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I have released and published, but I have never played an adequate golf round, mainly for fear of public humiliation. However, an inner golf simulator allows me to make a fool of me in relative privacy, so I temporarily accepted the offer of a James Day hybrid club, the founder of Urban Golf. I look at a true golf ball in a real shirt, then in a digital reconstruction of the street in the 18 -hole in St Andrews. “Point a little to the left,” he advises. I see my photo spinning wildly to the right and finally hit a car. In defense of the simulator, this is exactly what would happen if I will play. “I hope you have insurance,” laughs the day.
Urban Golf has organized the inner golf since 2004, first in the Soho in London, then to a couple of miles along the road in Smithfield, and since 2012 in New York as well. But today, as technology becomes better and cheaper, players yearn the facilities at home. A typical configuration comprises a padded screen, in which the game is projected and that absorbs the blow of the ball; a decent projector connected to a PC or laptop that executes the simulator software; And, crucially, the monitoring unit that analyzes the movement of the ball in the second place in the air. In this particular case, it is a sound size device mounted on the roof called 3Trak made by the United States. About golf (£ 18,600).
“In the early 1990s, the first generation of Sims had infrared clues on the floor that analyzed what the club was doing,” says Day. “The inconvenience was that I couldn’t say how good you hit the ball. The second generation were the ones we started using [in 2004]that had an infrared network on the road to the screen. That did a better job, but I really wanted it to be credible from a golf perspective. “
The search for the realism of the day saw him reject radar -based tracker TGL league. (“You cannot track the placement,” he exclaims, “then, what is the point?”) The 3Trak unit that analyzes my shots is equipped with two artificial vision cameras, which believes that the day represents the avant -garde of the analysis. “All this technology is also used in the weapons industry and in the production lines to recognize failures in the circuit plates,” he says.
The resulting data predict the probable trajectory of the ball using algorithms that constantly evolve. “I am not saying that this system never loses a chance, but when it does, it is obvious,” says Day. “More than 18 holes, you could get a really crazy one. But it also has a complete transparency, so each shot obtains a trust index. If that trust falls below, let’s say, 80 percent, it can cancel the shot. ” The system is rightly relying on its evaluation of me as a total rookie, but thanks to the generous delivery of Day of Mulligans, I bravely pirate towards the green and finally I do four. Not too shameful.
The reputation of the inner golf is growing, but nowhere is stronger than in South Korea, where there are around 6,000 places throughout the country. “I’ve been in places where people of all ages are working on their game,” says Day. Perhaps as expected, Day is not a fan of driving ranges. “It makes no sense to hit the same shot again and again,” he says. “He does nothing for you. Playing a real course forces you to continue changing the shot. So, when I practice, I play this, the old course in St Andrews. Gives some discipline. “
To replicate this configuration in your own home, you would need a space of at least 4.5 m wide, 5 m deep, at least 3 m high ceiling, and ideally there are no vases or nearby windows. Urban Golf works with designers and architects to create the optimal golf space, and if that space (or in fact the budget) is restricted, they will try to find ways to avoid it. A monitoring unit, the Optishot Nova (which will soon be renamed as Red Stakes RSG1, £ 1,750), is approximately the size and shape of a competition trophy and sits directly behind the player. “It is driven by the camera, we have been testing it and it’s really good,” says Day. “That, in its garden, together with a practice network system that can appear in a couple of minutes, could cost around £ 3,000.”
The true proof of a golf simulator is how realistic it feels. My persistent landing in the water in Sawgrass’s Island Green felt realistic, but I had nothing to compare it. “For people who play a lot of golf and who come to a simulator, there is always a ‘hump’,” says Day. “And that is if you trust that. When we started, overcoming that hump would take four hours, but with this, it was reduced to 30 to 40 minutes. My club’s friends are converts, and from a battery shots perspective I don’t question it in any way. “But has it made it a better player?” It depends on when you ask, “he laughs.” Sometimes, sometimes ” .