Golf-simulator preflight checklist: five minutes before the first shot

Check the room, containment, tracking, software and people in a consistent order before every simulator session.

By the Garden Golf Kit team

A permanent simulator still changes between sessions. A chair moves, a cable loosens, a screen wears or a software setting remains from the previous player. Use the same preflight order every time.

1. Secure the room

Close or control entrances, remove people and pets from the hitting area, clear the swing and floor, and confirm the door or garage mechanism cannot move into the session.

2. Inspect containment

Check the impact area, surrounding net, frame padding, fixings and required space behind the screen. Stop for holes, pulled seams, exposed frame or anything outside the maker's instructions.

3. Confirm the measured layout

Check ball position, mat stability, device location, level, target line and the correct handedness. Garmin and Rapsodo both make alignment and exact distances part of setup for their rear-mounted devices.

4. Start the system before the player

Open the correct mode, confirm the current player and ball setting, check the display alignment and wait for the device's ready indication. Keep updates and account troubleshooting outside the hitting area.

5. Brief everyone

Only the golfer enters the hitting zone. Agree when balls are collected, where spectators stand and how a session stops. After any frame strike, escaped ball, equipment movement or unexpected reading, pause and repeat the relevant checks.

Print or copy a checklist using the exact manuals in your setup. This page supplies the order, not the model-specific pass criteria.