After watching president and co-owner Jeff Lundy play a hole on
the ProTee Golf Simulator set up in The Golf Simulator Experts
headquarters in Morgan Hill, I couldn’t wait to take a swing
myself.
After watching president and co-owner Jeff Lundy play a hole on the ProTee Golf Simulator set up in The Golf Simulator Experts headquarters in Morgan Hill, I couldn’t wait to take a swing myself.
My preconceived notion of a golf simulator was simply a glorified video game, but after taking my first swing on the system I could tell it was something much more advanced.
Stepping onto the modular floor, which is made out of recycled car bumpers, I noticed the surprisingly realistic feeling under my feet like I was standing on the fairway of a delicately maintained course.
“It’s a green product,” Lundy said.
Teeing up, I placed a real golf ball onto a rocket tee (which is an indestructible plastic, rocket-shaped tee) I grabbed a real driver and took my first swing.
The moment my nicely hit ball struck the highly durable synthetic projection screen, a computer-generated image of the ball took over, showing a quite realistic flight path.
The simulator’s ball tracking system, which uses three sets of high speed optical sensors, registers key information such as flight angle, ball speed and spin.
After each shot, the swing analysis pops up showing horizontal and vertical ball trajectory, club head height, angle and velocity, along with details of where the ball is, how far it is to the green, and what the conditions are.
The swing analysis screen goes away with a simple swipe of the club head over the sensors or goes away in a user specified length of time (we had set at 15 seconds).
My 150+ yard shot ended up in the rough, and I would reach for the pitching wedge to get onto the fairway.
The course I was playing on was designed to look like it belonged in the Bahamas somewhere, and the graphic details were convincing.
The scenes projected onto the large screen depict wind, elevation, water, clouds and even birds flying by, giving the simulator a close-to-life feel.
All the courses are 3-D fantasy courses created by individual contractors employed by The Golf Simulator Experts.
The simulator’s computer comes with signature ProTee United software that allows users to create and design their own courses.
There are currently 25 courses pre-programmed on every golf simulator, and the individual contractors are developing new ones all the time, Lundy said.
Each course also has a unique driving range.
On my third shot I slightly hooked the ball, something I do in real life, and again found myself in the rough.
I felt that my shot was clean, but upon looking at the swing analysis, I saw that I hit the ball on the toe of the club, and the club was slightly angled.
“If you have a hook or a slice, the system will register it too, so there’s no hiding flaws in your swing,” Lundy said.
Once I was on the green it took me two swings to sink my put.
The distance from the putting area of the floor to the screen is 13 feet, and the simulator recognizes slope of the green and distance to the hole giving me all the vital info necessary to make an educated put.
Primarily an internet company, most of The Golf Simulator Experts clients are from the Northeast and the Midwest.
“Our markets are affluent golf nuts who can’t do without their golf all year, middle-age business men who want to teach their kids how to play, and other organizations like golf academies and shops,” Lundy said.
Lundy recently sold a higher end model to a condominium complex in Manhattan, he said.
The golf simulator doubles as a home theater, and if you have a gaming system like Nintendo Wii or XBox 360 you can also hook it up and play Tiger Woods Golf or any other game of choice.
With a complete home starting around $11,000 the ProTee Golf Simulator might be out of range for the average man, but it is a must have for the well-to-do golf aficionado.
And regardless of financial stature, it can improve any golfers swing, putting ability, and club choice knowledge.
“It’s been a rich man’s toy,” Lundy said. “But our competitors simulators start around $35,000 and go up to $75,000.”
