Indoor simulator fitting has improved dramatically in the last five years. The screens are more accurate, the launch monitors are more reliable, and the data quality has caught up. So why do we still insist on fitting outdoors at Bogey's?
The short answer: the data on a launch monitor and the ball you watch in the air are different inputs. A great fitting uses both. Indoor fittings give you only one.
Where indoor simulator fitting works.
Off-season feedback. You're snowed in, the range is closed, you want to noodle with a new driver or putter. An indoor sim with a launch monitor is fine. You'll get usable numbers.
Quick check-ins on existing builds. Lie angle measurements, loft verification, swing weight feel. None of that needs a range.
Putter fittings on flat surfaces. Putters are about stroke arc and roll quality. A good indoor putting setup with a stimped surface gets you most of the way there.
Where indoor breaks down.
Driver and fairway wood fittings. The ball's actual flight tells you things no simulator can simulate: how the ball reacts in real wind, how it falls out of the sky, how it draws or fades at peak height. A 4-degree draw on a screen looks the same as a 4-degree draw outside. In reality one finds the fairway and the other lands in the next-door state.
“A 4-degree draw on a screen looks the same as a 4-degree draw outside. In reality one finds the fairway and the other lands in the next-door state.”
Iron fittings, especially players' irons. Real ball flight shows you how an iron actually launches and lands, the part a screen has to estimate. Customers swear they hit a certain iron well indoors, then watch it balloon or come up short the first time they see it fly outside.
Wedge fittings. Spin, launch, and how the ball checks up are the whole point of a wedge, and a net hides all three. You have to watch the shot land. There is no good way to fit a wedge indoors. None.
Distance control on the long stuff. A screen flattens how far the ball really carries and rolls out. Outside you see the full result, so the number you trust is the one you'll actually hit.
Why we fit outdoors at Bogey's.
Bogey's Sports Park has a public, year-round outdoor driving range. We can fit drivers, fairways, hybrids, irons, and wedges in the open air, in the conditions you'd actually play in. Trackman captures the launch monitor data at the same time. So you get both inputs at once. The numbers and the ball flight. The decision becomes obvious instead of speculative.
If you've only ever been fit indoors, come try outdoor. The first time you see a fitting shaft change a 30-yard left miss into a 5-yard fade you can actually watch in the air, you'll understand why we set up the way we did.
Written by
Jay Canada
Co-owner · Fitting specialist
Want to dig in further?
Call the shop and we’ll work through it on the range.
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