Estimated simulator handicap to real life conversion

[Whiskeyjack]

I'm an 8.3 here and 12.8 in real life. I think a lot of the difference comes from how many fairways you hit irl. If you spray it all over the place irl then there will be a greater difference in the sim.
mthunt has very little difference but he is a very low cap. and probably plays from the fairway more then not. I play from the fairway most of the time but distance is my issue so that causes be problems in both. That being said there are a great many other factors as well and it varies for different players.

[BadEddieKit]

This was derived from about a dozen players who offered up their AVERAGE real life round scores, and compared them to their AVERAGE Sim Scores. It appears that this question varies and is on a curve. If you shoot a 70, you would add about 5% to your sim score, if you shoot 80 it about 10%, if you shoot 90 its about 15% and 100 is about 20%. Now obviously there are going to be exceptions to the rule and outliers, but on average, this will give you a realistic idea of how your scores will translate.

Id estimate that a SIM 69 is a real life 72.

[BadEddieKit]

Its tough to say. I think alot of us golf better inside relatively, partly because its very comfortable, and the various aides that help with the short game. Like I said there will be variance, but compare the above chart to your AVERAGE sim and real life round scores, not the SIM handicap. I think if you could feel as comfortable irl as you do when you play your sim, you might be shooting a mid 70 round irl here and there..

[Jwheels9876]

Yeah if I could play in my boxers with no shoes on I bet I could. Not sure how the other patrons would feel about it though lol.

[Cklguy2013]

This makes sense to me. You're basically saying it's on a slope.

My IRL index was 2.5 at the end of the year, my average index for all rounds was 5.7 and my average score was 77.4. I'm curious to see how this compares to my Sim averages once I have say 40 rounds in.

[Monovision]

I play outside only a few times a year, and I've seen lots of sim improvement. Tour HC is down to 6 or so, but I'm about an 18 in real life I think. Hopefully it'll transfer outdoors when I'm able to get back out more.

[codehead]

Eddie's curve fit is interesting but it is a simple curve fit. I would imagine that the real numbers here are functions of the slope rating of the courses people play irl, as well as fairways hit, gir, and putts. The interesting thing is that most all sim courses couldn't possibly have a much higher than minimum slope rating because the obstacles aren't truly punitive because the exact penalty is known and the lies are perfect. So... Just like the Course Rating and slope are different measures of difficulty for different levels of golfers so to is the translation from Sim to real life, because really the rating of a sim course is probably similar to the rating of the real course but the slope is drastically different. I would imagine that something fairly reliable could be derived if someone had the inclination to collect the data.

[BadEddieKit]

I agree with you. there is alot more accurate formula out there somewhere for sure, but this will give you a general idea of how they translate.