Marcus Bell
Has built and rebuilt his own garage simulator more times than he'll admit, and covers the gear that goes in one — launch monitors, projectors, screens and mats. Reckons winter is for scoring, not hibernating.
Latest by Marcus
SportScreen Vanish vs Carl's Place Pro: the retractable one is cheaper, and the room's other job decides it
One rolls up into a ceiling housing so the garage goes back to being a garage. The other is a fixed, framed room you can order to the exact size of your wall. As we list them, the retractable is the cheaper of the two, and the pipes are not in the Carl's box.
By Marcus Bell
Fiberbuilt Player Preferred vs Studio Grass: same turf, and the cheaper one fixes something the flagship never will
Both mats stand on the same grass-blade turf, so feel isn't the difference. What you are actually paying for is a vibration layer rated at 94 per cent on one and a centre hitting strip on the other, and only one of those solves a problem that otherwise costs thousands.
By Marcus Bell
BenQ publishes a zero-degree floor for its sim projector. No launch monitor maker publishes one at all
Most home sims live in an unheated garage, shed or loft, and winter is the entire point of owning one. Cold does not throw an error message. It quietly changes the room, the kit and every number you are given.
By Marcus Bell
BenQ LK936ST vs Optoma GT2100HDR: the projector decision is about your room, not your budget
Two short-throw laser projectors for a golf simulator, separated by roughly threefold on price. The right answer is set by the light in your room and the distance you actually have, not by the lumen number.
By Marcus Bell
Uneekor EYE MINI vs Bushnell Launch Pro: over three years the subscription box is still the cheaper one
Two photometric units, two completely different bargains. Add up three years of ownership and the cheaper box is still the cheaper box, which changes what the EYE MINI premium is really for.
By Marcus Bell
ProTee VX vs Trackman iO: the iO costs 77 per cent more, and that gap only pays if the bay earns money
Two ceiling-mounted launch monitors, one clear hitting bay, and a price gap of roughly 77 per cent. The decision is less about accuracy than most buyers assume.
By Marcus Bell
Most of an enclosure's price is the screen. Most buyers don't realise that, and it settles this argument
The SIG10 arrives at well under half the Carl's Place Pro's ask with a screen that has already beaten the category favourite in independent testing. The Pro is answering a different question, and it is a question about your walls.
By Marcus Bell
Trackman iO vs Uneekor EYE XO2: the year-one trap
Both mount overhead, both want ten feet of ceiling, and about $3,000 separates them on the shelf. Then Trackman's included first year runs out, and the gap starts growing by $1,100 a year.
By Marcus Bell
Uneekor EYE XO2 vs Foresight GC3: ceiling or floor?
About $4,000 separates them, but they're not really rivals — one lives in your ceiling forever, the other sits on the floor and travels. The cheaper one is also the one with no subscription.
By Marcus Bell
70% of golfers used a simulator last year. 6% own one — and the reason isn't money
A survey of 391 golfers found the number one barrier to owning a home setup is space, not cost. I've been writing about this category the wrong way round, and so has everyone else.
By Marcus Bell
Launch Pro vs SkyTrak ST MAX: the subscription decides it
Two of the most-recommended home-sim units, about $1,000 apart on the sticker. Run the software costs for three years and the gap gets much wider — in one specific direction.
By Marcus Bell
Your launch monitor isn't the most important thing you'll plug in, and the bill nobody budgets for proves it
Every home sim budget on the internet lists the sensor, the screen, the mat and the projector. Two line items decide whether the room is actually good, and neither one is on the list.
By Marcus Bell
Trackman iO review: the launch monitor you buy once, and the four reasons most people shouldn't
The most expensive thing in our catalogue, and it earns the badge. But there are 4 honest reasons it isn't the right buy for most home sim rooms — and the rung below gets a lot of people most of the way.
By Marcus Bell
Carl's Place DIY vs Pro enclosure: the real question is whether you own a mitre saw
The $2,900 gap between the two Carl's Place kits buys exactly two things: framing you don't have to build, and a screen matched to your room's light. Here's the honest test for which side of it you belong on, and why a DIY build quietly keeps costing more than the receipt says.
By Marcus Bell
Uneekor's cheapest way in saves you nearly 40% — here's exactly what you're giving up
The EYE MINI LITE undercuts the EYE MINI by roughly $1,750 and gives up exactly one thing: the ability to leave the room. Most home-sim buyers are paying for portability they will use twice.
By Marcus Bell
Your impact screen colour and your projector are one decision, not two
Grey screens absorb around 40% more ambient light, which is why they look so much better in a garage. They also swallow your projector's output — so choosing grey and then buying a mid-brightness projector gives you a worse picture than white would have.
By Marcus Bell
Your garage practice doesn't die in February because you lost motivation
It dies because of a small, stupid, entirely fixable thing: bending down. Twenty minutes of home practice contains about four minutes of golf and sixteen of picking balls up — and that ratio, not your willpower, is what kills the habit.
By Marcus Bell
Bushnell Launch Pro review: the unit that dragged fitting-grade data into the garage
Foresight Sports measurement for roughly a third of a GCQuad, indoors or out. The hardware is close to unimpeachable — the thing you need to think hard about is which subscription tier you'll actually live on.
By Marcus Bell
Overhead or beside the ball? The home-sim decision nobody explains until you've already bought
Every premium launch monitor guide ranks units by accuracy. Almost none of them tell you that where the thing physically sits will change your sim room more than the spec sheet will — and that one of these choices is permanent.
By Marcus Bell
Launch Pro vs Foresight GC3: I did the subscription maths and it says the opposite of what everyone tells you
Same measurement technology, $4,000 apart, and one of them bills you every year. The received wisdom is that the no-subscription unit wins over time. Run the actual numbers and it only wins if you'd have picked the expensive plan.
By Marcus Bell
You're upgrading your golf sim in the wrong order
The most common home-sim regret isn't a launch monitor's accuracy. It's a room you flinch in and a picture you can't see in daylight — and both get budgeted last.
By Marcus Bell
Square Golf launch monitor review: the camera unit that undercuts the radar crowd
A newer camera-based monitor that reads club data the budget radar crowd can't — and never charges a subscription. Here's honestly where it fits in a home sim.
By Marcus Bell
SkyTrak+ vs FlightScope Mevo+: your room decides this one, not your budget
Both are now outgoing models on run-out prices, which makes this more useful rather than less — the successors inherit the same trade-off. And it isn't the spec sheet. It's how much space you actually have.
By Marcus Bell
The mat is the one part of a home sim your body pays for — don't cheap out on it
Everyone agonises over the launch monitor and grabs the cheapest mat to save a few quid. It's backwards: the mat is the only component you physically feel on every single swing.
By Marcus Bell
The only three projectors worth buying for a golf simulator
Forget the spec-sheet rabbit hole. For a golf sim the projector decision comes down to two things — your room's light and your budget — and it lands on one of three.
By Marcus Bell
The four home golf simulators: what each budget threshold actually unlocks
Spend twice as much and you don't get twice the simulator — you cross into a different kind of room. Here's what genuinely changes at each tier, and the exact point where more money stops buying you more golf.
By Marcus Bell
