Can You Actually Get Better at Golf Playing on a Simulator?

Every winter, golfers head indoors to keep their swings going. Some come in to play a round with their buddies, have a few drinks, and enjoy themselves. Others show up with a bag full of clubs and a determination that this is finally going to be the winter they fix their golf swing. But here's a question I think more golfers should be asking:

Are you actually getting better at golf, or are you just getting better at hitting balls on a simulator?

There's a difference. And it's probably bigger than you think.

I've spent a lot of time teaching golfers and watching people practise indoors. I've seen golfers make incredible improvements over a winter, and I've seen others hit thousands of golf balls only to step outside in the spring and play exactly the same golf they did the year before. So what's the difference?

It isn't necessarily the simulator. It's how they're using it.

The Simulator Isn't the Problem. Your Practice Might Be.

Let's get something straight. Modern golf simulators are incredible pieces of technology. We can get immediate feedback on ball speed, launch angle, carry distance, ball flight, and a variety of other measurements. Depending on the technology, we can even get information about what the golf club is doing through impact. Twenty years ago, golfers would have paid a fortune to have access to this type of information. Today, you can walk into an indoor golf facility and have much of that information displayed on a screen after every shot. But here's the problem. Having access to information doesn't automatically mean you know how to use it.

I see golfers walk into a simulator, pull out their driver, and start swinging as hard as they can. They watch the ball fly 280 yards on the screen, smile, and do it again. There's nothing wrong with that. Golf is supposed to be fun. But if the goal is improving your golf game, what exactly did you learn? Did you hit the centre of the face? Did the ball start where you intended? Was the curve what you wanted? Could you repeat that shot? Or were you simply trying to hit the next one farther? There's a big difference between hitting golf balls and practising golf.

One of the Biggest Advantages of Indoor Golf Is Consistent Feedback

Think about practising on an outdoor driving range. You hit a seven iron toward a flag. The ball starts a little right, curves back toward the target, and lands somewhere near the green. Pretty good shot, right?

But how far did it actually carry? Was it 145 yards or 155? Did the wind help it? Did the ball land short and roll forward? Unless you're using a launch monitor, there's a certain amount of guessing involved.

A good simulator can take much of that guessing away. If your seven iron consistently carries 150 yards, that's valuable information. If your driver consistently starts right and curves farther right, that's valuable information too. But the real benefit comes when you use that feedback to make a change.

Let's say we're working on eliminating a slice. Rather than trying to hit one perfectly straight shot after another, we might start by learning how to curve the golf ball in the opposite direction. With a simulator, we can see whether we're accomplishing that goal almost immediately.

That's where indoor practice becomes incredibly valuable. We aren't just hoping the golf swing gets better. We're measuring whether the ball is doing what we intended.

Stop Hitting the Same Club 50 Times in a Row

Here's something I think golfers get wrong about practice. They believe repetition automatically creates improvement. Hit enough seven irons and eventually you'll become a great seven-iron player.

Unfortunately, golf doesn't work quite that way. Think about the last time you played golf. How often did you hit the exact same shot twice in a row?

Same club. Same distance. Same target. Same lie.

Almost never.

Yet that's exactly how many golfers practise. They hit ten, twenty, sometimes fifty balls with the same club, toward the same target, without changing anything. Eventually, they get pretty good at that particular shot. The problem is that golf isn't played that way. One of my favourite things to encourage golfers to do is play the range. Instead of mindlessly hitting golf balls, create a golf hole in your mind.

Pick two targets that represent the edges of a fairway. Hit your tee shot and see whether you would have found the short grass. Now imagine your approach shot. Pick a distance, change clubs, and try to hit a specific target. Miss the green? Give yourself another challenge. Keep changing clubs, distances, and targets. You're now practising something much closer to the actual game of golf rather than just repeating the same swing. And a simulator is a fantastic environment for doing exactly that.

What About Playing Actual Rounds on the Simulator?

This is where things get interesting.

I think playing simulated rounds can be one of the most underrated ways to practise during the winter.

Why? Because you can work on a new move in your golf swing without the consequence of having to go look in the trees for your ball. So if you force the move indoors... it'll appear outside!

Now, does a simulator recreate every challenge of playing outdoors? Absolutely not. By no means are they the same.

You don't have the same awkward sidehill lies. You don't have wind blowing across your face. Thick rough, uneven ground, and difficult recovery shots aren't always represented the way they are in real life.

And depending on the simulator, chipping and putting can be quite different from what you'll experience on a real green.

We shouldn't pretend indoor golf is a perfect replacement for outdoor golf. It isn't.

But that doesn't mean we can't use it to become better golfers.

Here's How I'd Spend an Hour Practicing Indoors

If I had one hour to practise on a simulator and genuinely wanted to improve, here's how I'd spend it.

First 10 minutes: Warm up.

Start with shorter swings and work your way through the bag. Don't worry about distance or making everything perfect. Just get moving.

Next 15 minutes: Work on one specific skill.

Maybe it's controlling the curve of your driver. Maybe it's improving contact with your irons. Maybe you're focusing on controlling the face in your back swing (Hint... Do This.) Whatever you're working on, pick one thing and give it your attention.

Next 15 minutes: Change clubs and targets.

Stop hitting the same shot. Pick different distances, change clubs, and challenge yourself to hit specific targets.

Final 20 minutes: Play golf.

Choose a course or simulate different holes. Focus on the swing change, go through your normal routine, and treat every shot as if you were standing on a real tee box.

The goal isn't to hit the most golf balls possible in an hour. The goal is to make those golf balls count.

So, Will Simulator Golf Actually Make You Better?

Absolutely.

But there's a catch. Simply showing up and hitting golf balls all winter doesn't guarantee you're going to improve. You need some direction. You need to know what you're trying to accomplish, and you need a way to measure whether you're making progress. That's true whether you're practising indoors, outdoors, or standing in your backyard swinging a club. The simulator is a tool. A really good one.

But it's still just a tool. I think the biggest opportunity golfers have during the winter is the ability to work on their game without worrying about what they're going to shoot that day. You can experiment. You can make changes. You can hit some terrible shots without having to spend the next three holes recovering from them. And when spring finally arrives, hopefully you've developed some skills you can take onto the golf course.

Because at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to accomplish. We don't want to become great simulator golfers. We want to become better golfers. And if you're just coming in to play Pebble Beach with your buddies, have a few laughs, and enjoy a couple of beers?

That's pretty great too.

After all, golf is hard. It should still be fun.

The Double Bogey Golf Blog — Making golf a little easier to understand, one bogey at a time.