Golf Simulators for Left AND Right-Handed Players: The Household Guide

A question landed on our WhatsApp recently that I suspect plenty of families are quietly wrestling with. A dad with two golf-mad kids — one left-handed, one right-handed — asked: “Do we need two launch monitors? Or can one simulator setup work for both of them without a fight breaking out every time they swap?” The short answer is that one setup absolutely serves both, and no, you don't need to buy anything twice. The longer answer — the one that actually matters — is that some setups switch between a left-hander and a right-hander in about ten seconds, and some need a physical reposition and re-alignment every single time the kids swap over. If your household alternates every six shots, that difference decides whether the simulator gets used or argued over. Here's how to end up with the fast kind.

The short answer: every launch monitor supports both hands

Let's clear the biggest worry first. Every launch monitor we sell — from the entry-level ShotScope LM1 through the FlightScope Mevo Gen2 to the Garmin R10 and R50 — supports left-handed and right-handed golfers. There is no such thing as a “right-handed launch monitor”. What there is, on every unit, is a handedness setting in the software that needs re-configuring each time a player of the opposite hand steps up. The unit needs to know which way the golfer is standing to interpret the club data and ball flight correctly, and none of them will reliably guess it for you mid-session.

In practice that's a per-player setting: you set up a profile for each golfer — lefty for one, righty for the other — and switching player profiles in the app flips the handedness with it. That part takes seconds on every unit. So the software is never the problem.

The real difference between setups is physical: where the unit sits, and whether it has to move when the other-handed player steps in. That's decided entirely by whether you buy a radar unit or a camera unit.

Radar units: park it behind the ball and never touch it

Radar launch monitors — the Mevo Gen2 and the Garmin R10 are the two we recommend most — sit behind the ball, looking straight down the target line. The Mevo needs around 2.4m behind the ball to see the swing and ball flight properly, and here's the bit that matters for your household: that position is identical for a left-hander and a right-hander. Both players hit from the same spot on the mat, down the same line, at the same screen or net. The only thing that changes is which side of the ball they stand on — and the radar, sitting directly behind on the centre line, doesn't care.

So the full switching routine for a radar setup is: lefty steps up, you tap their profile in the app, and they hit. No tripod moved, no re-levelling, no alignment check. When I tested this exact swap with the Mevo Gen2 — alternating sides shot for shot to see if anything drifted — the changeover was genuinely about ten seconds, and the unit never needed touching. The official setup and space requirements are on FlightScope's site if you want the manufacturer's word for it.

The one planning implication: radar needs that ~2.4m behind the ball on top of your swing space, so check your room against our simulator room size guide before committing. It's the same requirement whether one person uses the room or four.

Camera and side units: someone has to move the box

Camera-based units are a different story. The Garmin R50 — a brilliant unit in lots of ways, with its built-in screen and no PC needed — sits on the floor around 60cm in front of the ball, aligned for a specific handedness. Set up for your right-hander, its cameras are positioned and calibrated for a right-hander's ball position and stance. When the lefty steps in, the unit has to physically move across to the other side and be re-aligned before it will read their shots.

Is that hard? No. Garmin's alignment routine is quick and the unit guides you through it. But it's a couple of minutes of moving, levelling and confirming, every single swap — and in a household where two kids alternate constantly, a couple of minutes each way is the difference between “your go” and “stop knocking the tripod”. A customer with exactly this setup told us his kids' sessions turned into one child batting through fifty balls while the other waited, purely because moving the unit mid-session was too much faff. That's the failure mode you're designing against.

Radar vs camera for a two-handed household

If you're still weighing up which unit suits the family budget, our launch monitor comparison guide ranks the whole ladder — but for a genuinely mixed-handed household, the placement question above should outweigh almost everything else on the spec sheet.

Mats: the bit everyone forgets until the lefty steps up

Launch monitors get all the attention, but the mat catches people out just as often. Combination mats with a separate stance section and hitting strip — like the GolfBays Combi mat — are single-handed by design: the hitting strip sits on one side, the stance turf on the other. Set up for a right-hander, a left-hander is standing on the hitting strip and hitting off the stance turf. You can spin the whole mat 180 degrees each swap, but now you've reintroduced the exact faff you bought a radar unit to avoid.

For a two-handed household I recommend a large square mat instead — the FORZA Driving Range Mat is what we fit in our own Pro golf cage and hitting mat bundle. It's one big symmetrical hitting surface: the ball goes in the middle, the right-hander stands one side, the left-hander stands the other, and nothing moves between them. Rubber tees included, no handed layout, no rotation. If you're comparing options, our hitting mats guide covers which mats are symmetrical and which are handed.

Enclosure and screen setup: hit from the centre

The enclosure question is simpler than people fear, with one golden rule: set the hitting position on the centre line. In a lot of single-golfer setups the mat drifts off-centre to suit one player's shot shape. In a mixed household, centre everything — ball in the middle of the screen or net, equal clearance both sides — because a left-hander's swing arc and follow-through mirror the right-hander's. The shelf, window or radiator that was safely behind your righty's back is now directly in your lefty's follow-through. Walk a slow practice swing for both players before you fix anything to a wall.

The same logic applies to a projector if you're running a full sim: ceiling-mounted on the centre line, behind and above both players, so neither hand throws a shadow across the picture — our projector guide covers the geometry. And outdoors it's the same story: the Pro cage's 3m-wide bay hits from the centre happily for either hand, which is one reason it works so well as a family setup — the cage doesn't care who's swinging.

The setups that switch fastest

Pulling it all together, here's what I'd actually build for that dad's two kids, in order of preference:

1. Radar behind + square mat + saved profiles. A Mevo Gen2 or Garmin R10 fixed ~2.4m behind a centred FORZA-style mat, with a named profile per child. Swap time: one tap. This is the setup we found holds up to genuine shot-for-shot alternating — the kids can play each other hole by hole in sim software without anyone touching the hardware.

2. Camera unit with both positions marked. If you've already got an R50 or your space is too shallow for radar, take five minutes once: set the unit up perfectly for each hand and gaffer-tape an outline on the floor for both positions. Swaps drop from fumbling-with-alignment to lift-place-confirm — call it a minute. Still slower than radar, but liveable if swaps happen a few times a session rather than constantly.

Whichever route you take, browse the full launch monitor range with the placement question in mind first, budget second. One family, one setup, two happy golfers — and no second launch monitor required.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need two launch monitors for a left and right-handed household?

No. Every launch monitor supports both hands via a settings change. Choose a radar unit that sits behind the ball and the same physical setup serves both players — only the software profile changes when they swap.

Does a launch monitor automatically detect a left-handed golfer?

Don't rely on it. Handedness is a profile setting on every unit we sell, and the reliable routine is one saved profile per player — lefty for one, righty for the other — and a single tap to switch. It takes seconds and removes all the guesswork.

Why does the Garmin R50 need moving for a left-hander?

Because it's a camera unit that sits on the floor around 60cm in front of the ball, aligned to one handedness. When the opposite-handed player steps up it must move across to the other side and be re-aligned. Radar units like the Mevo Gen2 sit ~2.4m behind the ball on the centre line, which is the same position for both hands — so they never move.

Do left-handers need a different hitting mat?

Not if you choose a symmetrical one. Large square mats like the FORZA Driving Range Mat work identically for both hands. Combination mats with a separate stance section and hitting strip are single-handed and need rotating 180 degrees each swap — fine occasionally, tedious in an alternating household.