The Best Golf Simulators That Keep You On The Virtual Links Year-Round

TrackMan simulator bays are a five-figure consideration in most homes of PGA Tour players and many high-end instruction and club fitting facilitates. The company tailors its simulator to fit any space, be it an empty garage or a designated mancave.

Equipped with the company’s TrackMan 4 launch monitor hardware and software, the TrackMan Indoor Golf Simulator uses radar and multi-camera tracking to offer highly accurate and educational swing data and ball flight tracking. The setup also includes high-def graphics and virtual recreations of more than 30 PGA Tour stops, all of which are so vivid and realistic that you’d sooner think you were playing a world-class course. While the five-figure price tag will blow most budgets out of the water, this is as good as it gets in the world of golf simulators.

For less than $300, the SwingLogic SLX MicroSim serves up minimal equipment with the right software to play simulated golf in any home, school or office. Indoors, the included swing stick packs sensor tech that translates to golf motion on any linked device. The E6 Connect software provides the simulated courses and greens.

Outdoors, the SLX MicroSim brings the same sensor tech can transfer to your actual golf clubs. The full swings outside work their way into the E6 simulated courses, allowing play from any practice range.

The Uneekor SimKit - EYE XO Simulator is hardly cheap enough for you to grab a couple for home and office, but it offers all of the essential, full-size practice and play options you’d want in any simulator for less than half of what TrackMan charges. Plus, Uneekor makes sure to include every component you’d need to set up your full service simulator in one convenient package.

The EYE XO arrives with necessary software; a custom and pre-sized enclosure with impact screen; landing turf; 4’ x 10’ hitting mat with replaceable insert; LCD projector with ceiling mount and a 15' L HDMI cable.

In addition to its wrist-worn fitness trackers, the boffins at Garmin make excellent golf rangefinder watches – so they know the game. The leaped into the simulator and launch monitor world with the Garmin Approach R10. It’s entirely waterproof, making it a prime choice for golf meccas where rainy season can prove a problem on practice ranges from Florida to Hawaii.

Once set up, the Approach R10 reads all of the essential swing metrics necessary to educate and improve your game. Then, just for fun, you can activate the subscription service on the free Garmin Golf app to play virtual rounds on more than 42,000 courses around the world.

The portable Bushnell Golf Launch Pro can function as a go-to launch monitor for any home golf simulator. Unhook it from your home network, and the Launch Pro will go with you to a course’s driving range or other practice facility. It’s built tough enough to travel back and forth with ease.

For an additional one-time cost of $3,499, you can unlock Bushnell’s FSX simulator software that transforms the Launch Pro into a virtual practice range equipped with 10 simulated courses, 3D ball flight tracking and data storage for up to eight players. FSX also allows players to save practice session statistics and simulator rounds. The software can connect to a large, room-sized catch screen or a computer screen if you hit into a net.

While you might not consider anything with a sticker price of around $2,000 to be particularly affordable, it’s a good price for a fully functional golf simulator. The FlightScope Mevo+ can operate as a launch monitor and simulator indoors and out whether you’re using a net or hitting away downrange.

While many simulators require additional payments for software licensing or access to a collection of simulated courses, the Mevo+ gives you six courses and 17 practice ranges out of the box without subscription fees, though these are only available for iOS users.

While many of the golf simulators here use an upright device to read swing dynamics that A.I. transforms into golf shots, the OptiShot 2 looks more like the kind of golf mat you’d find at your local driving range or simulator. Its sensors read the swing on a horizontal plane, sending the data to display software that can connect to a catch screen or any TV or Windows laptop.

With the OptiShot 2, you get access to 15 virtual golf courses and practice ranges to test and record home sessions. Unlike others on this list, the OptiShot 2 isn’t a pricey simulator and it often goes on sale, but it comes backed by a one-year warranty that adds a little peace of mind to the purchase.

Like many of the simulators listed here, the SkyTrak Launch Monitor reads swing data before translating data onto a virtual practice range that displays essential statistics such as distance, direction, loft, spin rate, etc. For additional service subscription fees, a world of simulated courses become available, allowing you to expand your horizons.

To insulate and protect the SkyTrak from the outdoor environment at the open driving range or outdoor net, the simulator ships with a durable metal case for added protection. The case even features leveling legs if you happen to be hitting off the mat.

The Phigolf Home Golf Simulator provides you with a weighted swing stick and an onboard sensor that becomes your driver, iron or putter as you play through a virtual, on-screen course. That swing stick is short enough that you’ll be able to swing it full speed in most rooms.

Also safe for outdoor use, the Phigolf simulator will also offer swing analysis while you play a virtual practice round. The simulation software includes more than 60 courses that live on any laptop, or Android and iOS phone or tablet.

There’s only one club in the bag that you’re guaranteed to pull out on every hole unless the golf gods smile on you with a hole from off the green—the putter. Still, use of that putter is often an element of the game too few players practice adequately. To prove it, go to your local driving range, count the horde of hitters in the hitting bays and then look to the handful you’ll find on the practice greens. The latter are the serious golfers.

With that in mind, Fiberbilt offers a wide selection of indoor putting greens. The feel underfoot offers enough cushion to replicate an actual green, while three cup placements allow for the creation of multiple simulated breaks. The company can build custom sizes or combine existing mats to fit any at-home putting area.

Admittedly, the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor isn’t a full-on golf simulator on a scale with a TrackMan. Still, it can simulate play in a limited way by tracking distances, providing targets, scoring the results, providing statistics and improvement tips, etc. Most importantly, it costs a tiny fraction of what even other portable simulators and monitors manage at just around $500 MSRP.

Working only with your iOS device, the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor tracks all of the golf stats from distance to club speed to ball speed to launch angle and beyond, reporting all of the metrics back to your phone or tablet. The Rapsodo also offers the benefit of extreme portability, fitting in your golf bag – or your pocket.

For just a tick shy of nine large, the Foresight Sports GC3 Golf Launch Monitor takes its place alongside the other portable units in this collection as it records all of the essential swing stats necessary to track and improve your play. The GC3 records ball speed; horizontal and vertical launch angles; total spin and side spin; spin axis; carry distance; club head speed; smash factor; angle of attack and club path.

For those players who really get into the research and golf science aspects of the game, the Foresight Sports GC3 Golf Launch Monitor counts some of the game’s top, detail-focused instructors as consultants and endorsers. That team includes Butch Harmon (Tiger Woods’ former coach) and The Golf Channel’s Martin Hall.