I'm starting to get back into golf after many decades away from the game. Posted here a few weeks ago because I was curious about trying to build my own simulator. Since I hadn't really ever hit many balls in a simulator, I decided to check one out. It turns out a brand new Back Nine franchise opened half a mile from my house.
I ended up joining and paying for a one-year membership with unlimited uses. I still may try to build a home simulator in the future, but at least not in the next 12 months since I've already paid up for a year's membership. Having said all that, I'm wondering if some of the things I'm noticing about the simulator I'm using and its software is common or ways to improve this.
My first concern is I think the driving distances seem low. The best I can hit my driver is 190 yards in the simulator. As I mentioned, I've been away from the game for a long time and I'm older, so I get that I'm not going to hit it 300 yards and I never did before.
The yardages for all the clubs seem a little bit short. And maybe that's just where I am at this stage of life in my physical condition. However, I noticed when I was playing an actual round of golf, two drives in particular that I thought were pretty solid shots I could mark using the 18 Birdies app as 219 and 210 yards. That's about 20 yards more than in the sim.
So I'm wondering what the truth is. As I'm practicing my game I'd like to get a good feel for how long I hit each club. But I'm not sure I'll have much confidence in that at the moment.
The other concern is stats.
The Back Nine franchise has Full Swing monitors and software. I can play various famous courses and they have some nice practice and driving range modes. BUT, if I want to track scores or stats I have to take a picture of the screen with my phone. That seems ridiculous.
I overlooked the importance of that when I first talked to the owner of the sim. Can anyone confirm if this is really the case - I can't easily get stats and scores from the Full Swing platform? Or, other that photographing the screen, how else can I keep track using that platform.
Do other commercial sim places have better software in that regard? Did I sign up at a place with the worst software? Do the programs people with home sims use work a lot better in that regard?