By ED TRAVIS
Most every golfer is trying to improve, and some are very serious about it. They practice religiously, take lessons, play every chance they get and presuming they are not simply ingraining their same bad swing habits they will gradually see their scores go down.
Ben Hogan famously said the secret to getting better was to dig it out of the dirt. Certainly, that’s how it was when I was learning this frustrating game.
But times have changed, and thousands of golfers have found a home simulator matched with a launch monitor is an effective route to lower scores.
What got me thinking about this was a study recently published by Ace Indoor Golf, the well-known simulator manufacturer that sells packages including a variety of launch monitors. The study showed almost 90% of simulator owners had an improvement in their own or family member’s game.
But what really caught my attention was 80% of those surveyed said their accuracy was better and over half said their score decreased with the average being 5.27 strokes. Think about that a moment…that’s more than two strokes per side. A simulator/launch monitor installation can set you back at a few thousand dollars, but for those of us where golf is an integral part of our lives and we truly want to cut our handicap it’s an investment in our future.
Then maybe to top it all off, in the first tee-bragging department, almost half (44%) of the survey respondents said they got more distance.
These numbers admittedly are from a survey sponsored by a company that sells simulators and launch monitors and as might be expected the respondents are enthusiastic if not avid users. More than two-thirds reported it was so much fun and so convenient that they used theirs 10 or more times per month pointing out practice is available whenever they wanted regardless of weather, time of day, or the season.
From an improvement standpoint, launch monitors provide instant feedback so rather than trying to figure out why a shot went awry data is right there to show what you need to improve.
After seeing the results from Ace Indoor Golf’s survey I talked with Jay Hubbard, their Marketing & E-commerce Director who said in an email, “Golf simulators and launch monitors are a great way to improve your game. Simulator use encourages more play and helps get more people into the game by allowing them to grow their skills and ability off-course indoors or on a driving range in a non-threatening environment. They are fun to use, and features like club path, launch angle, spin, and carry distance are easy-to-understand metrics that can help a player dramatically improve their game. For example, understanding your real carry distance for your clubs is the difference between a greenside bunker and putting for birdie or par, which makes the game more fun.”
Should a home simulator/launch monitor be in your future the best piece of advice is to shop around and talk to experts like Ace. An installation has many factors, from space considerations to design and construction to something as straight forward as the proper software. To ensure the best simulator/launch monitor installation get all the facts to find what suits you best.
