How Much Has Your Sim Helped Your Game?

[Via Chicago]

Hi all. Been lurking the forum for a few months, but this is my first post. What kind of index drops have you all noticed before and after owning a simulator? Thanks!

[Jerome]

I went from an 8 to an 11

[JackedUpSwing]

Went from a ~15 to a 9 in about 2 years of sim play.

[Mrtheplague]

5 to a 2.3. three years on the sim now with gc2 and tgc

Biggest help has been from two aspects. Learning my carry distances for irons and learning to hit half shots consistently (30, 50, 75 yard carries).

I play less now with a young child but can do more directed work on the sim.

And it's fun.

[mmlincon]

I was stuck at a 5 for years with multiple simulators as well. Since switching to using only FSX I'm down to a 1. The stats and video features in FSX helped identify issues and helped a lot with improvement. That and the physics in the game when dialed in properly is nearly spot on. The physics is very important when working on the short game.

[mthunt]

My handicap has gone up 2 or 3 shots since buying a sim but my sim handicap has gone way done. Maybe it's time to only play sim golf. lol

[LotharFriend]

I would attribute one or two strokes (down) to the simulator. However, outdoor golf and sim golf are two different beasts. I really try to separate the two play styles whenever possible.

Sim Golf has so few puzzles to solve whereas outdoor golf simply gives you an infinite number of variables on each shot. Plus, the penalties for sim golf are much softer... I.E. Hit into the fescue and it's like playing from the fairway with a small distance penalty, etc.

[FCMTX75]

I purchased SkyTrak in Feb 2019 and was a 22 handicap. I am now down to a 16. Just before the end of 2019 I purchased the GCQuad Holiday Bundle. The GCQuad is amazing With the club data I know this will bring my handicap down quicker.

[Bubba22]

In short, handicap gone up, gone down....gone up, gone down ….etc
Absolutely nothing beats real outdoor golf.

[mthunt]

Michael’s handicap has gone down enough for both of us. Lol.

[Bubba22]

That's so true, lol. Great to be young and have free time!

[Gresh12]

I can’t tie any changes to sim golf on handicap specifically as I made swing changes, started using Decade (mainly for stats tracking) and got my sim all about 2 years ago. My index has dropped 1.5 in total.

The sim for sure allowed me to ingrain swing changes in way less time (particularly over off season) and I am a way more consistent ball striker and my scores show that (I think I played 15 rounds in a row in a range of 78-81) which translates to playing to my handicap every round for a couple months.

Now I need to develop a short game to consistently get back to shooting mid 70s (I was a 1.2 index 25 years ago but barely golfed for 20 years in the middle).

[Dazza]

Been a bit of a love hate relationship for me.....
Improved at first then went through the chasing distance phase and injured my left elbow and wrist - Had to change to graphite shafts.
I changed to a Fibrebuilt hitting strip after reading advice on this forum and my elbow seems to be back to normal so I'm going back to steel and have just been fitted for a set of Callaway Apex Pro with Modus 120.
I think I'm just finishing the chasing numbers phase, which seems to have helped, especially with direction and optimising driver distance.
Next step for me is to add a HMT to my GC2 so that I can improve strike.
Had a lot of lessons over the last year and the sim has been invaluable for practice although when i'm working on something I do not have the projector switched on - allows me to focus more on changing the swing.
Swing has improved a lot and its finally starting to transition to the golf course - So pretty happy.

[Bender96]

This is my first offseason with the sim. I am a 6 hdcp In outdoor golf and am shooting mid to low 60s on TGC so I fully expect to be breaking course records and hunting a 59 next season of outdoors. 😂

[shwag33]

I'm a 6 in real life as well, but i'm just finally breaking into the 60's in sim golf, how long did it take you to transition.

[Bender96]

It took me a couple weeks to get down under par. Mostly getting used to the short game and putting. I am not consistently throwing in mid 60s but once you get used to short chips and green speeds, I find thats when you start to have better looks at low rounds

[DougieMn]

I don't play a lot of rounds but find myself hitting a ton of balls via the range. If you practice incorrectly nothing will change!

Looking for an online coach!

[Wizard of Coz]

I dropped from a 3 to 0.4 with skytrak, skypro and range work. 2018 played many rounds outdoors.

Added sim winter 2018 summer of 2019 didn't play outdoors much because i was playing so much sim golf. Lost my summer. Hdcp up slightly from lack of play outdoors. 1.7 still lower than b4 LM.

[trhuke]

I think the sim has helped my outdoor game quite a bit. I'm hitting the ball much more consistently and have built my swing speed back up 4-6 mph since I bought the SkyTrak. Cleaned up my turn and timing and its worked out nicely. I find my chipping and putting haven't gotten better (or worse) but I think that's the nature of the beast, it's hard to get the depth perception you need for chipping and putting. Chipping "touch" is the last thing I get back at the start of the season on a real golf course, I don't think the sim helps or hurts that.

Too bad the "Q" key to view putts/chips from different angles doesn't work around the green in 2019 the way it did in TGC, I use it a lot in TGC but it is worthless in 2019.