Indoor Golf vs Traditional Golf:
How Do They Compare?
Indoor golf has gained more popularity in recent years. Maybe you have heard of indoor golf or golf simulators and wondered how they compare to the real thing. Keep reading, because we are excited to tell you all about it!
What is Indoor Golf?
Indoor golf includes a variety of golfing activities that are played indoors, either in a facility or in your home. The main types of indoor golf are golf simulators, driving ranges, putting greens, and chipping areas.
Indoor golf is not necessarily a replacement for traditional golf. Rather, indoor golf allows you to practice your golf skills so that you will perform better on the course.
Indoor Golf vs Traditional Golf
Indoor golf and traditional golf are very different. Some of the biggest differences are environment, time, and availability.
- Environment: Your surrounding environment will be the most noticeable difference between indoor and traditional golf. For instance, you may be subject to wind in traditional, outdoor golf. While some golf simulators factor in wind disturbance, not being able to feel and observe the wind patterns may make it more difficult to adjust your golf strategy.
- Time: Indoor golf cuts down on time. A traditional round of golf can take hours to complete with all of the walking, locating the ball, and setting the tee. With indoor golf, you skip all of that and get straight to playing.
- Availability: Indoor golf is available year-round, whereas outdoor golf courses are usually only open part of the year.
Types of Indoor Golf
As mentioned earlier, indoor golf includes golf simulators, driving ranges, putting greens, and chipping areas.
- Golf Simulators: A golf simulator is a virtual golf course. These indoor, virtual golf courses allow you to play full rounds of golf year-round. Golf simulators are the next best thing to traditional golf.
How do golf simulators work? They use radars or sensors to pick up the club speed, club face angle, ball speed, spin, etc. The software then uses this data to simulate the shot on the screen. The best part is, simulators record and analyze your performance through the entire round so you know how to improve.
- Driving Ranges: Indoor driving ranges allow you to practice your swing on long drives. Some facilities even have technology that will analyze your swing and give tips on how you can improve.
- Putting Greens: Indoor putting greens allow you to practice getting the ball in the hole, which improves your accuracy and lowers your golf handicap.
- Chipping Areas: Indoor chipping areas allow you to practice shooting the ball into the green toward the hole. Like putting practice, chipping practice is another way to improve your accuracy and lower your handicap.
Our Favorite Indoor Golf Course
When winter weather gets in the way, we at Yatta Golf take our golfing indoors. You can catch us on the golf simulators at Bad Caddy Golf in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, we work on mastering our golf skills in a lively atmosphere with tasty food and beverages.
No need to worry if golf courses near you are closing for the season! Indoor golf is a great way to keep up on your skills all year round.