I Used a Golf Simulator for 1 Year… Here’s What Actually Happened

I Used a Golf Simulator for 1 Year… Here’s What Actually Happened

It’s been a full year since we installed our home golf simulator. Now, I’ve hit tens of thousands of shots and played hundreds of rounds on GS Pro in that time. But my question is, has it actually made me a better golfer? Today, I’m breaking down all the numbers and giving you the truth about owning a home golf simulator for your game. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. My name is Jake. It’s been a whole year since we installed our home golf simulator and I’ve been dying to answer the question of whether I’m actually a better golfer or not. We built this golf simulator over a year ago and we did everything from scratch. We started with an empty garage, like bare bones, just walls. We put foam tiles down as the subfloor under the turf. We installed all the turf on the top, including cutting out a strip, and we actually did that twice. We had a smaller strip to start with. We absolutely loved the turf, but we needed a bigger space cuz we actually were using the sim so much that we wore through the surrounding turf with our feet just moving and sliding and swinging. We built a Carl’s Place enclosure, which we can’t recommend Carl’s Place enough. They are absolutely fantastic. We’re actually going to make a video on how well the Carl’s Place screen is held up. I just checked on our launch monitor and I’ve hit almost 38,000 shots on this thing in one year. Obviously, some of those are Allens, but I would say the vast majority are mine cuz I love to tinker and hit balls and be just a complete range rat. After we built our Carl’s Place enclosure, obviously we put our projector up, a BenQ710 STI. It’s been an absolutely awesome projector, especially with the level of ambient light we have. We couldn’t be any happier with that projector. It’s absolutely a perfect value. 4K picture, has HDR, and it’s plenty bright, especially when we’re hitting when light is coming through the windows in our garage. Now, if you’re thinking about building a golf sim, we’ll have links to everything we used in the description of this video. I’ll also link somewhere on the screen right now our playlist of our actual sim build so you can see step by step exactly how we built it. We have a lot of tips on there. There’s a ton you can learn about building golf sims, learn from our mistakes, and honestly, we did a pretty good job, but there’s still little things that you could do, you could learn from. We also have a video building a Carl’s place enclosure and a full sim setup for our buddy Scott at his house just down the road from us. That’s another video you could watch and I will link that one right now. First, let’s talk about what I thought would change when I bought my golf simulator. I thought I’d be hitting a ton of shots out here and I was absolutely right. I mean, 38,000 shots is a lot, especially in one year. Now, mind you, as a side note, all of this data I keep track of in an Excel spreadsheet. Now, I haven’t shared this Excel spreadsheet with anybody yet, but if that’s something that would interest you, and I’ll throw some screenshots of just how I do it. And you know, there’s a little bit of chaos there, but I promise it works and it’s helped me greatly improve my game. Let me know in the comments and maybe I’ll make a fresh one and then maybe you can email me or something and I’ll I’ll distribute it. I think it’s a super helpful thing. There’s a ton of apps and I’ve tried most of them. Arcros I did for about two months, didn’t really like it. There was always something wrong with the sensors and everything. And then I’ve done the Grant. I’ve done a whole bunch of other things. I just keep coming back to this Excel spreadsheet and how it’s laid out. It really helps me see exactly where I need to improve and where I’m not improving. So, that’s where I’m getting all of my actual encourse data from. Another personal note, I spent January 1 until about Memorial Day of this year in school. I actually quit my job, went back to school, and got a four-year degree all inside of those four and a half months. So, you can imagine there wasn’t a ton of time to practice, although I did my best and actually made a couple swing changes during that time. And there also wasn’t absolutely a ton of time to get out on the course and play. So you’ll see in the data I had a little bit of a spike in my in my handicap, but in that time I was busy doing other things. And that’s just the nature of life. What’s cool about a golf sim is if I was in between classes or in between tests or studying, I could come out in here and hit, you know, 30, 40, 50 shots just to get loose, get my mind working. And obviously it’s good exercise to be out here swinging. So, that was a really valuable part of having a sim, especially in that season of my life where I wasn’t able to actually get out to the golf course, get out to the range, and put as much practice as I would have liked to do. But without further ado, 38,000 shots. Have I gotten any better at golf? The answers were actually interesting. Now, I had a hypothesis of what would happen, whether I would get better at scoring on the golf course, ball striking would be better, putting, chipping, obviously hitting that many shots. I thought my ball striking would improve and it really did. actually made a chart to show you my fairways and greens percentage. Now, this is obviously exposing me. I mean, I don’t have any secrets to hide and you’ll know my handicap in a second and I’ve shared it on the channel before, but if we look at that chart, you can see the months before we installed the simulators right in the middle of June and July of last year. Uh I I was averaging at in those months about 50% fairways hit and just over 30% greens hit. Now, obviously once the sim got installed, we were doing videos, we were doing all that stuff, and it was exciting and new. So, I put a ton of work into my game. You can see right in that July, I kind of took another step down. And then August was a really good month with the driver. I went up to 70% fairways hit, which is awesome. Now, with greens, there was a little bit more of a lag. In August, it was still a little bit suspect. After August, it actually bumped all the way up to over 40%, which is still my best month of greens hit, period. Now, in August, I had my club championship, so there was some competition rounds in there as well. Really proud of the changes I’ve made. And then you can start to see when we get into the off season, and these stats kind of fall off. For this chart, I didn’t count uh months that I only had one or two rounds posted, just because if you’re not out there playing on the course consistently, then I don’t really think those stats count. I actually want to know what I’m doing when I’m playing golf consistently. There’s a big difference between playing golf on the course and then playing golf on a simulator. In March, we picked up and saw declines in driver accuracy as well as irons hit. Now, what’s funny about these stats is I actually played some really good golf in those months. I saw shot some of my lower scores. And in in the beginning of April, I actually won my flight of my masters tournament at the club, which I’ve never played well in a competition before and building confidence in that way 100% only because of the sim. Obviously, May was a great month for iron accuracy. June I played a lot of new courses, places that I hadn’t played before. I went on a golf trip, as you can see, to Tethro here in Bend. And I think the nature of playing new courses is you don’t always know maybe the elevation, some of the nuances, how balls bounce. Uh, now that I’m in July and there’s been a couple rounds posted in July, I’m back playing at my primary home course. And you can see my iron accuracy is almost back up to where it was in August and September of last year, which is spectacular and something I’m really proud of. I actually took a lesson last week with my pro Maggie Simons. There’s going to be a video on her YouTube channel. I’ll link that in the description as well in just about a week. So stay tuned for that. We also filmed a video about what to do if you’ve lost your swing. And I’m can’t wait to share with you that one. We had such a good conversation about attitude and expectations and maybe some drills you can do in the sim when you get home from a bad round to gain your confidence back. Watch out for that video. Those are both coming. My lesson will be on Maggie’s channel. And then that talk that we had as well as Allen will be on this channel here in the next week or two. So click on that video when you see it. It’s going to be an awesome one. I think it’s going to save you strokes on your round. Overall, ball striking has improved. It’s been a little bit up and down just because of some life stuff, but you can see those trend lines are all trending upwards, and I’m very excited for that trajectory. And really truly, I see that out on the course. I I really feel a lot more confident, especially with yardages into greens. A lot of my misses right now are are very close misses, like I’m putting off the green, and because of the way I keep my stats, it’s very strict. So, if I’m not on the green surface, I’m not counting it as a green hit. Even though I might just be like a yard or two off, there’s a lot more accuracy, a lot more confidence, and I’m really excited about that change in my game. And that all comes from just reps and practice on the simulator. I should note my overall statistics for greens and fairways hit. I’ll put it up right here. 60% fairways hit, which is above tour average. So, I’m a really good driver of the golf ball. I actually have a new driver, Titalist GT3. It’s a fantastic driver. We’re going to have a review on that soon, too. Something about reviews with our channel. We don’t want to just get a product and then post them immediately. Sometimes we’ll do that, but for our channel and our audience, we really want you guys to have an understanding of the full experience of something before we do it. So, with the driver, I’ve had it for about a month and a half, and I’ve had 20, 25, 30 rounds with the thing. Now, I can actually give you an informed opinion on how it performs, especially versus my old driver. That’s going to come soon. But I absolutely have no lack of confidence when it comes to teeing off, especially on par fours and par fives. My greens percentage not as good as driver. I wouldn’t consider greens hit my I guess my forte. 34% which is not great. It’s one of the one of the stats that I really need to improve on. And Maggie and I talked about that in our lesson of how we can improve that. Very excited to put what she’s taught me into practice as well as practicing it in the sim so I can improve and continue to get better. Now, finally, scoring stats. This one was really interesting. I thought for sure I’d be getting better at converting birdies. I thought for sure I’d be getting better at getting up and down because I put a ton of work in wedges in my sim. Now, if we look at the first data points, and I’ll put up this chart. Up and down percentage in March was about 30%. One putt percentage in March was about 25%, scrambling percentage was about 13, looks like 13 14% and birdie conversion rate was under 10%. That’s obviously not good. Now, fast forward to June, mid June, July, when I got that simulator installed, everything immediately went down and cratered in September. Now, September was a really weird month. We had some weird weather here. I played in a couple tournaments where the weather was awful. And honestly, I can’t really blame myself. I remember that month being very tough on me mentally, golf-wise. Then we fast forward to the spring. Started March off a little slower. April was a good month. My up and down percentage went up to 50%. Scrambling was at its highest at 25%. Birdie conversion rate went up to almost 15 16% which is my best month outside of maybe last May. And my one putt percentage spiked up above 35%. Now those are all good numbers and it represents something that I want to make clear with simulator golf and the changes that I’ve seen in my game because I’ve practiced so much. My ceiling is so much higher than it used to be. When I’m hot and my swing is working and clicking, I can go very much nuclear. Nuclear for me might look a little different than nuclear for you, but for me it means I’m actually hitting the shots I want to hit. I’m actually driving the ball exactly where I want it to land. I’m hitting wedge shots inside of 10 feet and giving myself actual chances at birdies because we all know, as we’ll talk about next week, expectations are key. And anytime you’re outside of 10 feet, that make percentage goes down quite a bit. But my scores have tightened up considerably. So have my opportunities at birdie. I feel like I’ve got looks at birdie a whole lot more than I did prior to the simulator. And I I’ve birdied a lot of holes at my home course, tough handicaps holes at my course. I’ve birdied those the most. In fact, one round in our member member tournament, I birdie net eagled three of the four par fives, which is absolutely insane. We still didn’t win the tournament, which is gosh, that’s a disaster in and of itself. Whole another video, whole another story. But my point is that my ceiling is so much higher and my floor is so much higher as well. I’m not having these massive blowup rounds outside of one, which we’ll talk about. But those blowup rounds are way fewer and far between. I feel like I’m hovering right in that perfect zone, and I feel really good about that. And the practice that I’m getting in my sim is making that all possible. Finally, let’s talk about my golf handicap. Now, my all-time low in full transparency came prior to having a child, which if you have kids out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You have a kid and your golf game completely goes away for a couple years. So, my all-time low was a 7.2 and it was pretty skanky 7.2. I had two really good rounds that bumped me down there and I never got back. I feel really confident that I’m going to get there and probably get there in the next month or so. Before the simulator, I was a 10 handicap. If we look at this chart, I went immediately down to a 93, 89, 87, and then hit my low handicap of 8.4. Now, that’s no surprise because I was putting in a ton of work right after getting the sim, made some swing changes, started playing good golf in Oregon. Our handicap posting starts again in March. And once I started posting scores, my first scores that I posted were at a trip to Bandon where we had 50 mph winds and all sorts of crazy stuff going on. So, inside of those, I had some really high scores that kind of started to inflate my handicap. And you can really see the weight of playing golf while trying to go to school, while trying to run two YouTube channels while trying to do all this stuff, my handicap started to balloon because the practice went away. So, there’s a really clear indication that when you’re out in the simulator hitting balls and practicing and working on ball striking, my handicap goes down. As evidenced by once I finished school, I went immediately from an 11.2, 10.8 8 all the way down like an elevator to an 8.4 handicap, which is my low over the last 12 months. So, this was a really interesting look. The handicap has improved. It’s down to its lowest in 12 months. My greens in regulation have jumped by almost two around, which is great. And that trend is going to continue. Yesterday, I actually played around and I hit 11 greens, which is a fantastic number. I can’t remember the last time I hit 11 greens. So, the practice is starting to pay off in a really big way. A couple things I want to leave you with. Number one, my game did not change because of the simulator and the shots that I hit and the things I’m doing well. My game changed because of the shots that I didn’t hit well and the ability to record myself, see what I’m doing, and actually practice it in real time at any time during the day. That’s one of the main benefits of having a simulator. You can come out, film a couple swings with your phone. We have some slow-mo cameras from Carl’s Place, which another review video is coming soon. We’ve been using those for a couple weeks now, and they’re fantastic. you’ll be able to look right at what your swing’s doing and match that up with exactly what you know you’re supposed to be doing. Whether that’s with your head pro at your club or a skill list lesson that you can do, and we’ll put a link below for Maggie’s skill lessons, which are fantastic. She’s a great coach. But you learn a ton more from the things you’re doing wrong than the things you’re doing right. And hitting so many balls in the sim, you really get a good idea of what you struggle with and what you’re not doing well. So, if you want to improve your game, should you buy a sim? Well, that’s a great question. And honestly, I think the outcome depends on exactly who you are and what you like about golf. For me, I’m a tinkerer. I’m a range rat. I will sit here and beat balls into this screen listening to music for hours and hours and hours. And that’s evidenced by the amount of shots that I’ve hit, especially with how busy my life was for the first 5 months of this year. If you love practicing and tinkering, a sim is going to be absolute gold for you. If you think you’re going to magically get better by just swinging a ton, you might feel a little bit more comfortable, but you also could be grooving the wrong things and the wrong swing tendencies, and that is not going to make you any better. When I’m out in the sim, I’m using all my training aids. I’m using my Wolf alignment aid rods and discs. I’ve hit those so many times and they still look brand new. I’ll actually link the video up here where I review those. Fantastic training aid, something that I use constantly. I’ve hit so many swings with those things that I can almost see them out of the corner of my eye on the course. And that’s exactly what you want. You’re working on the correct things, the correct tendencies, and that is what is so good about a sim. Another way that a sim might be for you is if you just like coming out and going through the act of hitting shots and working on curving balls into greens. GSPro is an awesome, awesome, awesome software, and we couldn’t recommend that anymore. The sim did not make me a scratch golfer, but what it did do was make me more confident in my ability to hit the shots that I want to hit on the course. If you are thinking about building a simulator, go check out the videos that I’ll link here of our sim build playlist. It’ll be invaluable to you. Let me know in the comments below if us making a PDF or something, an ultimate guide to building a sim in 2025 would be helpful. If enough of you comment and let me know, I I’ll do it and give it away for free. There absolutely no purchase or anything. We’re all about helping you. It’s absolutely all about growing the game of golf, enjoying the game that we all love so much. And I think we can do that together. If you have a sim, let me know in the comments if it’s made you better, what it’s done to your handicap. If you’re hitting shots better, if you’re struggling with something, let me know. I’d be curious to hear your experience. But for me, it’s shaved two strokes off my handicap. I’m hitting two more greens around, and my dispersion with my driver is so much better. I have a clear path of what I need to do to continue to get better on the sim, and I think you should as well. So, thank you so much for watching. Really appreciate you guys being here. I mean, a thousand subscribers is so cool. If you’re not subscribed, hit that link below. We’d love to have you on board. Like I said, we’ve got so much good content coming up. You don’t want to miss it. So whether you’re preparing for your remember guest tournament like Alan and I are or you’re just playing SGT tournaments or you’re just loving the summer and playing rounds of golf with your friends, make sure as always that you keep them straight.

Welcome back to We Should Golf!
After one full year with a home golf simulator in the garage, it’s time to answer the question we get asked the most: Did it actually make me a better golfer?

In this video, Jake breaks down 1 year of data, swing changes, practice habits, and hard truths about whether a golf simulator is worth the time, money, and space.

If you’re thinking about building your own sim—or wondering what kind of impact it can actually have on your game—this is the brutally honest review you’ve been waiting for.

⸻

⛳️ What’s in this video:
• My before vs. after handicap and stats
• What improved (and what didn’t)
• How my practice habits changed
• Mistakes I made with the build
• Whether I’d do it all again
• Who should (and shouldn’t) invest in a simulator

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⛳ Golf Simulator Setup:
• Carl’s Place Enclosure: https://geni.us/0MJ8
• Launch Monitor: https://geni.us/BP0T6 (Updated!)
• BenQ 4K Projector: https://geni.us/9knY (Amazon)
• Ceiling Projector Drop Mount: https://geni.us/SiAXa (Amazon)
• Projector Mount: https://geni.us/QVmX (Amazon)
• Spotlight: https://geni.us/BNUJesU (Amazon)
• Gaming PC (not our exact build but identical): https://geni.us/fPLl68 (Amazon)
• INSANE Gaming Computer Value: https://geni.us/THQRYlY (Amazon)
• Projector Central Throw Calculator: https://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm

🎯 Training Aids:
• WhyGolf: https://whygolf.com/WSBG

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After a year of dialing in the home golf simulator, it’s time to share some golf highlights. This video covers the experience of hitting thousands of balls on gspro after a full year of use. Join us as we reflect on this indoor golf journey.