Groups thoughts on Best Choice for a beginner

[joegsc]

Hello all,

New to this forum and thanks for the great information that is already here as I have read much of it.
There has been somewhat similar questions to this and answers but I am still conflicted.

I have never utilized a simulator. I am a 7 handicap.
My daughter is a Sophomore in HS and plays on the golf team. She is about a 19 handicap right now and really improved last year with very little work over the winter.

She is the main reason for the simulator purchase. I want her to be able to utilize it when I am not home which is frequently since I travel 3 days a week or more for business.

She has utilized the GC2 at Dick's sporting goods with her teacher who will let her know what she is doing wrong.

I want 2 things out of the simulator. I want it to be fun and easy for her to use so that she will practice and play.

I want the information that it provides to be easy for her to see and understand her swing errors and be able to improve.

I started by looking at the optishot and P3. I am not thrilled about taping the clubs, but Cory at Par2Pro does not think that is a big deal.
I also looked at the Personal Pro, but they seem to be out of business and have had software issues.

Accuracy is somewhat important to me, because I am a bit of a purist.

I tend to like value when I buy something.

Do I start with a P3Pro or spend the money now to get into the Protee?

Any other suggestions?

Also, what is the minimum depth that you need to have a solid set up? 17 feet seems to be mostly what I have read on this site.

Thanks
Joe

[Vincent_Vega]

Coming from a former Optishot owner, if you're wanting her to actually be able to improve I wouldn't go that route. Spend the money and get the Protee if you're wanting accurate club path data. The Optishot is fun to have when your boys come over to play and have a few beers, but it's far from accurate. I've never used the P3, but from what I've read it's not much better than Optishot. As for the taping, I personally found it to be a pain in the ass. Especially if you're using your clubs to go play real golf. If you had a spare set of clubs to tape I guess it wouldn't be so bad. Just my opinion

[joegsc]

Thanks Vince. Do you only have the Optishot? or do you use another system as well?

[Willymakit]

Well it all depends on how much money you want to spend.

From my experience I have the optishot and the Skytrak and have used the gs2 and also use the HD simulator at the local golf pub.

Now my preference for home would be the gc2 and the hmt. But then your looking at roughly 20,000 plus. But you also can play with other simulation golf courses which is a bonus And gc2 been around for awhile and believe that all the bugs have been worked out.

The Skytrak is great but it has it limitations right now. It's very accurate for irons and there will be a update for the woods which I believe is 20 yards short at the moment. It has no golf courses has I type this and I believe it could be out tomorrow or next week or next month or year. If you look at when the thread on when Skytrak and the golf club started was roughly for a year now. It gets very frustrating when your only limited to what the unit could actually do. And how many bugs there could be when the release does happen. Only very soon. Only had Skytrak for a week and already bored with the range and limited access to wgt. I'm needing more.

Now the optishot. It's worth the money you pay for it. Roughly 500 or so. But it's just a game and not a learning center. It reads the club and you can manipulate the speed on the club.

So if you have the money. Go for gc2.

[joegsc]

I appreciate the information. I probably don't want to spend $20K. I do like the idea of the Skytrak at $2000 but not if it does not have any course info. I have read many of the Skytrak threads and who knows how long it will be.

[JV17]

joegsc Based on what you've said above, do not get Optishot. Like Willy said, GC2 with HMT would be the way to go. Skytrack would be a compromise as the fun factor is still pending. Those guys have been waiting for a good while for a nice sim gaming solution. That's been coming "any day" for a long time. It's software, so one ever knows. The Skytrack range would be effective, but not enough fun factor. ProTee seems good, but setup is painful. If you're willing to trade ease of setup to save good money, then ProTee would be a good answer? Hope some ProTee guys can chime in for you. Good luck!

[joegsc]

Thanks. Like you said. Maybe some Protee folks will weigh in.

[Vincent_Vega]

Thanks Vince. Do you only have the Optishot? or do you use another system as well?

I have the Optishot (sitting in the closet collecting dust) and I've been a GC2 owner as well. These guys summed it up pretty well. You need to specify your budget or top dollar on what you'll pay. If money is no object then the GC2 with HMT would be ideal. Like most people, I feel that is probably going to be a little more than what you're looking to spend. Deals can be had on used GC2's, but not sure about the HMT. I still think the Protee will be your best value. For $3,000 you can get the sensor and vertical launch camera along with TGC software. That's a great deal in my opinion. Protee will definitely be a little bit more of setup process. Refer to the Protee section of the forums, some great resources there as far as seeing what you're going to be up against in the setup process. The Skytrak shows promise, but still a lot of unknowns right now. Plus it doesn't give you club data. I personally will never go back to a sensor based unit just because I don't like hitting the ball off of them. But I play near scratch and I typically don't need club data to be able to diagnose my swing flaws, ball data alone usually will tell me what I need to know. For someone still learning the game, she will benefit greatly from having the club data.

[joegsc]

Thanks again.

[DreMages13@aol.com]

Did you look into any of the higher companies? We are in the exact same boat and are stuck between About Golf and TrueGolf? Accuracy wise we hear True is a good bet...

[Dax]

Did you look into any of the higher companies? We are in the exact same boat and are stuck between About Golf and TrueGolf? Accuracy wise we hear True is a good bet...

I would recommend reading the forum and the advice above. The people here have a lot of experience and their comments in this forum are great. What ever you do, I would try before you buy if you can.

[aja]

I'll chime in with my vote for ProTee. I am the owner of a ProTee sim and like it very much. It provides club head data, unlike Skytrack and GC2.

I remember poring over the forums and the posts about which is better, ball data or club head data. Based on my experience with ProTee, which provides club head data, I'm firmly of the belief that ProTee is better for me and other high-handicappers. The key phrase is high handicapper. We're the ones not finding the fairways because we really haven't mastered our swing and don't know what our swing looks like or what our club head is doing at impact. Club head info is ideal for high handicappers. Ball spin information is useful, if you understand what causes it and what changes are required to your ball strike.

As for other posts which suggest setting up ProTee is difficult, I would agree that plunking GC2 on the mat is pretty simple in comparison. But - if you are already building out a dedicated sim room, one with an impact screen, projector, wall and ceiling protection and likely a floor system of some type - the ProTee install itself is not that difficult. But that is the other aspect that you have to be committed to. ProTee is basically a permanent installation which requires a dedicated space.

I would also recommend getting the ProTee base sensor and software, but not upgrading to the putting sensor. I have the putting sensor but it is not really effective for improving your putting. All told, if you are spending time and resources to set up a sim room or practice room, ProTee is a cost-effective choice that gives good information for game improvement.

[mthunt]

There's a few guys on here that upgraded from Protee to GC2. Search those posts to get a reference as those people had both.

[MarkSC]

+1 what AJA said. ProTee all the way for mid to high handicappers. Good club data is way more useful than ball data. Of course, both would be nice....

[joegsc]

Thanks Everyone for you comments.
I bought a SkyTrak, Optoma GT1080, and Mini bay.
Just starting to work with them, but so far very happy.