Do Home Golf Simulators Help Your Game?

I have been considering getting some cheap home golf simulators that you attach to your pc or to a game console. Anyone have any suggestions on which ones work best? Thanks.

I have a really old golf simulator called Picture Perfect Golf that has an infrared club that your swing over a sensor. I found it acurate in it telling me distances and ball flight (draw, hook, fade, and slice). The areas it wasn't useful was in contact and short game. There was no way of knowing if you would have hit fat or thin shots. Since you weren't hitting a real ball from a real lie you can't experience grass or sand resistance. Finally with putts it will tell you that you have a 17 foot putt with 3 inches of elevation and it breaks 3 feet. Thats great except it doesn't correlate with what you'd experience on a real green - how do you decide how far to take it back, where to aim, and how fast would the green be compared to what you play on? It was very useful in that I could experiment with different things I thought might generate more power and longer shots, and it would give me accurate feedback (when I went to the golf course or range and made the same swing it would generate the same distance as the simulator told me).

I also bought a golf simulator with a fake ball and use your real clubs, that was supposed to fuction in a similar way, but it didn't work with my computer, so I can't comment on its effectiveness in helping with the golfing skills. I've also used expensive golf simulators in in-door stores, and lesson centers. They confirmed what I already believed. They can help you work on your long game (swing speed), but they are ineffective for short game work. Overall I think if you are going to get a simulator (which I don't know of any that are cheap aside from ones you can buy for video game systems) getting one that you can use real clubs and real balls would be beneficial. In summary if you want to work on your swing they can be useful, but I don't think they will ever be as good for short game practice as outdoor practice on grass and sand.

I recommend Tiger Woods 08 For Xbox 360, Its really hard just like real golf, and no matter how good you think you hit the ball, You cant hit the F***in thing straight. Just like real golf

I was also wondering about 2 specific simulators.

The First is the P3ProSwing and the second is Dancin Dogg. The second is cheaper and I have more concerns with it. The first seems like a bigger company and like they did better marketing but that doesn't make it better. I also kinda want to support the smaller company as I myself work in my families small business and in turn prefer to support other small businesses.

So anyone here have any experience with either of these. If I don't get any responces in the next week or so I may just buy the Dancin Dogg simulator and test it out and post my experience with it, only problem is I suck. Just started practicing again after over 10 years of not playing.

I have looked into that one in the past but haven't pulled the trigger...