Junior Golfer's Take On The New Simulator At The Vintage Club

My son, Tyler Cornell, a freshman at Haddam-Killingworth High School, will be trying out for the school's golf team in two months. He brushed up on his game by taking a lesson from Jon Wilson, PGA golf professional as well as owner and director of The Sound Approach Golf Academy, and then spent an hour on the new golf simulator at the B-Fit Xpress Club. I talked with Tyler to get his impression of the new greens.

Patch: How close is the simulator to playing on a real course?

Cornell: The ball carries just like it would on a real golf course and when the ball bounces, it really sounds exactly like it would on an actual green. Also, you can actually hit out of a patch of "rough" in the simulator.

Patch: How is it different?

Cornell: It is different in that you know the distances for each shot but you are not playing on real grass.

Patch:  What are some of the coolest features?  

Cornell: It shows you the flight of the ball and all of your shot statistics, which really helps show what you are doing wrong and what  you can do to fix it.

Patch: Why wouldn't you just play Wii golf instead?

Cornell: That's a dumb question. Wii golf is nothing like it. 

Patch: Have you ever used a simulator before and, if so, how does this one compare?

Cornell: In the other simulator the sounds and graphics were worse, but mainly the major difference was having to hit from one spot on the bottom.

Patch: How well do the short game (chipping/putting) features perform? 

Cornell: The chipping is very accurate surprisingly, but the putting takes some time getting used to.

Patch: Is this something you can see yourself doing with friends? 

Cornell: Absolutely, I think that it is almost exactly like just going to play golf on an actual golf course with your friends, except it's not.