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Advice on purchasing a Golf Simulator

"We're the best ! No need to look elsewhere !"

"The sun is always shining with us"

That's basically what you're going to hear from nearly all golf simulator manufactures.

And if you believe the marketing on their web sites, then there's no - or very little - difference between a $299 OptiShot and a $25,000 Trackman

So how's a prospective purchaser going to make a purchase decision when they all claim to be the best?

Here's my recommended check list:

1. Don't believe a word of the marketing hype you read without seeing concrete evidence of what they are claiming.

You may notice that GSA Golf publishes the "pros and cons" of a particular product we make and actually state "Warnings" about some products.

You won't see that sort of thing on any other golf sim website because it's "bad for business" and there are no "cons". Just "pros".

Not so with us. While other's main objective is to earn as much money as possible, we're in this business because it's a passion

and as long as we can make a basic living, we're just fine with that.

2. Don't be fooled by endorsements from high profile golfers that are being paid high sums of money to endorse products.

After all, they too are in the business of making money and they'll basically say anything you want if the price is right.

3. Don't always believe reviews

I know for a fact that many reviewers are being paid kick-backs from the manufaturers for a good review. They contact us too.

4. Don't be fooled by massive advertising

You'll probably know that once you enter a keyword into Google

(like "Golf Simulator")

then you'll see pop-up ads everywhere you search on the internet for paticular brands of "Golf Simulators"

The only thing this proves is that they make a lot of money on the sale or their products at your cost.

5. If you're purchasing a full scale system, will the manufacturer be custom making your enclosure to fit your size requirements?

Unless you're paying upwards of $50,000 then the answer to this is probably "NO".

GSA Golf F3 full systems - on the other hand - are all custom made to fit your size requirements for just $9,995.

6. Does the manufacturer offer a wide range of golf game software options like E6, TGC, Perfect Parallel, RedChain, ProX etc...?

or are you just stuck with the single game software option they offer no matter if you like it or not ?

Note that GSA Golf offers all of the above golf game software options.

7. Are there any maintenance costs, subscriptions and system software upgrade costs?

Note that GSA Golf software upgrades are free of charge, there are no maintenance costs or subscriptions. Even small custom updates are free with us.

8. What about support? Does the manufacturer offer free remote access support?

Note that GSA Golf offers free remote access support and e-mail support free of charge for life.

9. If you're purchasing a full scale system, does the manufacturer tell you exactly what PC, Monitor and Projector you'll be supplied with?

I know from some golf simulator manufactureres and installers that have bragged to me how they sell a $299 PC as a hi-end PC for $3,000.

In contrast , GSA Golf PC's are truly hi-end Lenovo i7 PCs with ViewSonic 24 inch touch screen monitors and 400 watt sound systems

The high speed camera hype

10. Don't be fooled by claims of super high speed cameras running at 3000 plus frames per second

We know of many golf simulator manufactures that make blatantly false claims of their camera's fps rate.

Most we've seen and tested don't even manage 30 fps. The majority - if not all - of these claims are a total hype and only designed to fool the non-techical customer.

If the manufacturer is really telling the truth about their high speed camera claims then they wouldn't have a problem telling you what cameras they use

so that you can verify their claims by looking up the camera manufacturers spec sheets.

Don't be surprised that the golf simulator manufacturer doesn't supply you with this information though.

Note that no PC or computer system we know of can even process all these frames coming in at 3000 times a second,

so that fact alone defuncts their claims.

So what cameras do GSA Golf use, you may ask?

We use USB high resolution industrial machine vision cameras rated at 32 fps and lower resolution USB3 cameras running at 1500 fps

which - by the way - is more than twice the frame rate that other very well known golf simulator manufactures use in their $40,000 plus golf simulators even though they claim 3000 fps or more.

The low frame rate for our hi-resolution cameras is not an issue because these camera are not even free running.

They are in an idle state until they are triggered to capture just one frame of the ball or club with an extended exposure time.

In order to capture images like GSA Golf does, you'd need a super high speed camera in the 10,000 fps plus range.

I guess we could also claim such a high fps rate like the others do too, but we're too honest to stoop that low.

Note that our new USB 3 VisTrak cameras run at 1500 fps though

 

The world's first affordable hi-speed camera club and ball tracking system

11. Bottom line.

Try to makeup your own mind based on your own assessments without being influenced by any of the above mentioned marketing hype.

Be wary and compare features and prices.


Golf Simulator Components

 


Why GSA Golf ?

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Why spend $ 40,000 plus for a golf simulator ?

when you can get the same for a quarter of price

GSA Golf simulators start at just $ 5,995

GSA Golf simulators are the most advanced and best priced simulators on the market by far

Comparable systems from other manufacturers start at $ 35,000

GSA Golf enclosures are custom made to fit your size requirements

including padded grass turf carpeting throughout with nice wood trim,

multiple hitting surfaces (fairway, rough, sand and greens)

premium 3 layered impact screens up to 16ft wide,

3500 lumen's projectors and high end PC's with 24 inch touch screen monitors

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GSA Golf simulators use the latest camera tecnology top capture bot ball and club data

The number 1 best value high speed camera system on the market today offering both ball and club tracking.

Functions for both left and right handed players in the same flight!

No one else even comes close to our VisTrak system priced from just $699

Closest competitors are in the $18,000 to $25,000

The above image shows a typical VisTrak video screen shot.

When the video playback is run, you can see the club path, face angle, ball on club contact and ball direction precisely in every frame.

VisTrak's swing playback videos show your club path, speed and face angle plus ball speed and direction

in slow motion for every shot.

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Our cameras track all the important club and ball data including ball launch angle, azimuth, spin and speed.

Club tracking data includes club speed, face angle at impact to ball, club path.

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All data can be verified with real photographic evidence after each shot !

Note that this feature is unique to only GSA Golf systems. No other golf simulators on the market can provide this.

With all other golf simulator systems on the market, the player is forced to take the manufacturer's word that the data captured is correct.

There is no way for the player to verify that their measurements are in anyway correct.

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All GSA Golf systems are completely modular - start with just 1 camera or sensor mat and add more cameras and features as and when requirement or budget allows.

5

Choose from 6 different software systems

E6, E6 Connect, TGC, RedChain, Perfect Parallel and ProX

While others offer just one or maybe two, GSA Golf offers 6 different super high end software packages

including the world's ultimate and by far the best golf simulation software on market with E6, E6 Connect, TGC, Perfect Parallel and RedChain.

Over 100,000 golf courses with all the big names like St. Andrews and Pebble Beach


GSA Golf Simulator Alternatives

If you're shopping around for an affordable full camera based golf simulator

then you might want to know what alternatives there are to our systems.

We searched the web hi and low but couldn't find any affordable full camera simulators that track both club and ball with cameras.

The reason being: Because they simply don't exist !

GSA Golf is really the only golf sim manufacturer offering both club and ball camera tracking systems at an affordable price

Full camera club and ball tracking golf simulators

There are, however, 3 systems available on the market that do provide both club and ball camera tracking but they come at quite a price

SwingTrack from Visual Sports

In contrast to the GSA Golf camera club tracking system - that uses a trigger and Xenon flash -

SwingTrack uses constant "ON" lighting and video streaming method.

Advantage of the SwingTrack system is that you get multiple images of the club.

Disadvantage is that there is a constant bright light on in the enclosure and there's no ability to precisely grab images at certain distance from the ball before impact.

Click the above image to read more about the "Swing Track" from Visual Sports

Foresight Sports systems

Image from "GolfWrx.com"

The Foresight Sports golf simulator uses a GCQuad launch monitor - which alone is in the $15,000 to $18,000 range - that captures both ball and club data.

It's disadvantage is that it cannot be used for both left and right handed players in the same flight and that tracking dots have to be applied to the clubs.

According to the "GolfWrx.com" web site Foresight Sports golf simulators cost between $35,000 and $75,000

FullSwing

FullSwing is another great all camera golf simulator

According to the "GolfWrx.com" web site Foresight Sports golf simulators cost between $45,000 and $65,000

Note that all these systems are excellent systems and we are not criticizing them in anyway.

It's just that they both come at a very high price compared to GSA Golf systems.

Hybrid tracking golf simulators

i.e. systems that combine both camera or microphone and optical sensor tracking

There are a number of hybrid tracking golf simulators on the market.

The most notable is

TruGolf

Priced from around $12,995

Launch monitors

There are a number of camera and radar based launch monitors on the market that can also be used a golf simulator tracking system

Trackman

A Radar system that can be used for both left and right handed players in the same flight

Priced from around $18,995

FlightScope

A Radar system that can be used for both left and right handed players in the same flight

Priced from around $15,995

SkyTrak

A camera based system that cannot !

be used for both left and right handed players in the same flight

Priced from around $2,000 plus $400 per annum subscription fee for TGC software

GSA Golf LX and KX launch monitors

High speed camera launch monitors

Priced from $1,699

Foresight Sports systems - GCquad

A camera based system that cannot

be used for both left and right handed players in the same flight

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Purchase your complete golf simulator with GC Hawk or GC2 launch monitors

direct from GSA Golf

Priced from around $18,000


GSA Golf - World class golf simulators you can afford

BTW Note that for the price of a single GCquad or Trackman without enclosure, you can get 3 of our F2 simulators complete

with enclosures, padded flooring, premium impact screen, high end PC with touch screen monitor, 400 watt sound system and beamers!

featuring the world's best software including E6, Perfect Parallel and TGC

GSA Golf reseller / investor inquirers welcome

 

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