BLSkee

Since the newborn got here, all my practice is at home in the sim. Last night was randomized chipping/pitching, between 20-60y. Tonight I'll probably drill alternating draws and fades. Does anyone here have a good practice routine recommendation for a former baseball player using a DIY sim? It's tough to mix it up when the lie off the mat is clean every time .. and I don't quite have the structured golf experience to put together a variety of workouts.

Nice work! That's plenty to get a feel for the swing! I didn't grow up playing golf-- it was baseball for me instead. But what I learned back then was the amount of effort and reps required to see valuable improvement. The whole, in-home sim setup, whether it's fancy or not doesn't really matter so much. What's important is having the area to get some work. I actually haven't played a "real" round since I setup the sim (we've recently had a new baby), but I'm 100% sure I'm going to shoot my best score ever next time I get out. Those club-path vs face-angle metrics were so so so eye opening. My consistency and awareness of the club face are 10x better. Glad to hear others are having success with the home sim!

Honestly I actually don't bother too much with putting on the sim -- it feels pretty fake and I'm not really into it. But just under the impact screen, I've got a bunch of foam garage puzzle pieces and then used spray adhesive to attach some okayish putting turf. I -could- putt on this, but it's really just to keep the balls from bouncing too much when they come down. One thing you may want to watch out for is any hard metals/wood you might be able to hit with a ball, even through thin padding. I've topped a couple of balls that smacked the base metal bar and the balls can fly right back at you ... We should all invest in some extra foam to protect those hard frame spots.

Hey, all! New spy here and excited to join the community! Figured I'd drop a post here for the WITB and intro: "How long have you been playing golf? What’s your handicap or normal score?" I've been playing golf casually as an adult for about 8 years with my old baseball buddies. At first it was mostly a weekend drinking thing with the boys, but over the last year or so, I've got the bug and really putting in effort to improve. I haven't done a great job with tracking my handicap thoroughly, but typically shoot just under 100. "What do you love about golf?" Well, I played a lot of baseball in my life and was always pretty strong at the plate. Golf reminds me a lot of baseball in that way. Funny thing though, the baseball swing apparently is great for speed, but my club face does tend to go wide open if I over swing "What brings you to MyGolfSpy? " The first couple times I landed on MGS was reading reviews of clubs and balls. Then, learning that MGS often has testing/focus groups for new product demos sounded really cool. I'd actually love to be involved in some of those along the way. I think I write pretty well and would enjoy the particulars of testing fun new products -- this is kind of what mostly drove me to sign up. Since then, I've found MGS is a cool little community of golfers looking for some conversation. I don't actually have many golf-buddies who are really into improving. So, it's cool to read about other people's journeys and how similar or different things can be! "Where are you from? What is your home course?" I'm from Tampa, FL. Although, I don't quite have a "home course".. actually, it might be my garage sim in my actual home "What's In The Bag" Driver: Cobra Aerojet 5W: Cobra LTDx (gold) 7W: Cobra LTDx Max (blue) 6-G: Cobra Forged TecX S: Top Flite L: Some weird TruTec club I got at a flea market and never use anyway P: Wilson Infinite Bucktown Turns out, I'm a big fan of Cobra after having success with a couple of the longer clubs. It's owned by Puma, which is a brand I'm family with outside of golf, so that helped also. However, I am going to be looking to upgrade my wedges at some point in the future. Not sure which direction to go there... Vokey is the high end choice, but I'm actually interested in trying out some of the DTC options to get a bit different. Thanks for reading all! Feel free to reach out if you have questions about any of the models above.

Congrats to the testers! Looking forward to the results and your thoughts!

I guess I side-barred there a bit. Biggest play issues with the sim I've found are: Putting is not really worth doing in the sim unless you're just playing for fun. Auto-putt is fine. You don't get different up/down/left/right lies, so all the shots feel the same and show well on the sim The alignment can be finicky sometimes, unless you have a permanent, perfectly aligned sim and projection... So some shots may start more left or right than what you felt. But honestly, I mostly use the driving range, target practice, and skills assessments modes much more than course play. Hope this helps! ^ Good luck!

I recently DIY'd my own garage sim and while it's not a perfect replica of outdoor play, I definitely love having it. I'm at the stage where I'm really starting to figure out my game, so reps and consistent practice are absolutely necessary to meet my scoring goals. My biggest pro, which basically makes all the cost worth it, is that I can hit from home at any time of day I'm able. I've got a 1 year old and another on the way, so it's especially hard to find time to practice, let alone book a whole day away from the family. So, after the baby is in bed and everything is taken care of in the house, I get to go send a few into the screen/net. The idea is, I'm able to continue to improve at the game while the family needs more of me, so that when I'm back at it, I can still be competitive.

Happy Saturday!! Enjoy the course for me while I hangout with the baby girl and finish up some projects around the house for the weekend. I'll mix in some hacks in the sim tonight, but nothing like the fresh air, 95 degree heat, and 75% humidity in the Floridian summer

Very exciting opportunity!! I've always had my eye on the @GolfSub70 collection, but just haven't pulled the trigger on the fairways or wedges, as I don't know anyone personally who has tried these. Recently I added a Cobra 7W to the bag, but the Sub70 was a close contender actually. If selected, I could give an honest review of 2 new clubs in a similar tier which are both new to the golfer. Alternatively, I also have a Cobra LTDx 5W, which I'm very comfortable with already and could be an interesting comparison. Good luck to all on selection!

Adding to the DIY Golf Sim conversation: After lots of research, I was able to put together a pretty simple DIY setup that works really well for me. My main objectives were: 1- to fit into my garage in effectively a 10'x10' area, with 8' ceilings, 2- to be able to quickly build and breakdown the sim components (roughly 5 minutes of setup time), 3- to not completely break the bank but still be capable of everything I would expect of a quality sim. 4- to not require lots of custom built pieces What I landed on was a SkyTrak+ setup, since the ST+ doesn't require much space to calculate shot results. As a base-practice area, this really only took a few hundred $ to arrange, from there the SkyTrak+ and the BenQ projector make up the bulk of the cost, but I do plan to use the projector for NFL Sundays and UFC PPV parties, so I didn't mind spending-up on the protector. Here's a rough list of products I went with: (mostly everything I got was discounted) • GoSports Range Cage • Dura-Pro Octagon Commercial Hitting Mat • SkyTrak+ • BenQ LH600ST I may eventually do a full write-up here on my particular setup, which I think may benefit someone else in the future, because some of this stuff is really particular and it took a lot of effort for me to figure it all out. Anyway, good luck to you all in your future DIY golf sim projects. I definitely love mine and it gives me an opportunity to practice the game during late hours of the day when I wouldn't be able to otherwise.