Home Simulator Gives Texas Retiree Confidence to Score Better
Meet the customer
If you spend more than a few minutes with retired Texan immunochemist David Gibson, you might mistake him for a longtime, Yoda-like golf teaching pro with decades of experience. His thoughts run deep on swing path, proper swing sequencing and which tenets of Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons ring most true in light of advancing equipment technology
Gibson is a game improvement aficionado who is athletic and active for a man in his mid-70s but ever since he installed th Protee VX golf simulator systemfrom The Indoor Golf Shop with an overhead mounted camera and projector system earlier in 2024, he’s been making rapid progress toward his scoring goals.
“I want to be a good golfer and I want to shoot good scores, but for me, it's the process as much as the score. I’m more consistent with my golf swing and it has become easier to see and fix swing flaws with the shot data and camera views on my simulator,” Gibson says.
“The golf swing is all about cause and effect, so it’s a huge benefit for me to have an air-conditioned garage where I can beat the Texas heat and turn swing flaws into strengths. In just a few months, I’ve made more progress toward improvement than I have in the past five years. I can see the face angle and swing path that is producing good shots versus getting away with bad habits.”
Gibson, who lives on a golf course in Temple, Texas, and also plays his fair share of golf in the Dallas area, takes regular lessons from a pro that he can now work on – with critical shot-data feedback – in the privacy and convenience of his home.
“My teacher has the TrackMan set up at his indoor teaching space, and he’s Callaway master fitter. Honestly, I think there's very little difference in the useful shot data I get from my system and what we look at when I go in for lessons.
The fact that I have the overhead technology and can really get immediate accurate feedback on my game is incredible. I’ve made adjustments to my setup and my swing path and I can even catch it when I’m rushing my swing. At my age, it’s important to generate more speed than you lose so I pay attention to that Smash Factor data a lot,” he explains.
It's not all grinding, pounding balls and crunching data for Gibson. He also enjoys playing courses he’s played in real life in his simulator, like Angel Fire Country Club in New Mexico and several of the courses he’s played while vacationing in Palm Springs.
Before he pulled the trigger on his Protee system, Gibson had plenty of questions and concerns about the system fitting into his designated space as well as worries if all the components would fit and if he was considering all options that would keep this expensive technology safe from hurtling golf balls. He says those concerns turned into plans of actions once we had his first few conversations with the team at The Indoor Golf Shop.
“The help from the Indoor Golf Shop team was phenomenal because I had no fear that I couldn't make it work. Every time I ran into a snag or had a question, everybody was so friendly about helping and they never made it seem like I was bugging them. I got to know them by their first names. The support was really valuable in getting this project done right. People are always fearful they’re about to make a $10,000 mistake, so having experts at your disposal to walk you through the steps gives you a lot of confidence,” says Gibson.
Gibson also has a uniquely analytical way of justifying the cost of an in-home simulator for an avid golfer. “If you are serious about golf, you might find a simulator is the most cost-effective way to improve your game. When you realize that you'll actually spend more money on new drivers, frustrating range sessions, lessons that you don’t reinforce with good feedback, the investment makes more sense. Over 10 years, you can spend a lot more than $9,000 or $10,000 trying to get more out of the game. You can spend a lot more on that and and not get where you want to be,” he explains.
