Simulator Shows Shorter Driving Distance

Why when i go to get  fitted and use the simulator it shows i can only hit the ball 210 yards ? When in real life i can carry my driver 260 yards ? So confused !

Assuming your real life yardages are accurate, what kind of launch monitor does the simulator use? The GC2 that Golfsmith uses is pretty good, when calibrated well. The ones at Dicks that are out of sight are... a lot less good. Trackman and Flightscope would be examples of other good ones. Could also be that the balls being used are some kind of restricted flight balls, which would be dumb, but would help explain it.

Were you hitting your own driver 210 or the one you were fitting into? Was the tee too low so you were getting weird launch angles?

I'm spitballing some things to rule them out. If you have numbers from the simulator, feel free to post them and we can see if they make sense.

Don't worry about it. Unless you start suddenly seeing 210 show up on the course, then it might be time to worry when you hit it 260.

Same thing happens to me.  My buddies say it's a mental thing.  Best explanation I got was from a golf tech who noticed I had a really high spin rate with my driver.  The machines use an algorithm to and calculate distance and he said it's geared to show spin hurting your drives.  He said a cynic might say it's to promote sales of lower spin drivers...who knows about that but my spin rate is high.  That day my driver spin rate was over 4,000 and some close to 5,000, same guy says I should work to get it below 4,000 and ideally closer to 2,000.

I measure my shots on the course and at the range (best I can) and 9/10 times I carry my driver 250 yards or more and the simulator is like 220-230.

The really strange thing for me is my 3 hybrid is about dead on in the simulator and on the course.  Maybe I'm controlling the spin on that club better.  All my other clubs are about the same

Not sure if it's a spin rate issue for you, since you hit it low maybe not, I hit my driver a mile high.  My friends joke about it being a driving wedge.  But, maybe the calculations of the simulator don't take into account the low ball flight and think it's more of a mis hit.

I'm not worried about it other than looking at ways to reduce the spin with my driver.

I've had similar reactions with OptiGolf simulators. When I 'know' I've tagged one relative to my outdoor experience, I often get a disappointing number. Sometimes it works fine.

Then I hit a 4-iron 30 yards further than I know I can. Not sure, but maybe some systems / algorithms have a preference or blind spot for certain angles of attack. I hit up slightly on the ball with driver.

That said, I also swing much more poorly in a simulator due to the mental awareness of constricted space, which is probably the biggest factor.