Every product we review follows the same five-step protocol — products purchased at retail, tested in real homes, measured against a Trackman 4 baseline. Here's exactly how we do it.
Most golf gear review sites are funded by the brands they cover. We're not. We built an independent testing process from scratch — borrowing from consumer lab testing and sports science — so our numbers can be trusted.
We buy every product ourselves at the price any golfer would pay. No pre-production units, no press samples, no manufacturer loans that might create an obligation to be kind.
Testing happens in actual garages, basements, and converted rooms — not controlled lab environments that don't reflect what golfers actually experience at home.
All launch monitor and simulator data is cross-referenced against a Trackman 4 — the industry's gold standard — at a certified teaching facility. We report actual variance, not impressions.
Minimum four weeks per product. Short-term testing misses firmware bugs, calibration drift, and software issues that only surface after sustained use.
Raw data tables published with every review. No summary scores without the supporting numbers. No cherry-picked sessions. If a product underperformed, the data shows it.
Reviews are updated when firmware changes meaningfully affect performance, when pricing changes significantly, or when we run additional test sessions. Update history logged on each page.
We buy every product using our own money at the price any golfer would pay — from Amazon, the manufacturer's site, or an authorised retailer. No discounts negotiated in exchange for coverage. No manufacturer loans. No pre-production review units. We keep receipts and publish the purchase date in every review, so you can see exactly what version and firmware was tested.
Every product is set up in the conditions our readers actually use — garages with 9–10ft ceilings, finished basements with carpet, converted rooms with low ambient light. We test at three ceiling heights (9ft, 9.5ft, 10ft) and under at least two lighting configurations. For launch monitors, we also test both indoors and outdoors where relevant. We don't use press showrooms or manufacturer test facilities.
For every launch monitor and simulator we review, we run side-by-side sessions against a Trackman 4 at a certified teaching facility. A minimum of 50 shots per club type (driver, 7-iron, wedge) are recorded on both devices simultaneously. We calculate mean absolute error for ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, carry distance, and smash factor. These numbers are published verbatim — positive deviations and negative ones alike.
After the baseline session, the product lives in active use for a minimum of four weeks. This catches firmware instability, battery or connectivity degradation, software update impacts, and calibration drift. We log any changes in performance week-over-week. Products that fail meaningfully after the first week are flagged in the review — not hidden. Training aids and mats are used daily by at least two different golfers across the testing window.
The final review includes the full data table from our Trackman comparison, per-week usage notes, a scored breakdown across our five criteria, and our honest verdict. We don't omit metrics where the product underperformed, and we don't round up scores to soften bad results. If we found something unexpected — good or bad — it's in the review.
Press rooms and manufacturer showrooms are purpose-built to make products look their best. We test in the spaces your simulator will actually live in.
For launch monitors and simulators, we record the following metrics on every shot and compare mean absolute error against the Trackman 4 baseline.
| Metric | Type | Target accuracy | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball speed | Core | ± 1 mph | Primary driver of carry distance — even small errors compound significantly at distance. |
| Club head speed | Core | ± 1 mph | Used to calculate smash factor and calibrate distance models. Errors affect all downstream metrics. |
| Launch angle | Core | ± 1° | Critical for carry and apex height modelling. Indoor-only devices often struggle with this in low light. |
| Backspin (rpm) | Core | ± 200 rpm | The hardest metric to measure accurately. Major differentiator between budget and premium devices. |
| Sidespin (rpm) | Core | ± 300 rpm | Determines shot shape accuracy. Most sub-$1,000 devices estimate rather than directly measure this. |
| Carry distance | Core | ± 3 yards | The metric golfers care most about. We measure real outdoor carry and compare to the device's calculated carry. |
| Smash factor | Core | ± 0.02 | Ball speed ÷ club speed. A consistency check — errors here expose underlying speed measurement issues. |
| Club path | Extended | ± 1.5° | Tested on devices that claim to measure it. Key for fitting and coaching applications. |
| Face angle | Extended | ± 1° | Direct indicator of shot starting direction. Only reliable on camera-based and higher-end radar systems. |
| Apex height | Extended | ± 4 yards | Useful for course simulation accuracy. Depends heavily on spin measurement quality. |
Every launch monitor and simulator is scored across five criteria. The weighted average becomes the overall score shown at the top of each review.
Mean absolute error vs Trackman 4 across all core metrics. The most heavily weighted criterion — a simulator is only useful if its numbers are reliable.
Course quality, UI responsiveness, app stability, multiplayer features, and software subscription value. Tested across all supported platforms.
Time from unboxing to first shot, calibration complexity, portability, and how intuitive day-to-day use is for a non-technical golfer.
Performance relative to price, including software subscription costs. Cheaper products aren't penalised for being cheap — they're scored against their price tier.
Training aids and accessories are scored differently — accuracy vs Trackman isn't relevant for a swing trainer. Those reviews use: Effectiveness (does it fix the fault it claims to fix, measured over 6 weeks), Build quality, Learning curve, and Value — weighted equally at 25% each.
Our testing process is designed to eliminate every incentive to produce flattering reviews. Here's exactly how.
These are hard rules, not guidelines. We've turned down commercial arrangements that would cross any of these lines.
Golf simulator technology moves fast. Firmware updates can meaningfully change accuracy. Prices shift weekly. We treat reviews as living documents.
When a manufacturer releases a firmware update that claims to improve accuracy, we re-run our Trackman baseline session and update the data table and score accordingly. The previous score and date are preserved in the update log.
All prices are verified every Friday against current retailer listings. Price changes that affect a product's value score are updated within 48 hours. Software subscription price changes are treated the same way.
When a manufacturer releases a hardware revision under the same product name, we purchase and test the new version and update the review — clearly marking which version each data set refers to.
Major software updates — new courses, changed subscription tiers, UI overhauls — trigger a software score review. Minor updates are noted in the changelog but don't change the score.
If a reader identifies a factual error or supplies contradictory data, we investigate and publish a correction notice if warranted — visible on the review page with the date it was made.
Every review carries a "Last tested" date and a full changelog at the bottom. Outdated reviews that haven't been re-tested in over 12 months are flagged with a notice until we can re-verify.
Browse our full review library — every guide built on the same rigorous process described above.