--- title: Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator | TIME description: The $400 OptiShot Infrared Golf Simulator lets you use your own clubs to hit the links indoors all winter long. canonical: https://time.com/video/ViTBvBvX/ og:title: Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator og:description: The $400 OptiShot Infrared Golf Simulator lets you use your own clubs to hit the links indoors all winter long. og:url: https://time.com/video/ViTBvBvX/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ViTBvBvX/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator twitter:description: The $400 OptiShot Infrared Golf Simulator lets you use your own clubs to hit the links indoors all winter long. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ViTBvBvX/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator [Watch (HLS stream): Use Your Own Clubs with the OptiShot Golf Simulator](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ViTBvBvX.m3u8) (3:52)  _Published 2013-02-12. The $400 OptiShot Infrared Golf Simulator lets you use your own clubs to hit the links indoors all winter long._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:30 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Report: President Trump Installs $50,000 Golf Simulator in the White House](/video/Klcu0TEp/) ### Report: President Trump Installs $50,000 Golf Simulator in the White House [The Most Expensive Golf Clubs MONEY](/video/QajiusAU/) ### The Most Expensive Golf Clubs MONEY [Trump Crashed a Wedding at His Golf Club ](/video/odsqhsue/) ### Trump Crashed a Wedding at His Golf Club --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Winter. Don't much care for it. I know what you're thinking. Doug, how do you stay in shape in the Winter? You look really athletic. Like, I know tech bloggers aren't supposed to be that athletic, but you look like super athletic, especially for a tech blogger. Well, thank you. I don't, I don't know what that thing even is. I assume it's for food preparation. I've never used it. Yes, I have a book coming out called Little Waist Little care. It's how training a little by little over a lot of time makes little muscles bigger and yes in a foot race I'm probably the fastest tech blogger I know. It's not just brute strength I mean I'm in to the finesse sports too like. Golf, sure wish I could play golf outside. Can't, snow. I'd be willing to settle for being able to play golf inside, using my own clubs, maybe some sort of golf simulator that was affordable, yet hooked up to my computer. You know, used optical tracking technology to gauge my swings and stuff. If you could use the optical word in the name, maybe call it Opti- Shot Oh, such a system exists? Oh. Okay. Let's take a look. Dancing Dogs $ 400 opti shot infrared golf simulator is priced just high enough that you expect it to be more than a gimmick [ INAUDIBLE ] controller but low enough that it's easier to make your peace with its shortcomings. The system is made up of 14 inch long by ten inch wide platform of artificial turf containing a t area flanked by a row of infrared sensors on either end. The platform connects to your PC with a ten foot USB cable and measures your club head speed, face angle and swing path in real time. You can hit the included foam practice balls, [ SOUND ] real golf balls, or nothing at all. [ SOUND ] I didn't get a chance to hit real golf balls in my living room, unfortunately, because I am, married and would like to stay married. All the technology inside makes the platform about an inch and a quarter thick so you'll want to stand on something close to that thickness in order to compensate. I stood on a thick rug and positioned the platform next to it on a hardwood floor which worked fine. The optishot software lets you practice on a driving range or play one of 11 real life courses. Most of the names of those courses are altered to avoid legal issues. With 14 additional courses that can be purchased for a whopping $ 50 a piece. The software's interface can be a bit rough around the edges in certain parts. But overall I was pleasantly surprised by the visual quality of the courses and how fluidly the endgame animations portrayed my real- life shot. Putting is something of an after thought. You can set the game to auto- putt for you or bless you with a gimme within a certain range of the cup. I, I still putted on every hole but I found the green speeds to be unrealistically fast, even when cranked down to the slowest level. As for chipping and pitching, I was almost certain the OptiShot wouldn't be able to accurately detect anything less than a full swing. But I've been pleasantly surprised with how well it's been able to handle shots from within 50 yards of the green, or shots of say 75 % of full back swing. All things considered, I like the OptiShot very much. The system is creepy in a good way. It knows I slice my drives if I swing too hard, it knows I can't hit my sand wedge straight. It knows I pull my hybrid and it knows I decelerate when I'm pitching from 30 yards out. At $ 400, it's enough of an investment that you'll probably wanna try it out yourself first. But it works well enough that it's got me half wishing I had a big house in the suburbs with a spacious rumpus room. So I can hit the links all winter long. [ NOISE ] What's my handicap? That I love too much? That I work too hard? That I care about other people inspite of my own happiness. Oh, golf? What's my golf handicap? I don't know. Scratch. 18. 18 is scratch, right? You scratch one from each hole. Scratch is nothing? Zero? That's imposs. That's ridiculous. That's impossible. Scratch. Scratch zero. You, you are scratching a record by saying that. It is zero. What? 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