OPTISHOT 2

A FAIRWEATHER GOL FER, ROB CARNEY GETS TO GRIPS WITH THIS AFFORDABLE GOLF SIMULATOR

Price £369 URL golfswingsystems.co.uk SYS TEM REQUIREMENTS PC: Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10; graphics card with 256MB RAM; 3GB HD space; 4GB RAM; USB 2.0 port MA C: OS X 10.8 or later; integrated graphics or better; 3GB HD space; 4GB RAM Golf. It’s a game I love and hate in equal measures. But in the winter months, it can be particularly arduous as you have to battle the wind and rain as well as the fairways. And that’s where the ace new Optishot 2 comes in, being a simulator that enables you to play in the comfort of your (large) home or shed/garage (it has to be used indoors due to the sensors on the unit).

The Optishot 2 is essentially a mat with two lines of sensors and a tee-peg hole. There’s also a plastic ball supplied, but you can use a real ball or no ball at all. As you swing, the sensors track your club path and speed, then project your shot onto one of the virtual courses. The software is a breeze to set up, and the courses are pretty realistic.

I got my system from reseller Golf Swing Systems (golfswingsystems.co.uk), pairing it with a Masters driving net so that I could smack a real ball at full pelt off the mat without worry. But the company also does custom nets so you can project the computer screen onto them for a more realistic experience.

This is the next best thing to being out on the course. The software feels accurate, and my club distances echoed real life. Over the next month or two, I’ll be testing the software in more detail to see if this really can improve my game.