Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.I’ve pitched and I’ve putted, but I’ve never played a proper round of golf, mainly for fear of public humiliation. An indoor golf simulator, however, lets me make a fool of myself in relative privacy, so I tentatively accept the offer of a hybrid club from James Day, the founder of Urban Golf. I gaze down at a real golf ball on a real tee, then up at a digital reconstruction of the fairway at the 18th hole at St Andrews. “Aim a little to the left,” he advises. I watch my shot veering wildly to the right and ultimately hitting a car. In defence of the simulator, this is exactly what would happen were I playing IRL. “I hope you’ve got insurance,” laughs Day.Urban Golf has hosted indoor golf since 2004, firstly in London’s Soho, then a couple of miles up the road in Smithfield, and since 2012 in New York as well. But today, as the technology gets better and cheaper, players are craving home installations. A typical set-up comprises a padded screen, on which the gameplay is projected and which absorbs the blow of the ball; a decent projector connected to a PC or laptop running the simulator software; and, crucially, the tracking unit that analyses the ball’s movement in the split second that it’s airborne. In this particular case it’s a ceiling-mounted, soundbar-sized device called the 3Trak made by US-based aboutGolf (£18,600).“In the early 1990s, the first generation of sims had infrared tracks on the floor that analysed what the club was doing,” says Day. “The drawback was that it couldn’t tell how well you hit the ball. The second generation were the ones we started using [in 2004], which had a web of infrared on the way to the screen. That did a better job, but I really wanted it to be credible from a golfing perspective.”Playing a real course forces you to keep changing the shotDay’s pursuit of realism saw him reject the radar-based trackers used in some sims including, most notably, Tiger Woods’ recently launched TGL league. (“It can’t track putting,” he exclaims, “so what’s the point?”) The 3Trak unit analysing my shots is equipped with two machine vision cameras, which Day believes represents the cutting edge of analysis. “All of this tech is also used in the weapons industry and on production lines to recognise faults on circuit boards,” he says.The resulting data predicts the likely trajectory of the ball using algorithms that are constantly evolving. “I’m not saying that this system never misses a shot, but when it does, it’s obvious,” says Day. “Over 18 holes, you might get one really wacky one. But it also has complete transparency, so each shot gets a confidence rating. If that confidence drops below, say, 80 per cent, you can have the shot nullified.” The system is, quite rightly, confident in its assessment of me as a total rookie, but thanks to Day’s generous handing out of mulligans, I valiantly hack my way towards the green and ultimately make four. Not too embarrassing.Indoor golf’s reputation is growing, but nowhere is it stronger than in South Korea, where there are around 6,000 venues nationwide. “I’ve been to places over there where people of all ages are working on their game,” says Day. Perhaps predictably, Day isn’t a fan of driving ranges. “There’s no point in hitting the same shot again and again,” he says. “It doesn’t do anything for you. Playing a real course forces you to keep changing the shot. So when I practise, I play this, the Old Course at St Andrews. It gives some discipline.”To replicate this set-up in your own home, you’d need a space at least 4.5m wide, 5m deep, with at least 3m of ceiling height, and ideally no vases or windows nearby. Urban Golf works with designers and architects to create the optimum golfing space, and if that space (or indeed the budget) is restricted, they’ll try to find ways around it. One tracking unit, the Optishot Nova (soon to be rebranded as the Red Stakes RSG1, £1,750), is about the size and shape of a competition trophy and sits directly behind the player. “It’s camera driven, we’ve been testing it, and it’s really good,” says Day. “That, in your garden, coupled with a practice net system that you can pop up in a couple of minutes, might cost around £3,000.”The real test of a golf simulator is how realistic it feels. My persistent landing of the ball in the water at Sawgrass’s Island Green felt realistic, but I had nothing to compare it to. “For people who play a lot of golf and who come to a simulator, there’s always a ‘hump’,” says Day. “And that’s about whether you trust it. When we started out, getting over that hump would take four hours, but with this, it’s down to 30 to 40 minutes. My friends from the club are converts, and from a hitting shots perspective I don’t question it in any way.” But has it made him a better player? “It depends when you ask,” he laughs. “Sometimes, sometimes.”
