Can’t say I expected these directions to Pebble Beach: Once you head south off Dunlawton in Port Orange, turn onto Oak Street, and when you get to Oak Place, take a left. It’s the last warehouse on the left.
Also can’t tell yet if this is the latest thing or the next big thing. Maybe the future of golf, or perhaps just a passing fad fed by the marvels of modern technology, which spits out a next big thing every 15 minutes.
For now, GolfSim24 is a cool place — both uses of the word — to either work on your game while employing the sharpest of cutting-edge tech, or play 18 holes at Pebble, unless you prefer Spyglass Hill, Bethpage Black or even the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Actually, you can do both. A giant screen, which you hit into, is animated with all of the smallest details of whichever of the 500-plus courses you’ve logged onto — right down to the tides of Carmel Bay alongside Pebble and the gorse blanketing St. Andrews.
If you also want to learn all the details of your swing and ball-striking ability … well, be careful what you wish for. GolfSim uses one of the two giants in modern golf tech — Trackman (Toptracer is the other) — and it spares no details.
“It tracks distance, ball speed, swing speed and height, as well as launch angle, spin rate, club path, face angle, low point, angle of attack, carry, spin axis, etc.,” says 19-year-old Tyler Yadlosky, a former Father Lopez golfer and current student at Florida State University who talked his dad into this venture last year.
“I said, ‘I want a five-year plan,’” Justin Yadlosky says of his son’s initial request. “What’s gonna be our ROI (return on investment), what’s our marketing budget, fixed costs, variable costs, what do we need to make to cover our expenses each month?
“He did the research.”
A handful of local courses now include a Toptracer feature on their driving ranges, including three in New Smyrna Beach alone — Hidden Lakes, Turnbull Bay and Venetian Bay. Some club-fitting businesses use a less-intense version of the technology to fit golfers to proper equipment. And there’s at least one other fully dedicated simulator business in Volusia County — Fairway’s Indoor Golf in DeLand.
What separates GolfSim24, however, is its 24/7 availability. Whether a monthly dues-paying member or a one-time guest, the technical applications begin immediately, with a cell-delivered code that gets you in the door and into the computer system that hooks you up with whatever you want to do and wherever you want to do it — excluding some famous places, such as Augusta National and TPC Sawgrass, due to licensing restrictions.
“If you need help with the system, we’ll help you out,” says Tyler, who includes a one-hour “onboarding” session with all monthly memberships.
Don’t let the first impression fool you. GolfSim 24 sits inside a light-industrial complex just south of Dunlawton Avenue. Inside are two golf bays, each fronting a massive projection screen ready to light up with any of those 500-plus courses.
Monthly “green fees” are $120, $200 and $300, which in turn gets you four, eight or unlimited hours for the month, and up to three guests each visit. An 18-hole simulated round lasts roughly an hour — depending on number of guests, of course.
Single-time play is $50 for up to four, and you can bring your own clubs or use GolfSim’s.
Quick review: It’s a good time, probably more so for the advanced golfer who wants to gauge his metrics and/or the golfer who’s also a fan of the game’s more famous stages.
As for those metrics, there’s good and bad news. The bad: You might not like the truth when it comes to your swing speed, ball speed, carry distance (“I know I hit my 7-iron more than 150!”), etc.
But the good (which might seem bad at first) sits there on the top right of all the metrics. It’s labeled “Impact Video,” and the magic sensors will replay the fine details of that millisecond when your clubface meets the ball.
No, it wasn’t a bad lie or gust of wind that made you flare it to the right or snap-hook it to the left. From Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to you and your 20-handicap brother-in-law, the clubface at impact tells the story.
It’s not always pretty, but the views — Stillwater Cove at Pebble, the North Sea at St. Andrews, etc. — might take the mind off your cranky mechanics.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Some of the world’s best golf is found in an unlikely place, courtesy of Trackman
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
