Blog4 min read
TrackMan's simulator library runs to 579 courses across 59 countries. The ones worth your hour, the seven within an hour's drive of Toronto, and what the difficulty rating actually means.
Book a bay, open the course list and you are looking at several hundred options with no obvious order. Most people play Pebble Beach, then St Andrews, then run out of ideas.
We went through TrackMan's published simulator course library properly. It currently lists 579 courses across 59 countries, and TrackMan rates each one for difficulty on a one-to-five scale. Here is how to navigate it.
The rating is not prestige, it is punishment. Of the 579 courses:
| Difficulty | Courses | | --- | --- | | 1 — forgiving | 27 | | 2 | 134 | | 3 — middle | 281 | | 4 | 120 | | 5 — brutal | 17 |
The thing most people get wrong: all four St Andrews courses, the Old Course included, are rated 1. That is not a mistake. The Old Course is enormously wide, with shared double greens and very little forced carry — it is a course you can play badly and still finish. Reputation and difficulty are different things.
If you want to be humbled, these are the only courses TrackMan rates 5:
Bethpage Black · Oakmont Country Club · Real Club Valderrama · Le Golf National · PGA National · PGA West Stadium · Trump National Doral Blue Monster · Trump International Dubai · Innisbrook Copperhead · Bellerive CC · The Concession · Glen Oaks Tournament Course · Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco · Club de Golf Chapultepec · The Reserve at Moonlight Basin · Devil's Island · Glen Abbey
That last one should interest you if you are reading this in Ontario.
This is the part nobody mentions about simulator golf in Toronto: several of the courses in the library are ones you have driven past.
| Course | Where | Par | Difficulty | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Glen Abbey GC | Ontario | 73 | 5 | | St. George's Golf and Country Club | Toronto | 71 | 3 | | Oakdale Golf and Country Club | Toronto | 72 | 3 | | Weston Golf and Country Club | Toronto | 72 | 3 | | Donalda Club | Toronto | 71 | 4 | | Hamilton Golf & Country Club | Ancaster | 70 | 3 | | Whistle Bear Golf Club | Cambridge | 72 | 3 |
St. George's has hosted the Canadian Open and is one of the best courses in the country; Hamilton and Glen Abbey have hosted it repeatedly. Most Toronto golfers will never get on any of them. You can play all seven this week, from a bay in North York, for less than a bucket of balls costs at a range.
Further afield in Canada the library has Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links in Cape Breton, Royal Montreal Blue, Royal Ottawa, Shaughnessy, Marine Drive, Nicklaus North and Fairmont Chateau Whistler — 22 Canadian courses in all.
Your first ever simulator round: St Andrews Old Course. Rated 1 for a reason — wide, playable, and you will finish it. The novelty of standing on the Swilcan Bridge does not hurt.
A proper test without being miserable: Pebble Beach Golf Links (par 71, difficulty 4). Hard enough to matter, famous enough to enjoy, and short enough that you can get round in a sensible hour.
When you want the course to fight back: Le Golf National or Bethpage Black. Both rated 5. Both will show you exactly which club you cannot hit under pressure.
A links education: Royal County Down, Royal Portrush Dunluce, Royal Troon, Royal Birkdale, Royal St George's and Royal Dornoch are all in there. Play them back to back and you learn more about wind and ground game than a season indoors otherwise gives you.
With a group who do not really play: one of the 23 short courses. Pinehurst Cradle (par 27) and Augusta Municipal's The Loop (par 27) are quick, fun and do not leave a beginner stranded on a par 5 for ten minutes while everyone waits.
Practice, not play: skip courses entirely and use the range and skills games. Our drills guide covers what to do instead.
An eighteen-hole round for a foursome will not fit in an hour. Two golfers can usually get round a shorter course in a booking of two hours; four should either book longer or play nine.
If you are planning a night out rather than a practice session, a short course or a skills competition gives everyone more shots and less standing about.
Course availability can vary with the software package a venue runs, so if you have your heart set on one particular track, check the list on the screen when you arrive. Everything above comes from TrackMan's own published library rather than from us.
Every Shotgun Golf bay runs TrackMan iO, at every location, at every hour. Rates · Locations · What the numbers on the screen mean
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