Having a home simulator is a great tool to get better, or just a fun thing to have when family and friends come over and you want to show them how Pebble Beach or some other famous course might play.
The ability to play almost any course at any time, and to do so while not having to fight for tee times, or worry about getting stuck behind a slow group and the round taking five hours are all great things, as is the ability to practice any type of shot or drill that you want in the comfort of your own home without other eyes seeing how badly you might mess up.
But the best part of having a home golf simulator is a far more simple reason: The ability to hit balls whenever you want. You have 15 minutes before you need to leave for work and everyone else is already out the door? That’s enough time to hit 30-40 shots, keep your game fresh and then head to work, dinner, or whatever it might be. Can’t sleep and just want to clear your mind? You don’t need to throw the clubs in the trunk, drive to the range, and maybe see if it’s open at 9:30pm or whatever time it is that you get the urge to get some swings in.
We’re all busy, and if you’re a parent, you know how hard it is to find time to play and practice regularly, and a home sim allows that in little bits and pieces you never thought would allow you to play or practice.
Case in point of this: This week my mother in law was coming to help me watch my wife and I’s two kids, and as any parent knows, handing two kids solo is a near impossible task and any help is appreciated. She gave me her ETA to arrive at the house, I got there about 25 minutes before she did on my lunch break and figured, “What he hell, let’s hit a few while we have time.”
In less than five minutes I had my mat pulled out, impact screen pulled down, SkyTrak+ fired up, and the app on my phone to see my shots open, connected, and ready to go. I didn’t need to plug into my projector, or grab my clubs and drive to the nearest range, just a simple setup where I could hit a shot, see the results and data on my phone next to my bag, and hit the next one. In the time it takes to make a cup of coffee, I was hitting balls and trying to knock off the rust that comes with having two kids and struggling to find time to play.
And in just that 25 minutes or so I had, it helped out some problem in my game that had popped up from not playing consistently enough, mainly that I was getting into old bad habits and swinging very in-to-out, causing either a nasty hook, or a block to the right. I plopped a towel down behind me that forced my takeaway to go wide, and my downswing to miss it to the outside, forcing a more neutral or out-to-in path, and voila, after 40ish balls, I decided to call it a day after a driver was 3-yards off the center line and rolled out to 282 yards.
Not bad for just taking a few swings to kill some time while waiting for someone to show up at your house.
Don’t get me wrong, that a home sim allows me to do the things I previously mentioned in here, get a round in a famous course and see how my game might stack up (to a degree), to stop sweating out if I can find a tee time while living in a golf-starved area, or trying to explain to my wife why a round took 4:45 and that she’ll have to pick up both kids from school are all great benefits to being to being able to hit balls in the comfort of my garage.
But just the ability to find 15-20 minutes of time, take a few swings, work on my game, or just relax from everything that’s going on around you, that more than anything else makes having a home simulator worth owning.
Leave a Reply