Indoor Golf for Beginners: What to Bring and What to Expect

Most people who have never booked an indoor golf bay assume one of two things: that it is for good golfers, or that someone will be watching. Neither is true, and the second one is the reason we built the places the way we did.

Here is what actually happens, start to finish.

You do not need clubs

This is the single most common reason people do not book. Rental sets are $20 an hour per set, at every location, in men's, ladies' and juniors', right and left handed. Order them at least an hour before your session — the bays are unstaffed, so the set has to be put in your bay before you arrive. Nobody is there to fetch one for you at 9pm.

If you are coming as a group of four, you probably need one or two sets, not four. Golfers take turns.

Nobody is there

There is no front desk, no attendant and nobody to check you in. You book in the app, it emails you an access link, and the link works when you are standing at the door, from fifteen minutes before your booking starts. You let yourself in, you find your bay, you play.

That means two things worth knowing in advance:

• There is no one to ask. Everything you would normally ask a person is in the FAQ or on the screen in the bay. Have a look before you go.
• Nobody is watching you either. For a first-timer this is usually the part that matters. If you shank six in a row, the only witnesses are the people you brought.

If you would rather have four walls anyway, every location has private bays as well as open ones — it is $5 more an hour.

What an hour costs

You rent the bay, not a seat. The rate is the same whether one of you turns up or four:

• $22 an hour, Monday to Thursday
• $27 an hour, Friday through Sunday
• $15 an hour, midnight to 7am on weekdays

Four people splitting a weekday hour is $5.50 each. Add a rental set and one person playing a weekday hour is $42 all in. The full rate card has the member prices and the credit bundles.

What to wear

Anything you can swing in, and shoes you would not mind standing on a hitting mat in. There is no dress code and, again, nobody there to enforce one. Golf shoes are fine but unnecessary — spikeless only if you do bring them.

An hour is longer than you think

A full eighteen holes takes most groups well over an hour, so a first session is usually better spent on the range screen or a skills game than on a course you will not finish. The screen will offer you courses, competitions and online play; for a first go, the driving range and a closest-to-the-pin game will teach you more and frustrate you less.

If you do want to finish a round, book two hours. Sessions can be extended if the bay is free afterwards, but you have to book the extra time as a new session — the projector shuts off at the end of what you paid for.

The numbers on the screen

Every bay runs TrackMan iO, which tracks the club and the ball together and puts about thirty measurements on screen. On a first visit, ignore almost all of them. Two are worth watching:

• Carry — how far the ball actually flew. Most people discover their 7-iron goes shorter than they have been telling people.
• Ball speed — the honest measure of how well you struck it. It moves when you make contact properly, and it does not care how the swing looked.

Spin rate, launch angle, attack angle and the rest are genuinely useful once you have a swing to work on. They are noise on day one.

If you want someone to tell you what you are doing

We have CPGA professionals teaching at several locations, and a lesson on a simulator is a different thing to a lesson on a range — the coach can show you the number that changed when you fixed something. That is on the lessons page with each coach's background.

Booking one

Pick the location nearest you, book the bay, order clubs if you need them, and turn up. If it is your first time and you would rather have the place quiet, book a weekday morning or the overnight slot — they are the cheapest hours and the emptiest.