{"id":515053,"date":"2026-03-05T02:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515053\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T02:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:49:13","slug":"recaps-the-best-of-indoor-golf-from-the-pga-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/515053\/","title":{"rendered":"Recaps the best of indoor golf from the PGA Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s better hardware and software or AI technology, the one thing that was evident at the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando is that launch monitors and home simulators<\/a> continue to improve. And there\u2019s a lot of healthy competition in the industry.<\/p>\n

The last part, of course, is great for consumers as better sims and launch monitors are becoming even more affordable. They have more features than ever, and soon, they might even be able to coach you.<\/p>\n

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But as our expert, Jon Sherman, points out, there are still some limitations, so don\u2019t ditch your instructor quite yet. Overall, though, it\u2019s never been better to be a golfer, whether it\u2019s working on your game on a simulator or the range, or simply enjoying virtual golf, even in the offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not exactly like the TV market. But you\u2019re getting better TVs for less money than you did 15 or 20 years ago,\u201d says Sherman, who is the founder of Practical Golf<\/a>, whose newsletters, website, and podcasts are all about helping golfers get better and how technology can aid in that pursuit. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know if it will be that extreme, but that\u2019s generally what\u2019s happening. Like the hardware is getting better, and it\u2019s not costing as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Square<\/p>\n

Sherman is also an affiliate for the Celina, Texas-based Indoor Golf Shop<\/a>, which offers an industry-leading selection of residential and commercial indoor golf equipment, which includes a full selection of launch monitors<\/a> and simulators from companies like \u00a0Trackman<\/a>, Uneekor<\/a>,\u00a0Garmin<\/a>, Bushnell<\/a>, Flightscope<\/a>, ProTee<\/a>, Full Swing<\/a>, and Tru Golf<\/a>. The company also offers projectors<\/a>, wall padding<\/a>, golf mats<\/a>, and many other products to help you set up your own sim at home.<\/p>\n

Sherman says that the 2026 PGA Show featured companies that are not only offering new artificial intelligence applications, but hardware and software that allow some simulators to provide data with clubhead or ball data without stickers. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how accurate that is, but that could be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that golfers want to know how much it costs to get an accurate launch monitor that also provides good simulation. \u201cI think that answer will keep changing over the next three to five years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE OF THE PGA SHOW RECAP FROM THE INDOOR GOLF SHOP TEAM:<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TIGS-PGAShow-VideScreenshot-01.png\"<\/p>\n

When asked what innovations impressed him at the PGA Show, Sherman listed a few, starting with a product called Drop Tee.\u00a0 It\u2019s a modular piece of turf that can be easily integrated into most mats. It detects a ball and can be set to tee up a ball from a half inch to two inches. \u201cIt\u2019s a cool little problem solver,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n

Another product that caught his attention was the new offering from Square Golf, which has an excellent launch monitor for well under $1,000. The new launch monitor, Square Omni<\/a>, which has a screen, could come in around $1,600, he says, but offers plenty of accuracy and realism. There is no subscription, and it can even measure putting. \u201cI think at that price point, it could potentially be another disruptor for people who want to build a home simulator on a budget. And it works outdoors as well, which the prior model did not,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And Rapsodo<\/a>, which has seen so much success with its $700 MLM2Pro<\/a>, is now offering a value-priced overhead unit that Sherman says could also be a disruptor in that space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when it comes to improving your game using sims and launch monitors, the big question revolves around using artificial intelligence. In other words, can launch monitors use AI to coach you to a better game? Sherman just did a podcast on this very topic, and he says he\u2019s on the fence right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love technology. I use it myself, but I also don\u2019t want it to confuse people and overwhelm them and put them on a wild goose chase,\u201d he says. \u201cDo I think that right now that AI is capable of giving you really good swing advice? Possibly not, because the golf swing is so nuanced.\u201d<\/p>\n

One AI product that received a lot of buzz at the Show was AIMY from Uneekor. It\u2019s a prototype that is scheduled for release later this year. Using at least two cameras, it analyzes various aspects of a golfer\u2019s swing, then identifies flaws and offers corrections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you’re integrating ball data, club data, and 3-D data all together,\u201d says Sherman, who thought the concept was very cool and interesting. \u201cEventually that could be a killer feature.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when, if ever, will it be able to replace good human coaches?<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on my usage of AI \u2013 and I\u2019m a heavy user of Chat GPT \u2013 it confidently makes mistakes,\u201d Sherman says. \u201cThe golf swing is incredibly complicated. If you ask 15 different instructors how they would fix somebody\u2019s golf swing, they might give you 15 different answers. How does AI decide that? Whose model of the swing are they using? Does it have the judgment a seasoned golf coach has?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman says one of the most valuable skills great instructors or coaches have is their ability to communicate. That might mean what they tell their students and what they won\u2019t tell them based on their ability to learn and process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, a player might have several swing flaws, but good instructors, drawing from their experience, might realize that correcting the right swing flaw or saying the right thing could correct the other deficiencies, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt requires a lot of judgment that I’m not sure AI has yet,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just not ready to declare that this is the answer to golfers\u2019 problems, using an AI chatbot. I think it\u2019s very interesting, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, another company that\u2019s been gaining momentum as of late is GolfIn<\/a>, which has been a bit under the radar. Its latest offering, the IDRA Pro, garnered a lot of buzz at the show.\u00a0The new launch monitor boasts extensive spin and club data without using stickers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like they\u2019re trying to go into the professional territory, getting all the data that a club fitter or instructor would want at a little bit lower price level than Foresight or Trackman. I think it’s potentially a matter of brand recognition.\u201d Sherman says.<\/p>\n

Again, in the end, golfers and pros benefit from increased competition among companies that build and develop these units.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers have a difficult choice to make,” Sherman says. “I think a lot of decisions end up boiling down to not just price but the software that comes with that product. So it’s not necessarily just a hardware decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether it\u2019s better hardware and software or AI technology, the one thing that was evident at the recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-515053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}