How the Cromford Golf Setup Works
- Make a booking via this website. Check the bookings page for availability and then ring 07770 880 832 to book a session.
- You will be sent a link to make payment for your session and given directions and instructions in a confirmation email confirming receipt of your payment and the time slot you have booked.
- Upon arriving at the Cromford Golf Facility the simulator will be immediately ready to use, you can just turn up and play, using either your own clubs or a set of golf clubs which is provided for free use and set out along the wall for easy access.
- Before leaving please return the Golf Sim software to the first tee of the course you were playing following the instructions you were given so that it is ready for the next player (by selecting ‘Quit’ then ‘Create Match’).
‘How-To’s in this Section
How to Get Started
How to Retake Your First Shot if You Made a Mistake
How to Auto-Rewind Shots
How to Putt
How to Get Started
- Take a golf ball from the hopper and position it somewhere around the green tee holder. You should see the light on the Launch Monitor turn from red to green.
- When you are ready, take a shot. You can either do so with a driver off a tee (check the light on the GC2 launch monitor is still green, it should be) or from somewhere on the mat just behind and to the left of the tee holder. There is an area where the ball will be picked up. The best place to position the ball is somewhere in the middle of that area.
- You can see the balls position move in the target area on the GC2 screen as you move the ball around.
- If you don’t want to count this first shot, press the Esc key on the back of the remote control and select ‘Rewind Shot’ from the menu, then you can take that shot again. You can repeat this as many times as you want.
How to Retake Your First Shot
Your first shot should just be to see how the Simulator works in case you’ve never used one before.
So you may want to retake it.
To do this use the Rewind feature – press the Esc key on the back of the remote control and select ‘Rewind Shot’ from the menu.
How to Auto-Rewind Shots
The Auto-Rewind function is extremely useful if you want to hit many shots with the same club (or with any club) to practice or check your distances – like at the Driving Range.
You don’t need to be at the Driving Range to do this, you can just turn on the Auto-Rewind feature and the software will automatically bring you back to the same spot to repeat the same shot.
To toggle the Auto-Rewind feature on and off, press the ‘R’ button on the remote control.
How to Putt
OK, so putting does take some getting used to on any golf simulator and TGC 2019 is no different. The best way to get used to it is when you first hit your ball onto a green and are ready to take your first putt, press the ‘R’ key on the remote control to switch on Auto-Rewind as above and try out a few putts to get a feel for it, then when you are ready, press the ‘R” key again to switch off Auto-Rewind and you are ready to take your first actual putt (you can always use the Escape Rewind feature if you want to take your actual putt again even after switching the Auto-Rewind off).
The slopes on the greens are represented by white ‘beads’ running along gridlines to represent the slope of the green. These white beads effectively run down the slope and the faster they move, the steeper and faster the slope is. In addition if the slope is very severe the grid line will be coloured yellow and if the slope is very very very severe, it will be coloured red.
Once you have an idea what the grid and the graphics on the screen are telling you, follow this procedure to take the actual putt:
- Using the ‘<‘ and the ‘>’ keys on the remote control, move the aiming marker to aim where you think you need to to allow for the slope and the break in the putt (e.g. if you think there is a slight slope from right to left, try aiming at the right lip of the hole or maybe just outside the right edge of the hole on the right depending upon how much break you think there is).
- Once you have your aim set with the aiming marker, with the ball positioned on the edge of the hitting area nearest your feet and the light on the GC2 showing green, get ready to strike the ball and take your putt.
- Focusing ONLY on the speed you want to hit the ball and without aiming left or right with your putter (because you already aimed with the keys and the aiming marker) take th eputting stroke. Again, the stroke is only about etting the right weight of the putt, the aim is done with the remote control and the ‘<‘ and ‘>’ keys.
This may seem very strange at first – to only think about the weight of the putt but it is actually a very good way to putt which you absolutely can take to the golf course. It effectively separates the aiming part of the putt from the execution of the shot which is just about stroking the ball well in order to get the right weight.
There are actually two ways of configuring the putting system with the TGC software, one where you aim with the putter and one where you aim with controls (Straight Putting=On) where effectively the GC2 Launch Monitor will read the putt as being hit straight and just calculate the distance based on the strength with which you stroked the ball (the ball speed). This allows you to aim more precisely with the keys.
How to Use the TGC Keyboard Shortcuts
This video explains pretty well all of the TGC hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts which you can use in the game. Most of these are covered specifically for each purpose above but this video covers those above and more – well, pretty much all of them, as well as a few other tips which are useful to know in the game (such as penalties applied when you’re in the bunkers or the rough).