's the archer" and made an appointment for a lesson.
 
I know on the golf simulator I play on during the winter you can increase distances by percentages. This is so that you can make it more realistic to actual yardages if the sensor is not picking up things properly but you could easily inflate it.
 
I would think CC and the FullSwing SiM is pretty darn accurate. Well I would hope for that kind of cash.
 
Good camera units are pretty close. Ones that estimate things based slowly on launch and and ball speed not so much. Radar based ones are not very good indoors at all unless you have like 20 feet + to the net and even then they are hit or miss. You also need to take in account that sometimes they just have weird shots like half wedges that randomly go 120 yards. Also they don't take in account gear effect. Still better than just a net or not swing the club in winter.
 
Where I work we have the About Golf Sims like Golfsmith has as well as the Forsight GC2 units.

GC2 the unit itself needs no calibration right out of the box. Extremely accurate. We take it outside as well to use as a stand alone unit. We use the foresight software which reflects the accurate readings of the unit. Maybe it can be juiced, but I've never looked.

I was at Golfers Warehouse one day and the Ping nflight software that was hooked up to one of their GC2 units was juiced 10% through the software . Again, I don't believe the actual stand alone unit can be juiced.

About Golf Sims are a different story. Whatever name you hit under, there are custom swing profiles that have a wide range of options. There are preset profiles such as woman, long hitter, short hitter etc....that u can choose to set for that name. Also under those profiles you can boost woods only, irons only or boost woods and make irons shorter. You can vary height as well, if you hit it high you can customize the settings so the ball goes lower.

So, after reading what I just wrote....are you going to buy a $400 driver without at least hitting your own alongside it? I hope not.

Hopefully I've given some insight. Any more questions, let me know.
 
Just came back from a golftown today to compare my r11s to the newer drivers.

Ive always known that golftown will juice up their sims to get more sales by thinking you are hitting longer than u really do.

The guy let me warm up with a apex 7i and my first 2 shots went 180! My third shot went 200!! I normally only hit my 7i 160. So I already know this sim bay is juiced. I then hit some balls and I was getting numbers like 275 carry and 300 total.

I snapped a photo of some of the results for later reference.

When I came home, I punched in some numbers into the flight scope trajectory optimizer and figured out that it should have been 254 carry and 282 total.

The good thing is, I brought my own driver and hit it to compare the numbers. The new gbb felt better and was in fact longer!

I just think its almost criminal for these shops to juice up their sim bays to fool unknowing customers.

I'm so glad I've read and learned so much here at thp!

Sent from my SM-G928W8 using Tapatalk
 
Awesome, glad you tested your driver head to head and found one that works better for you.
 
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