Golf4Fun Indoor Ryder Cup Round 1 2013/2014 – My first experience in a golf simulator
Seba lining up for his shot
Thermometer levels currently show just a few degrees above “0” and you might think that these are not necessarily the best conditions for playing golf. But last weekend for an afternoon I left the cold temperatures outside and took part in the first of round of the Golf4Fun Ryder Cup – an indoor event, played in a golf simulator.
The hopeful golfers on the day
Far away from the cold 14 golf enthusiastic gathered and kicked off the “indoor golf season” at GolfNow(Rapperswill-Jona). After a welcome drink and a few warm-up exercises, the individual players moved together into their flights and play kicked off.
Lounge Style meet Golf Course
For me it was the first time in a golf simulator. At first I had reservations about how playing in a golf simulator might feel. But after the first test shot, I realized that it is not so different to playing on a real golf course. Sure, at first it was unusual to hit a golf ball against a canvas, but the breath-taking view of the golf course on the canvas made me quickly forget that I was in an approx. 3 x 3 meters room.
Whether you have to play from the fairway, from the rough, out of a bunker or on the green, each of these scenarios were modelled by the simulator as you would expect. On the touchscreen, you can see the golf course from different perspectives, to consider your strategy of play and accordingly choose the desired tee-direction. Before each shot, the distance to the hole, ground conditions, wind conditions and much more information were displayed.
Urs decides on his approach for the next green
Sure, this is information that you do not necessarily get on a real golf course, but this helped me to analyse my own golf game and above all determine what club suited the required distance of any given shot. In addition, we were able to play together with much more experience players. A further advantage: there is no the “legwork” required between holes. Even then, I still have to say that I was pretty exhausted by the time we finished.
It was a really nice and enjoyable day. Above all, it was a lot of fun to play in such a relaxed atmosphere with lots of nice people together golf. I would like to thank Nora O’Sullivan, who has once again provided a wonderful and unique event and made it possible for all of us, not just on the warm days, but even on cold days, to have fun playing golf .
A big thank you also goes to PGA Pro Brian Murphy, who has accompanied me on my journey into the world of golf at Golfpoint Urdorf during the past 3 months; giving me countless tips and information about the subtleties of golf in his lessons and answering all my questions patiently. Another thank you goes to Daniel Meier also from the Golfpoint Urdorf, who taught me in a very sympathetic and detailed way, the rules of golf.
Our round 1 winners, Paul on the left bagged 1st place, David 2nd. Both took home prizes from SWISS Golf Traveller!
Perhaps one or the other golf enthusiasts from my first indoor encounter had a similar experience and who knows; maybe we’ll meet again on 01/25/2014, when it comes to the second round of the Ryder Cup? One thing I can already say: Good humour and fun are guaranteed.
Seba Hallay, “Hopeful Rabbit 2014”