I hope I don’t rouse some feathers as I might be offering a different option when asked to find indoor golf near me. There was a time when I used to wake up one day in the middle of winter and head over to the dome about half a dozen miles from my house. I didn’t mind doing that from time to time because it felt like you were keeping those golf muscles in tune and it was good to see the ball flight.
Unfortunately that local dome closed and now when I ask to find the closest indoor golf near me, it is a little bit of a drive.
So like most people I did a simple Google search
Indoor Golf Near Me
The golf dome I visited, you pretty much got either a bucket of golf balls or had an unlimited amount of balls over a specified period of time. Of course for a price. I enjoyed hitting balls in the dome but there were only a select number of targets to hit towards. Plus watching the ball flight worked well with some clubs and not so well with others. Golf domes have gone a little bit by the wayside and places which have golf simulators seem to be taking over.
So, I started to look for alternatives. What I found when I started searching forums for indoor golf ear me were golfers who either were complaining about the exact same thing I was. Basically courses which were closing, golf stores which were closing, and practice facilities shutting their doors. So the first option I read about was hitting into a net. A net that can be setup in the garage where if you could stand the heat or cold depending on the time of year, would allow you to get some practice in.
Golf Net to the Rescue
There are more than a few options for golf nets and I was reviewing, researching, and pricing (gulp) them out. Initially looking at some nets on Amazon, the name Rukket stood out because I have a golf swing trainer made by them. Then I started looking at the Net Return Series which looks to make an excellent product but it was a little too pricey for me at the time. Finally I settled on the Spornia. I didn’t know it at the time but when hitting a ball into the net, it comes right back to you.
The Spornia is very nice in that I could set it up in a matter of about 3 minutes and take it down (so I could park the car) and put it in its bag in another 15 minutes. Laughing because after watching a YouTube video about half a dozen times, I finally got the take down part figured out and could do that in 2-3 minutes as well. I’ve moved on from the Spornia (actually I still have it) but it served its purpose well for a few years.
So when using the Spornia and hitting into its net, you have no idea if you hit that 7 iron 110 yards or 160 yards. Sure the feel of the strike might be able to help in that regard or the flight of the ball for about 6 feet before hitting that net. Otherwise how far did the ball go? So I incorporated a Voice Caddie where you tell it which club you are hitting and it gives you the results on the screen as well as telling you how far you hit the ball. Its accuracy is pretty darn good. Yes, a thinned shot may not show up correctly and it has issues with some driver clubhead speeds but otherwise the Voice Caddie does very well with helping you to dial in distances with your clubs. And yes, I still have the Voice Caddie and use it from time to time.
Now I may have forgotten to mention that you will need a golf mat to hit off of. I purchased my mat through Amazon. Not much thought went into that initially. I wish the brain would have been thinking a little more. That mat worked great for a few years as I was lucky to get out to the garage twice a week. The long and short of it is if you do not purchase a decent quality mat, one of a couple things will happen. Either it will get constant wear and tear from all the hitting or your body will get constant wear and tear. How do I know? Just ask my wrists and elbows. As I went out to the garage more often, the pain set in. Lesson learned and I’ll speak more to that on another post but lets just suffice it to say that it doesn’t pay to be cheap when buying a golf mat.
Hitting into a net was fine for a while and with the Voice Caddie I was mostly confident that I knew the distances I was getting for irons, hybrids, 3 wood, and driver. But… big but is I still didn’t know the flight path. In years past I had been a slicer. Not fade but a slice. When hitting into a net 6 feet away you had no clue what the ball did after that 6 feet. Sure, I could tell a push or pull and feel a thin shot or fat shot but to see path I needed something better.
Along Came Better – Indoor Golf Near Me
Remember the golf domes and my mention of places opening up with golf simulators? Well the local indoor golf facility with a simulator closed near me. I was getting aggravated. So I started searching golf simulators for personal use. I was amazed what I first found. Trackman, GC Quad, and prices of $10,000, $20,000 and more. However there seemed to be a good standby at the time that went by the name of SkyTrak. The price tag on that was approximately $2000. Now after seeing the high price tags with the professional models, a one time purchase of $2000 or so seemed doable. Hmmmm. An indoor golf simulator for home.
And so it began. Once again the research. The alternatives which were available, etc… There was a unit made by Flightscope called Mevo. Later on they introduced the Mevo +. But in researching these different products, I found with my limited space I flat out didn’t have enough room behind my hitting space to work with Mevo. So, given my budget or lack thereof and looking into what products might work for me, I bought a SkyTrak.
Then there came the software. SkyTrak has different annual packages. To be honest I don’t like paying for something on an annual basis, I wish there were a one time purchase. The software has different plans where with the basic plan you will get driving range only and with others you will get that driving range, shot tracers, numeric display, closest to the pin, bag mapping, wedge matrix, long drive competition, etc… These latter plans open up the option to play golf courses at home.
The End Result
A little (costly) piece of software called TGC2019 allows me to play golf at home. I get to see ball flight, a nice draw, ball speed, no where near that Bryson guy, and a number of parameters thanks to the combination of SkyTrak and TGC2019. Yes there are other software versions out there and yes there are other golf simulators, including new products on a nearly yearly basis. However, I am fully satisfied in my current setup, also knowing there are always better and more expensive choices out there.
So as I sit here now and am thinking about my Dawn Patrol golf tee time tomorrow morning I realize how far my quest to find indoor golf near me has come. All I can say is happy camper here.
