The vocabulary of the sim room — every term you’ll hit in the guides, defined the way they’re used here.
Photometric
Launch monitor type that photographs the ball (and sometimes club) with high-speed cameras at impact. Excellent indoors; needs very little ball flight to measure.
Radar (Doppler)
Launch monitor type that tracks the ball in flight using Doppler radar. Great outdoors, but indoors it wants more room depth — several feet of ball flight before the screen.
Carry vs Total
Carry is how far the ball flies before landing; total adds roll. Sims measure carry well — total is always a modeled guess about turf you’re not standing on.
Ball Data vs Club Data
Ball data: speed, launch angle, spin. Club data: club path, face angle, attack angle. Entry monitors measure ball data and estimate the club; trusting estimated club numbers is how practice goes sideways.
Spin Axis
The tilt of the ball’s spin, which determines curve — a draw or fade is just spin axis in degrees. One of the numbers that separates trustworthy monitors from hopeful ones.
Smash Factor
Ball speed divided by club speed — a contact-quality number. Useful trend, but treat single-swing smash readings on budget monitors with suspicion.
Dispersion
The scatter pattern of your shots around a target. The most honest picture of your game a sim gives you — averages flatter, dispersion doesn’t.
Swing Clearance
The room you need to swing a club safely — ceiling height for the driver arc, width for your follow-through. Verified with slow swings in the actual spot, never assumed from a floor plan.
Screen Offset
The gap between the impact screen and the wall behind it. The screen needs room to absorb and flex — mounting it tight to a wall is how screens and walls both die.
Bounce-Back
A ball rebounding off the screen or net toward the golfer. A real safety issue driven by screen tension, offset, and ball speed — the reason containment is a system, not a curtain.
Impact Screen
Tensioned fabric screen that absorbs real ball strikes while serving as the projection surface. Wears with use — screen-wear management is part of owning one.
Short-Throw
A projector that casts a large image from close to the screen, so your body and the ball flight don’t shadow the picture. The default choice for enclosures.
Keystone
The distortion when a projector sits off-angle to the screen, and the correction that fixes it digitally. Every digital correction costs sharpness — physical alignment first, keystone last.
Mat Lie
How honestly a hitting mat presents the ball and punishes fat shots. Hard board-like mats hide fat contact and transfer the shock to your wrists instead of your scorecard.
GSPro
Community-driven simulator software with a huge course ecosystem and an open feel. The daily driver in my room; E6 Connect is the polished commercial alternative.