Is there a golf simulator you can play on your phone?

Yes. There are two kinds. Some apps turn your phone into the screen for a launch monitor you buy separately. Others, like Rakou, make the phone itself the club: you hold the iPhone like a grip, make a real swing, and the ball flies across a simulated hole. The second kind needs no ball, club, net or mat.

How does a phone golf simulator work without a ball?

It reads your swing instead of the ball. In Rakou, the phone's motion sensors read where its face pointed at impact, how fast your hands moved against your own usual swing, and your tempo. Those readings decide where the ball starts, how it curves and how far it goes. The ball flight is a model built from those readings, not a measurement of a real ball.

How accurate is a phone golf simulator?

It is accurate about what a phone can really sense: rotation, timing and how fast it moved. It cannot measure ball speed, spin, carry or club path, and an app that prints those numbers without a launch monitor is inventing them. Rakou shows speed only as a percentage of your usual swing, never in miles per hour, and flags a swing that is too fast for the phone to read fully.

Do I need a net, a mat or clubs?

Not with a phone-only simulator. There is no ball to stop and nothing to hit off, so all you need is room to swing your arms. That is why it fits in a living room, a hotel room or an apartment.

Is a phone golf simulator a replacement for a launch monitor?

No. A launch monitor measures the ball and costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. A phone-only simulator measures your hands and models the ball. They answer different questions. The phone is for the days you would otherwise not swing at all.

November 5, 20266 min read

Phone golf simulator: play a round with just your iPhone

A home golf simulator usually means a launch monitor, a screen, a projector, a net and a room to put them in. A phone golf simulator skips all of it. The phone is the club, and your real swing plays the hole. Here is how that works, what a phone can honestly read, and who it is for.

What a golf simulator actually does

A golf simulator does two jobs, and it helps to keep them apart.

It measures. A launch monitor uses radar or high-speed cameras to read the ball and the club: ball speed, launch, spin, face angle.
It simulates. Software turns those numbers into a shot on a virtual hole.

The measuring is what costs money. The simulating does not. A phone golf simulator keeps the game and swaps the measuring for what a phone can sense on its own.

Two kinds of golf simulator on your phone

The phone as a screen. Many simulator apps run on an iPhone or iPad, but only with a launch monitor on the floor reading a real ball. The phone shows the course. You still need clubs, balls, a net and room for a full swing. More in golf simulator on iPhone.

The phone as the club. You hold the phone like a grip and swing it. Its motion sensors read the swing, and the app plays the shot. No ball, no club, no extra hardware. That is what Rakou is.

What a phone can read, and what it can't

Where its face pointed at impact.Held like a grip, the phone turns the way your hands turn, and the gyroscope reads where its face pointed as it came back through. That is the phone's face, not a clubface.

How fast your hands moved. Shown against your own usual swing, as a percentage. Never miles per hour, because a phone in your hands cannot know clubhead speed.

Your tempo. The phone finds the top of the swing and times the two halves either side of it. Good swings run close to three to one.

Not the ball. There is no ball. A phone cannot know spin, carry or swing path, and Rakou does not pretend to. The ball flight you see is a model built from the three readings above.

How a round works in Rakou

Clear a space about the width of your arms plus a little.
Pick a club for the shot, hold the iPhone like a grip, and swing.
The face, speed and tempo you swung decide where the ball starts, which way it curves and how far it goes.
Putt with the phone held flat between your palms.
Clear the hole and the next one opens. There are 18, each harder than the last.

You can also film a swing and get a reading of it. Hold the phone firmly, keep a case on it, and clear the space around you first.

What it costs next to a home simulator

A home simulator with a launch monitor, screen, projector and enclosure usually runs from about $5,000 to $20,000, before the room. Rakou needs no hardware at all beyond the iPhone you already have. The full breakdown is in cheap golf simulator.

Who a phone golf simulator is for

If you have the room, the clubs and the budget for a launch monitor, buy one. It measures things a phone never will. A phone golf simulator is for everyone else:

You play now and then and do nothing in between.
You live somewhere a club will not fit, like an apartment.
You want a golf simulator with no ball, because a missed ball indoors breaks things.
It is winter, and the alternative is losing four months.

For all of those, the choice is not phone or launch monitor. It is phone or nothing.

The short version

A simulator is a measuring device bolted to a game, and the device is what costs thousands. A phone cannot measure a ball, so it should never claim to. It can read its face at impact, your hand speed against your usual and your tempo, and that is enough to play a hole with your real swing in the room you are standing in.

Common questions

Is there a golf simulator you can play on your phone?: Yes. There are two kinds. Some apps turn your phone into the screen for a launch monitor you buy separately. Others, like Rakou, make the phone itself the club: you hold the iPhone like a grip, make a real swing, and the ball flies across a simulated hole. The second kind needs no ball, club, net or mat.
How does a phone golf simulator work without a ball?: It reads your swing instead of the ball. In Rakou, the phone's motion sensors read where its face pointed at impact, how fast your hands moved against your own usual swing, and your tempo. Those readings decide where the ball starts, how it curves and how far it goes. The ball flight is a model built from those readings, not a measurement of a real ball.
How accurate is a phone golf simulator?: It is accurate about what a phone can really sense: rotation, timing and how fast it moved. It cannot measure ball speed, spin, carry or club path, and an app that prints those numbers without a launch monitor is inventing them. Rakou shows speed only as a percentage of your usual swing, never in miles per hour, and flags a swing that is too fast for the phone to read fully.
Do I need a net, a mat or clubs?: Not with a phone-only simulator. There is no ball to stop and nothing to hit off, so all you need is room to swing your arms. That is why it fits in a living room, a hotel room or an apartment.
Is a phone golf simulator a replacement for a launch monitor?: No. A launch monitor measures the ball and costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. A phone-only simulator measures your hands and models the ball. They answer different questions. The phone is for the days you would otherwise not swing at all.

Play a hole tonight

A golf simulator you swing with your phone. No clubs, no net, no bay.

Get Rakou

Keep reading