World‘s SMALLEST & CHEAPEST Golf Simulator

World‘s SMALLEST & CHEAPEST Golf Simulator

Golf is one of those sports that somehow manages to be relaxing and infuriating at the same time. You shank one ball into the trees and suddenly you’re questioning every life decision you ever made. But what if you could compete, practice, and even play some of the greatest courses on the planet without leaving your living room? That’s where this gadget comes in. This is the Pyolf 2 Flex, a portable golf simulator that claims to pack an entire driving range, a launch monitor, and 38,000 plus golf courses into something that fits in your suitcase. It promises realistic swing feedback, detailed analytics, and even multiplayer tournaments. All powered by a motion sensor the size of a golf ball. Golf Tech has come a long way. What used to fill up an entire simulator studio like the one I’m sitting in can now literally fit in your golf travel bag. We also keep getting better tech for less money. This gaming simulator runs $329 at MSRP. The question is, can something this small and so reasonably priced still deliver that same satisfying data-driven experience? Can it be fun? And can it actually improve your game? We’re going to try to answer all of those questions here today. Now, you probably saw that little popup there in the beginning of the episode here, and that means this video was sponsored by Pi Golf. They asked me to take a look at this. I would have taken a look at it anyways because I think it is so fun, and I wanted to find out if it’s accurate. Regardless, I’m always going to be honest with you and tell you what I love and what I think could improve about everything that we test here on Let’s Play Through. So, let’s get into it. All right, first up, let’s cover the portability of the Pyolf 2 Flex. One of the standup things about the Pyolf 2 Flex is just how easy it is to travel with. Unlike a full-sized golf simulator setup that needs a screen, a net, a gaming computer, a large space, this thing folds down. The swing stick collapses. That’s the flex part. So, you can toss it in your suitcase, bring it to a cabin, a hotel room, even your office if you’ve got a little extra space. So, for someone who’s always on the road traveling for business trips, weekend getaways, or even just seasonal travel, this could be huge. It means you don’t have to wait until you’re back home to swing. You can enjoy around, practice your swing, and stay sharp anywhere or just simply have fun. Now, from a gift angle, if you’re shopping for the husband, father, son-in-law, or any golf lover who likes playing but maybe can’t always get to the course, this, I think, is a really strong pick. Think Father’s Day, Christmas, birthdays, something that says, “I know you love golf. Here’s a fun way to do it anytime you want.” It’s also a really great way to let someone dip their toes into golf. Maybe someone who’s considering getting into the game, but who’s just too nervous to step onto the first te, which can be a sweaty palm moment for sure. Next up, let’s talk swing feel. The Flex comes with a weighted swing stick that collapses, as we talked about, but it’s designed to feel like a real club. I’d say it’s got good weight, maybe on the lighter side, but a decent length. So, when you swing, you get more of an authentic motion versus just a plain plastic stick in your hand. Now, what’s really cool is there’s an internal weight that sort of slides and clicks as the club reaches its lowest point where you’d be striking the ball. So, it gives this feel and the sound of actually making contact with a golf ball. It’s really an ingenious design. But if that’s not real enough and you’ve got the space, you can literally screw this sensor into the butt of any one of your golf clubs and you’ll have a much more realistic experience. You’ll simply want to align that LED light with the face of a squared up golf club and swing away. Now, this option is going to give you the most authentic feel, as I mentioned, and it’s going to be the best practice because you’re swinging your actual club with real ball contact. Now, I’ve also used this thing in the backyard with foam balls and with whiffle balls. It can be a lot of fun, and especially if you’re playing with kids like I am, you’ll be sure that you’re not going to break anything, which is really nice. Now, in my experience, as a person that swings golf clubs day in and day out, I actually got used to the stick really quickly. But, it’s nice you got options here. Bottom line, if you want the feel and motion that resembles real golf, this setup gets you close. It’s not exactly the same as being on course with a full ball flight and turf interactions, but for practice and fun, I think it nails the swing feel component. Now, let’s move on to analytics. This is where things get really interesting for golfers who care about more than just gameplay. Now, the sensor inside uses a 9-axis motion sensor. In other words, it’s very sensitive. The data you get in real time includes club head speed. So that’s going to be how fast you’re swinging. Swing tempo, kind of that rhythm between your back swing and your down swing follow through. It’s going to measure the face angle, how square or how closed or open the face comes in as you swing and it impacts the ball. You’ll get the club path and the plane of the swing. So you’ll know if you’re coming inside to out or outside to in. This affects ball flight. It also measures things like the attack angle, how steep that club comes in. Now, I found the Pyolf does a really good job with swing speed. I told you earlier that I’m playing golf pretty much every single day. And as someone that knows my numbers inside and out because I’m using so many different launch monitors, I was shocked at just how accurate this thing gauged my club head speed. I had a 7iron in my hand. I looked up, it was 84 mph. That’s exactly what I was swinging the day prior. So, really crazy to see that. And I got to say, it shocked me. Now, for the most part, with a few anomalies for sure, but overall, the yardages that I hit shots using the Pi Golf system were bang on. I got expected carry distances, maybe a little extra roll out, but that’s the physics of the game play. Carry distance is always what matters. Anyways, and I thought it did a really good job. It also does a really good job recognizing your swing path. I was taking outside to in swings that should produce a fade, and guess what? They faded. I took inside to out swings that should produce a drop. Guess what? they drew. So, really good job there. Again, shockingly good. Now, of course, especially using the swing stick, it’s not going to replicate a turf interaction, which sometimes when you hit the ground, that club face can actually turn a little bit, twist, especially if you’re in the rough, something like that. We can’t do anything about that. But all in all, again, really solid results out of the Pi Golf. And I think this feedback is rare out of such a portable little unit that either is that stick itself or screws into the butt of your club. It’s just crazy. So, if you’re someone who likes to analyze your swing, I really think this can be a meaningful tool. And if you just want to be more casual and just have fun, it can just be a game. It can really be just whatever you want it to be. Now, there are a bunch of different game modes available here on the Pyolf 2 flex. You’ve got everything from closest to the pin competitions to long drives. You can go to a driving range and just practice different clubs in your bag. And of course, you can play simulator golf. But on top of that, they have some really interesting game modes to make this a fitness device or just to have more fun with your friends and family. You’ve got things like Crazy Birdie, Speed Golf, which literally you’ll be running in your living room in place, kind of like the old Wii from Nintendo, something like that. So, it’s definitely built for fun. This isn’t just a serious practice device. It’s literally a video game experience and really this unit can become a more social experience. I used it for a few rounds with my family and my kids loved the crazy visuals and the competition aspect and it’s a really nice way to introduce non-golfers into the sport. And speaking of bringing more golfers into the mix here, Pyolf will allow for up to four players playing this device at a single time. It’s also got modes where you can challenge people from anywhere in the world that might have their own Pyolf device. When you’re playing together, you’ll take turns, track scores, and hopefully have a few high fives. Again, great for family, great for a game night, great for when you’ve got a party that you’re hosting at your home. Now, as I mentioned, there are some really specific training modules throughout the system here. So, let’s take a little bit of a deeper dive on those. You’ve got driving range mode where you’ll hit full swings, get data, and you can practice your mechanics. You’ve even got a slow motion replay and a visualization of how that club came through and struck the ball. You can literally see your swing plane. You can replay it as you can see here. It is really cool. Now, it’s also got putting practice to hone your short game. So, yes, you can actually practice putting. Though, I will say it is a little bit harder to get used to putting on the PY golf than hitting full swings. It’s something you’ve got to know, but it’s cool that it’s built in there. You’ve got nearest to the pin challenges. This is a fun and competitive mode and it’s good for mixed skill groups. You got a longest drive challenge. Again, it adds some element of fun in a group setting, but it will also help you work on your club head speed if you’re trying to increase it. I think these game modes strike a really good balance of usefulness and fun. Now, I didn’t get to test it personally, but Pyolf also offers an iOS or Android app that is compatible with the system here. I won’t take a deep dive, but it’s a nice little extra for those who are wearing a smartwatch and want some companion data. Now, out of the box, a standard license is going to give you access to a few premium courses, but they actually have an expandable pack that you can purchase for $19.99 a year, very inexpensive, and that’s going to give you access to 38,000 courses, pretty much every golf course in the world. You’ll be able to find literally your local course. And I actually did this. I looked up my home course, Carolwood Country Club, and guess what? It played pretty true to life. I wouldn’t say it’s exact in any ways, but it’s a pretty good representation of the holes that I play. I think this could be a really good tool if you’re planning a golf trip. You could literally search for where you’re going to play and play it with the Pi Golf here and get a sense of maybe where you want to be on the course, what you want to avoid, where you want to miss on the green, all that sort of stuff. It could be really valuable. So, just a cool way that you can use this a little bit differently. All right, let’s wrap things up here with the pros and the cons. Things I love about the Pyolf and a few ways I think this system could improve. Starting off with the pros. First off, super portable and travel friendly. You got to love the fact that you can literally just pop this in a suitcase and take it with you anywhere you want to go. Be in the backyard, be in the living room, put it up in your bedroom, whatever. As long as you got your phone and at least have the sensor in a golf club or that swing stick, you can have some fun. In terms of pricing, I think they got this thing right at $329 at MSRP and oftentimes you can find this on a sale. Now, Pyolf is running some serious deals for Black Friday. Check those out over at Amazon. I’ll leave a link here in the description. In terms of analytics, as I mentioned, I was shocked honestly at just how well it captured my swing speed and club path. And again, to see the shot shape that I imagined I hit actually come to life, pretty awesome stuff, honestly. I also love that they’ve got that massive course library available to you. Those 38,000 plus golf courses around the world. You can pretty much find any course you want to play. So again, could be a really great practice tool if you’re going to do some golf traveling. I think the game modes they’ve come up with are fun. They’re appealing and they work really well with both adults and kids. I think this is really something for all ages. They’ve done a great job kind of bridging that gap, which it’s not too cartoony, and it’s also not too serious. All right, let’s get into the cons of this device. So, as I kind of hinted to in an earlier section, occasionally, it’s very rare, I would say, but occasionally you will get some swings that are just a little headscratching in terms of the numbers. Now, that happens with pretty much every simulator that I test. There’s going to be a few errant shots or misreads, and the Pyolf is no different, but just know that not everything is going to be perfect. And the easy workaround, of course, is to hit the mulligan button, which you can choose up to nine mulligans when you’re playing, but it would be nice to have unlimited mulligans. Most systems do that, so why not, right? My second con would be that the user interface takes a little bit getting used to. The first time you launch this thing, there going to be a few pop-ups and a few things you’ve got to agree to, and it’s not super crystal clear. In no means is it a bad UI in any way, and you’ll certainly get used to it very quickly, but it’s just something that might take a little extra time at first. My third con is going to be, as I mentioned, putting and short game can be a little bit lacking. But to be quite honest with you, again, even with much more expensive simulators, putting can be really tough to get the hang of. So, I found it to be a little bit inconsistent, especially with putting with chipping. I thought it was a little better. But again, it’s going to take some getting used to. And you got to know that once in a while, you’re going to get an errant read there. So, if you’re a scratch golfer that demands ultimate precision, listen, this is not a GC quad, so this unit might not be for you. But for golfers who want to work on their game, again, maybe experience golf when they can’t, maybe they just want to have fun, this unit really could be a compelling option and again, it makes a great gift for the golfer in your life. If you’ve had any experience with the Pyolf, I would love to know. So, leave me a comment down below. Also down below in the description, I will leave a link so you can check out the pie golf. I hope you enjoyed this video. I’ll catch you back here next time on another edition of Let’s Play Through.

My review of the PhiGolf 2 Flex.

Link to Purchase : https://www.amazon.com/PHIGOLF-Simulator-Upgraded-Analysis-Compatible/dp/B0FG7CRZDH?maas=maas_adg_E8483CCB05F52D0B66C11CD65E537059_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas&th=1

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