Imagine starting up your home simulator and stepping to the first tee of your local country club or favorite muni. You can prepare for a club tournament or boys trip, or invite your friends over to try and break the course record.

Most of the options on simulators are incredible recreations of exclusive courses that you may never get the chance to play in person due to travel constraints, greens fees or lack of access to private clubs. Carl’s Place in Milton, Wisconsin is looking to make local options available with their new course design service. Let their expert design team build a simulator course for you!

I had the chance to see this capability firsthand by comparing one of their designs to an in person round at a local Madison gem, University Ridge!

Carl’s Place is currently working on relaunching its virtual course design services offerings. With details on that still in the works and expected soon, be sure to stay tuned to their website: Carl’s Place home page.

The Course

University Ridge is a public golf course and the official home of the University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s golf teams. Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the course, which opened in 1991.

With five sets of tees ranging from 5,005 to 7,289 yards, University Ridge offers something for players of every ability level. Visually, the course offers a ton of variety with a wide open front nine full of beautiful rolling prairies and marshland. The back nine is carved out of dense Wisconsin woodlands building toward the signature 16th hole, a par 5 featuring 3 fairways and 12 bunkers.

We had great weather for our round! Early fall is a perfect time of year to enjoy the beautiful scenery around the course. The elevation changes and rolling hills make it challenging off the tee, but it offers a variety of shots to test any golfer.

A few tee shots really stood out in my mind from the 6th and 7th holes that are framed by marshland to the 13th, 15th, and 16th holes which offer risk-reward options through the tree-lined back nine.

Simulator Comparison

I decided to use these memorable shots to compare the virtual course to the real thing. I was interested to see how similarly the shots played. Could you get a sense for elevation change? Are the carry numbers correct? How well do the trees, water, bunkers and wild grasses translate on screen? How do the greens and fairways play when shots bounce, roll and spin?

Anyone who has ever played simulator golf will tell you that putting and chipping are often difficult to simulate since the depth perception is hard to display on an impact screen. I didn’t hold this against the Carl’s design since that is part of every simulator experience.

Hole 6

This long par 5 plays over 620 yards from the back tee. The water and marsh on the left frames one of the tougher tee shots on the front nine. The virtual course is just as intimidating! You need a good swing to ensure you can get to the green safely. Although we didn’t turn on the wind during the simulator round, par was a good score.

Hole 7

This short par 4 can almost be drivable when it plays downwind. We had perfect conditions and pulled driver to push the ball as close to the green as possible. This is where the simulated course conditions really impressed. The fairways and greens rolled out realistically. Game settings allow you to control the fairway and green firmness to match your preferred style of play. This was a fun tee shot on the simulator to let driver
loose!

Hole 13

This short par 4 tempts golfers to consider hitting driver and pushing the ball up near the green, but the prudent play is a long iron that takes the bunker on the left of the fairway out of play. A shot in the fairway rewards you with a very manageable wedge shot. The simulator really highlights the elevation change. The hole plays 20 yards up hill which dramatically affects the way the ball reacts when it lands. You can also notice the uphill lie on the approach shot. The accuracy of the course design was on full display!

Hole 15

Another par 4 with options off the tee. There is plenty of room to play an iron down the fairway and leave a wedge in. I took a cut driver up around the green-side bunker in both the real and simulated rounds. This hole is a good example of the visual design elements of the GSPro track. The trees and grasses look great, plus the lighting and sky textures made the course feel even more realistic.

Hole 16

The signature 16th hole is worth the wait! This hole did not disappoint, and if anything, the virtual course played tougher than on our perfect fall day. This hole has an almost blind tee shot with a split fairway. If you are bold enough to take it down the right fairway you are rewarded with a more direct line into the green in two.

The simulator replicated the tight look of the tee shot and the intimidating approach shot with its greenside bunkering. I hit my best drive of the day and had a great look from the left fairway to reach the green in two. It was one of my favorite birdies this year.

Conclusion

Playing an in-person and simulated round at the same course on back to back days has confirmed that you can get a similar experience in the hitting bay when outdoor golf isn’t possible. The visuals will remind you of all the best moments you experienced on the course and make offseason practice more fun.

I am already thinking about which courses to have Carl’s design staff create for my winter basement tournaments. There are some great additional features that you can take advantage of like on-course practice (if there is a specific hole that makes you lose sleep), different team and individual formats like scramble or stableford scoring, and online competition with other sim users.

This service isn’t only for golf course owners that have a golf simulator in their clubhouse to use on inclement weather days, in the offseason or for lessons. While course owners can pay for course design to make some additional revenue, the golf course design service can be for anyone.

Maybe you’re a homeowner with a golf simulator in your basement and you just love your local course (or another one you played half a world away) but would rather walk into your golf simulator to play it instead of packing up your clubs, driving your car or taking a plane, getting a tee time, hitting some range balls, and paying for greens fees.

If you are interested in getting a course created to play on your simulator, visit the Carl’s Place website and fill out the form there:

Virtual Golf Course Design with Carl’s Place

For more on University Ridge, check out their website using the link below:

University Ridge website

For more on my simulator setup and recommendations on designing your own with Carl’s Place, check out my article from earlier this year:

Some links in this article refer to an affiliate program that, at no cost to you, pay a small commission to WiscoGolfAddict

All images in this article by Jon Holzbauer and Brian Murphy for WiscoGolfAddict.com