How does a home golf simulator work?

The chain, one shot at a time

1. You hit a real ball off the mat into the impact screen.
2. The launch monitor measures the ball, and on most units the club, in the first instant after impact.
3. It sends those numbers to the software: on its own screen, on a phone or tablet, or on a PC.
4. The software works out the rest of the flight (carry, curve, bounce and roll) and draws it on a range or a course.
5. The projector puts that picture on the impact screen, so you watch the shot fly from where the ball hit.

The real ball stops at the screen. Everything after that is maths. That's why the launch monitor matters more than anything else in the room: if the numbers going in are off, a better course or a brighter projector won't fix them.

What each part does

Launch monitor

The measuring device. It decides how accurate the simulator is, which software you can run and how long the room needs to be.

Software

Turns the numbers into a driving range, practice games or a full round. Some launch monitors bring their own: the Garmin R50 runs its simulator on a built-in 10-inch touchscreen, and the Foresight GC3 runs Foresight's own software, Foresight+. Others use an app on a phone or tablet for the range, and a Windows PC for big-screen software such as GSPro or E6 Connect. What you need for a golf simulator sets out which setups need a PC.

Projector and impact screen

The screen does two jobs: it takes a full-speed ball, and it's the surface the picture lands on. In our room packages the projector is a BenQ AH500ST short-throw laser, which fills the screen from about 1.4m back, so it sits inside the bay rather than over your head.

Enclosure and mat

The enclosure holds the screen and wraps the hitting area in fabric sides and a top to catch mishits. That fabric is for stray shots, not full-speed ones; only the screen should take those. The mat is what you hit off. A good mat on a rubber base is kinder to your joints.

Radar or camera

There are two ways to measure a golf shot, and the difference shows up mostly in your floor plan.

Radar units sit behind you, looking down the line, and follow the ball as it leaves. The FlightScope Mevo Gen2 manual puts it 2.4m behind the ball, and the Full Swing KIT, which pairs radar with a camera, 3.05m. Radar rooms run longer as a result: 5.2m for a Mevo Gen2 and 5.85m for a KIT.

Camera units sit beside the ball and photograph it at impact, so nothing goes behind you. The Garmin R50 sits about half a metre to the side of the ball; the Foresight GC3 and Uneekor Eye Mini Lite also sit beside it. Square Golf combines cameras and radar in a small unit that sits beside the ball too.

Both give data good enough to practise with and play on. What decides it for most people is room length, whether they want club data, and whether they want to play without a computer. Will a golf simulator fit my room? has the lengths for each type.

What the numbers mean

You'll see a lot of numbers after every shot. These are the ones worth knowing first.

• Ball speed: how fast the ball leaves the face. The best single sign of how well you struck it.
• Launch angle: how steeply the ball takes off.
• Spin rate: how much backspin. Too much and a drive balloons; too little and irons won't stop.
• Spin axis: the tilt of the spin, which is what curves the ball left or right.
• Carry: how far the ball flies before it lands. Learn this for every club first.
• Club speed, club path, face angle and angle of attack: how the club was moving, which tells you why the ball did what it did.
• Smash factor: ball speed divided by club speed, a measure of strike quality.

Before you buy, check which club numbers a unit reads. The Mevo Gen2 doesn't read club path or face, and the R50 uses a clubface sticker for its club data. If fixing your swing is the main goal, club data matters more than course graphics.