Home Golf Studio

[johnclayton1982]

I'm considering purchasing an optishot and setting up a home golf studio.  Has anyone done this?  Is it at all realistic / help you improve?  Specifically, how does it work with driver?  I have a swing flaw in my driver where I either cut across the ball, losing distance, or come in too steep, producing mishits off the top.  Its rare that I both get my club face squared up AND do not hit the ball on too steep an angle.

When I gamed out indoor driving range fees to work on this over the winter, they will come out to about the same cost as an optishot and impact screen.  But before I take the plunge, has anyone used it?  Anyone have postiive / negative experiences?  How did you set it up in the house?

Thanks!

John

[1puttit]

I have an Optishot and really like it. It is fairly accurate and for $400 is hard to beat. I spend most of my time on it in practice mode working on my swing but will occasionally play a round with my friends or kids. There are more accurate units out there but they get pricey in a hurry. For me this unit meets my needs

On the pro side:

Easy to setup and install

good gauge of swing path, face angle, and impact

Cons:

- Lighting - does not work with lots of sunlight so you need to have an area you can control the lighting. Also need to use a CFL bulb as regular light bulbs can cause issues.

- Does not read all clubs (particularly some drivers) - Has to do with how reflective the club is. You can tape the bottom as a work around.

- No spin rate, launch angle, etc...

Setup - I use mine in my living room since it has a cathedral ceiling and plenty of room to swing. Lots of people set it up in their garages. I happen to have a VERY understanding wife I use Almost Golf Balls rather than a real ball (Optishot has settings for real ball, foam ball and no ball). I made a screen to hit into out of a painter's canvas tarp,  You'll also need something to stand on that is the same height as the optishot - a couple of pieces of carpeting will work in a pinch.  I have the Optishot software on my laptop so it is pretty easy to setup and takedown "the range". Takes me about 5 minutes to setup.

[johnclayton1982]

1puttit:  Great info, thanks.  Do you use a projector to project onto the screen or just hit balls into it?

[1puttit]

Originally Posted by johnclayton1982

1puttit:  Great info, thanks.  Do you use a projector to project onto the screen or just hit balls into it?

I would love a projector but it's not in the budget at the moment I just use my laptop for now.

[RRLavigne]

I also have an Optishot in my basement. I have the correct lighting and because it's in my basement sunlight is never an issue. As i wrote in another thread about the unit I think buying an Optishot was the best $399 I've ever spent on "Winter in New england" golf. In regard to reading drivers, it depends on your driver, it reads irons real good. They actually sell a driver made to read well with the unit fairly cheap so if you bought one and weren't happy with how it reads your driver you could always buy theirs which is specifically made to read well with the unit.

It's not REAL golf, (No simulator is) it doesn't know if you opened the club fact to add loft, you can't take a divot, you don't feel sand when your in a bunker etc. BUT it does most everything a real expensive simulator does. Expensive simulators do it with high speed cameras reading the ball, Optishot does it by reading the club head. Oh and you can't take a divot or hit out of real sand on a $40,000 simulator either. $40,000 VS $399 ... the difference in experience using the units isn't anywhere near the difference in cost.

Personally I use foam balls hit into a suspended sheet. I may get a projector down the road but i actually had to buy a computer for the unit because all my home computers are MACS and i didn't want to use bootcamp and put Windows on one of my MACS. I don't think it would run as well through bootcamp as using an actual PC. SOOOOOO I spent my projector money on a desktop PC and monitor. The PC is ONLY for the Optishot, it's not used for anything else so i consider it part of the simulator "package."

Even though i had to spend $700 on a PC i'm still thrilled with the Optishot. It's NOT real golf but it does give you awesome information in regard to what your club head is doing at impact so you know what you need to fix in your swing and bottom line, it's fun! It's simulated golf BUT you FEEL like you're playing real golf and that's a great feeling in the dead of winter. How can you lose for $399? OH ... It's plastic and some have questioned how strong it is. Well I've hit TONS of fat shots and have been playing almost everyday since December 26th 2012 when i bought it and so far I haven't had any issues! I'm not afraid of wacking it anymore. (I was at first but it's holding up great)

So my obvious opinion, go for it, you'll be glad you did. Especially if you're snow bound like me.