Best Simulator for my me?

[bubba22]

I wish! I love watching these guys.

[CPA]

The thing that amazes me Bubba is how safe most of them play.

[cklguy2013]

Hi guys, I'm leaning heavily towards the GC2 with the position track, and adding the HMT for use by myself only. I do realize that the lefties will be offset by a foot or so from the center, but not much can be done about that. Going with this setup, I'm wondering about putting, and whether having say a 10' run might be a good idea. Does the simulation software allow you to switch to manual within a certain distance? Also I'm wondering about the different surfaces, fairway, rough and sand; a good idea or a waste of money? Also wondering about who would be best to layout and setup the area complete with home theatre and gaming capabilities (I'm in central Ontario btw).

[HRS]

I've tried the different surfaces on aboutGolf. They didn't seem to change much and in the end we're just hitting off mats. It would be awesome if someone would come out with a real rough mat where the ball is down in several inches of fibers and you really have to dig it out but I haven't seen that and I searched for a while. Fibrebuilt has "sand" and "rough" panels but I'm not sure the rough is "rough" enough. I'd love to be wrong - would be nice to have.

[bubba22]

I have tried all the fake surfaces. Nothing will ever match real grass, rough, sand etc.

[cklguy2013]

Thanks guys so here is where I'm at so far:

1. A GC2 with a position track to allow lefty righty play,
2. HMT add on for game improvement for me,
3. An overall floor surface (18' x 20') which one can putt on, and
4. a real feel mat (11' x 5') to hit off of.

On the overall floor which allows putting, I presume there is some sort of 2" golf hole which can be inserted? My thinking is to use the sim up to say a 10' putt and then putt on the floor, I'm thinking 2 holes back and forth so you'd have both left to right and right to left breaks, presumably.

Next, impact screen; I'd like to go with a 16' wide screen if I could, the true golf pass through screen looks awesome but I understand the picture isn't that good, and I'm not sure whether or not it can even be purchased individually. What are your guys suggestion on a high end impact screen, hopefully one with limited bounce back and a good picture?

[bubba22]

Get the impact screen from Cory at Par2pro.

Explain to is again your exact plans for putting????

[cklguy2013]

Hey Bubba, so the overall area is 18' wide by 20' deep, and the hitting area for lefties and righties will only be 11' wide by 5' deep. Given that I'll be hitting from approximately 10' from the screen (12' from the wall) this leave a 18' wide and 7'6" ( 10' minus 2'6" for half of mat) deep area in front of the hitting area. So the plan is to have an actual hole (say 2" deep) on either side, i.e. a few feet off the walls, to putt back and forth between. Based on my rough calculations if the holes are each three feet from their respective walls a 10' to 12' putt would be possilbe.

For simulation play the plan would be to actually putt once you were inside the 10' to 12' area above, and score manually if required. This way you actually get some work on your short putting, which as we all know is where the scoring is done.

Which raises another question does anyone know if the HMT also works with the putter?

[bubba22]

You must be mixing up the feet and inches in your explaination as I am not following. Do you have a diagram showing the setup? What happens if say you are at 40 feet from the hole? Say 6 feet from the hole?

[cklguy2013]

Opps sorry corrected, please reread.. If you were 40' from the hole you would putt on the simulator, if you were 6' from the hole you would putt to an actual hole. Sorry no diagram yet, but I will work on.

[bubba22]

Confused! Are you planning on having the holes on wither side of the sidewall so as to putt to the side and not at the screen? Perhaps I am not getting which direction you are putting. A diagram would clear it up!

[CPA]

I use starpro cup. You can move it to get different breaks. You will need extra lights to turn on to read breaks as even with gc2 you still need to keep light off screen.

Read impact screen thread. Cory HQ.

[cklguy2013]

That is correct Bubba, holes off of the side walls, so as to putt to the side wall not using the GC2, but just for putts under 10' say.

[bubba22]

Gotcha! I supposed that will work. So if inside 10 feet you will skip hole and manually keep score based on the number of putts? Does the Foresight GC2 software allow you to enter manually the number of putts?

For me I have exactly 8 feet or so from the sim and I have it measured that an 8 foot putt will enter the hole on the sim and real. The nice thing withthe sim is playing the downhill, breaking etc putts that make you think direction, speed etc. Your idea will allow for putting practice as well.

[CPA]

Yes Bubba manual entries possible-autoputt setting. What is not possible is to have a mix of autoputt and putting. So it will not be possible to putt the 20 ft on the sim and then manually enter the 10 ft score.

Think it would be best to putt on sim and have ball to screen distance as a gimmie otherwise you cannot see hole or the break.

[cklguy2013]

Per CPA's advice I have moved putting area behind the hitting area, i.e. further from the screen. have rough layout but it is a pdf, so it won't load.

[bubba22]

That was my question CPA, can you putt for 40 footers and manually enter for 6 footers? I suspect you will just as you say allow 10 foot gimmees.

[cklguy2013]

For continuity of game play I would go with < 10' gimmies, and adjust score accordingly if the putt was missed. As you suggested bubba I may just putt on the sim but I want to have the ability to be able to do short putting as well, as I feel it will be better for my game.

Do either of you know if the if the HMT reads the putter as well? In all reality this is where the real game improvement could occur.

[bubba22]

Not sure about HMT and putting?

[CPA]

Dont think you can adjust score in-game.

Yes bubba re manual entry OR gimmies at prespecified distance.

If swingbyte2 is accurate it would be better than HMT for putting.

[mcook]

I have a question for GC2 users in regards to CKL's layout. Is an 11ft hitting mat wide enough for right/left hitters when the GC2/positiontrack is centered on the mat? In other words...I'm not sure what the distance is required from where the GC2 sits to the ball...is a 5.5ft wide enough?

[CPA]

Ball to gc2 approx 1 ft, so he needs 2 ft plus stance by 2.

[cklguy2013]

Actually now I'm leaning towards two 5' mats and a central area for the GC2. I'm thinking I might place the GC2 and position track on a board or something hard, this way the GC2 won't be jostled when a ball is struck.

[CPA]

As long as mat is stable will not be jostled. My gc2 sits on truestrike mat without issue. Bigger mat more stable. Positiontrack big and stable.
It would look neater having one mat. You can place gc2 anywhere if one mat.
Your call.

[cklguy2013]

Ok, thanks for the input CPA.