Golf Simulator Accuracy

[ACE]

I work at a golf store that has simulators. They are not going to be 100% accurate and should be used to get a feel for your average distances. Rather, they are best for comparing clubs when considoring a new purchase because both clubs with be at the same playing feild.

[02saleen346]

I would only use the numbers as far as swing speed, launch, ball speed and maybe backspin. I got fitted for a ball at golf galaxy and the ball they fitted me for helped. I created less spin with my driver and got a better performing ball. As far as distance my friend was hitting a sand wedge 160. Who knows?

[DJYoshi]

my carry on a simulator that I use to measure has me carrying the ball at 260 - 270 yards on avg. i know i'm not swinging that fast when i'm testing clubs...especially the 1st 10 swings that i'm testing...
that carry is about my avg drive...so i think the sim i use a bunch has me a little higher than reality...would be nice if I could carry 270 on the reg without trying to crank it.

[TN94z]

thats awesome buddy but your ball is Platinum..... not platimun....

Sorry about that. Sometimes I type too fast.

[TomDonS]

The only accurate reading you should trust is what you do off of the first through eighteenth tee boxes. The rest is hogwash.

Beautifully Put!!!!

Simulators are just that "SIMULATORS" They simulate you right into buying a club, becuase you "hit it so good at the simulator" any shop worth their salt will let you at least hit it outside. If not then they obviously dont want your business.

[DavidFehertysBike]

According to golf galaxy's simulator i hit a 6 iron 210 yards. lol....I belive the retail store sims are geared towards getting you to fall in love with a club rather than tell you how you are acutally hitting it. When i was hitting the nike VR 6 iron i knew i strait up sawed off this one swing to the right. The simulator classified it as a "push" that still went 175...please.

[korndawg]

While I agree 100% that simulators aren't the most accurate thing but I do think they are accurate enuff to tell u the correct trajectory and your angles. Just don't put too much stock in the distant readings. What I don't believe is people saying that they are only in use to get people to buy a certain club. The simulators can't discriminate towards one club over the next. The simulator has no idea whether you hitting a $100 set from walmart or a set of Pings or Callaways.

[Doctorfro]

The only thing they are good for are for comparing apples to apples. If it says you hit the X Club better than you hit the Y Club then you probably do. But don't put any stock in the numbers you are provided.

[Zeph]

I'm playing on a simulator where you can't test equipment. It's not part of any merchandiser store. The distances are fine tuned and they match my distances on the course pretty well. I don't use the distances as references, but angles and trajectory is great to work on. You can tell if you hit a shot to the left, right or centre. You can play all kinds of shots on it.

During the winter I have no chance of playing outside, playing on the simulator has been very useful for my swing. The last changes I have made on the simulator and the results were great.

[owens251109]

Thinking about going up to the local driving range and using the unlimited golf balls deal for $15.00. they also throw in Flightscope to help with your swing. so my question is has anyone used this before? also do you feel it is accurate or helps you? or is it a waste of time? thanks for the help.

[Spitfisher]

Thinking about going up to the local driving range and using the unlimited golf balls deal for $15.00. they also throw in Flightscope to help with your swing. so my question is has anyone used this before? also do you feel it is accurate or helps you? or is it a waste of time? thanks for the help.

The flight scope is a very good tool, between flight scope and track man launch monitors inmo those are the two popular ones used by professionals and club manufacturers alike. Of the 1000s of club and driver fittings I have used the flight scope the most and I have found it to match my own on course distances and ball flight......it will pick up when you are getting tired of hitting multiple buckets, so warm up first maybe with 25 balls then get some readings. Good luck

[JonMA1]

I played a simulator today and was a bit surprised by the seemingly increased distances. While I don't put a 100% faith in these things, I asked the owner if the sims were close and he told me the irons are dead on with his distances on the course (he's a low single-digit player).

He told me the same thing last year when my son was hitting what seemed to be very good distances (at that time, my simulator numbers were consistent with my real distances). When my son and I played the first round of the year, I measured one of his 4 iron shots with the GPS and it was within 5 yards of what the sims indicated.

It wasn't like I would get an occasional odd number today. Every iron in the bag was considerably longer on almost every shot. And the fact my driver distances were consistently lower leads me to believe that the simulator wasn't that far off (that was definitely me).

So I'm wondering if the work on key#2 can possibly provide this much extra distance - easily 20 yards with my mid to long irons. Or if these results were just a combination of hitting off a mat and the simulator being just a bit longer than reality.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of improvement from getting weight and hands forward?

[Lihu]

I played a simulator today and was a bit surprised by the seemingly increased distances. While I don't put a 100% faith in these things, I asked the owner if the sims were close and he told me the irons are dead on with his distances on the course (he's a low single-digit player).

He told me the same thing last year when my son was hitting what seemed to be very good distances (at that time, my simulator numbers were consistent with my real distances). When my son and I played the first round of the year, I measured one of his 4 iron shots with the GPS and it was within 5 yards of what the sims indicated.

It wasn't like I would get an occasional odd number today. Every iron in the bag was considerably longer on almost every shot. And the fact my driver distances were consistently lower leads me to believe that the simulator wasn't that far off (that was definitely me).

So I'm wondering if the work on key#2 can possibly provide this much extra distance - easily 20 yards with my mid to long irons. Or if these results were just a combination of hitting off a mat and the simulator being just a bit longer than reality.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of improvement from getting weight and hands forward?

Sure, you're putting your body weight behind the swing.

[JonMA1]

Guess I wasn't expecting that much improvement. That's encouraging.

[JonMA1]

I played a simulator today and was a bit surprised by the seemingly increased distances.

...easily 20 yards with my mid to long irons.

Just wanted to follow up on my previous post. I call BS on the simulator.

All the snow melted this weekend and I was able to hit outside into field next to my house. Using Google maps, I measured my shots and discovered there wasn't any gain in distances. So either my swing has reverted since last week or the simulator was off.

All this means is that I can't trust anything but what I see. The simulator is fun and I'll keep using it through the winter, but not as a tool to evaluate progress.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonMA1

I played a simulator today and was a bit surprised by the seemingly increased distances.

...easily 20 yards with my mid to long irons.

Just wanted to follow up on my previous post. I call BS on the simulator.

All the snow melted this weekend and I was able to hit outside into field next to my house. Using Google maps, I measured my shots and discovered there wasn't any gain in distances. So either my swing has reverted since last week or the simulator was off.

All this means is that I can't trust anything but what I see. The simulator is fun and I'll keep using it through the winter, but not as a tool to evaluate progress.

What simulator are you using, that you can use all winter?

While I agree that a simulator might be inaccurate, your test was possibly skewed by cold weather. Remember that in the winter the balls don't compress as much and could account for 4-5 yards out of 200 or so yards. The cold air is also denser and could also account for another 8-10 yards or so. http://thesandtrap.com/t/57517/how-much-does-cold-air-actually-affect-your-distance

Plus, this might be a stupid question, but did the simulator result include roll? I know where I am you don;t get much roll because the balls tend to plug in the damper ground conditions.

[JonMA1]

What simulator are you using, that you can use all winter?

While I agree that a simulator might be inaccurate, your test was possibly skewed by cold weather. Remember that in the winter the balls don't compress as much and could account for 4-5 yards out of 200 or so yards. The cold air is also denser and could also account for another 8-10 yards or so. http://thesandtrap.com/t/57517/how-much-does-cold-air-actually-affect-your-distance

Plus, this might be a stupid question, but did the simulator result include roll? I know where I am you don;t get much roll because the balls tend to plug in the damper ground conditions.

I believe they are "Trugolf" simulators. They use E6 software anyway. Yes, those numbers include roll.

You're exactly right about the ground I'm hitting into being very soft. While I can't see them land (my view is obscured by trees), I don't think they get more than a few yards of roll.

The temps have been in the low 40's.

But still...

When I posted an additional 20 yards of distance at the simulator, that was very conservative. I'm not a long hitter. Towards the end of the 2014 seasons, I was pretty happy with a couple of 170+ yd 5i shots I'd hit (measured with a Garmin). But my average 5i was probably just at 160. So when I started hitting 190 yard 5 irons shots last week at the simulator (one exceeded 200 yards), that seemed too good to be true.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if next season I'm averaging 180yds with my 5 irons and getting 10 yard gaps from there down. But I just don't think it will happen. Today I was averaging below 150 yards with only a couple reaching 160. The ball flight was higher than it should have been, so it may have been partly my swing (not getting my hands forward I would suspect). At least contact was consistently clean.

This just gives me a bit more incentive to keep working on the changes I need to put in place.

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/18523/golf-simulator-accuracy/18#post_1085577"]   What simulator are you using, that you can use all winter? While I agree that a simulator might be inaccurate, your test was possibly skewed by cold weather. Remember that in the winter the balls don't compress as much and could account for 4-5 yards out of 200 or so yards. The cold air is also denser and could also account for another 8-10 yards or so. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/t/57517/how-much-does-cold-air-actually-affect-your-distance]http://thesandtrap.com/t/57517/how-much-does-cold-air-actually-affect-your-distance[/URL] Plus, this might be a stupid question, but did the simulator result include roll? I know where I am you don;t get much roll because the balls tend to plug in the damper ground conditions. [/QUOTE] I believe they are "Trugolf" simulators. They use E6 software anyway. Yes, those numbers include roll.  You're exactly right about the ground I'm hitting into being very soft. While I can't see them land (my view is obscured by trees), I don't think they get more than a few yards of roll. The temps have been in the low 40's. But still... When I posted an additional 20 yards of distance at the simulator, that was very conservative. I'm not a long hitter. Towards the end of the 2014 seasons, I was pretty happy with a couple of 170+ yd 5i shots I'd hit (measured with a Garmin). But my average 5i was probably just at 160. So when I started hitting 190 yard 5 irons shots last week at the simulator (one exceeded 200 yards), that seemed too good to be true. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if next season I'm averaging 180yds with my 5 irons and getting 10 yard gaps from there down. But I just don't think it will happen. Today I was averaging below 150 yards with only a couple reaching 160. The ball flight was higher than it should have been, so it may have been partly my swing (not getting my hands forward I would suspect). At least contact was consistently clean. This just gives me a bit more incentive to keep working on the changes I need to put in place.

Those are pretty impressive distances with your 5i. In current conditions, I only hit mine about 165 yards or so. I don't really use it all that much except on the shorter par 3, but you could use it off the tee in the summers. :-)