When Sydney-based golfer Gavin Macpherson steps on the first tee at the NSW Open on Thursday, he’ll do a few things differently. He’ll have to check the treetops for wind, plunge a tee into the dirt and even slap on some sunscreen.
Macpherson didn’t need to do any of these things when he qualified for the tournament at a different NSW Open a few weeks ago. That one was indoors, and didn’t include a single blade of real grass.
Gavin Macpherson winning the NSW Virtual Golf Open in October.Credit: Golf NSW
Macpherson is the first person to ever qualify for the real NSW Open by winning the virtual equivalent; an event played entirely on a golf simulator.
As part of a new initiative by Golf NSW to embrace the increasingly popular world of simulator golf, Macpherson prevailed after some preliminary rounds and a final, and will line up at the Vintage in the Hunter Valley on Thursday alongside stars like Lucas Herbert and Jed Morgan.
The 35-year-old, originally from Glasgow, is a professional golfer who came to Australia a decade ago to pursue a career as a footballer; he was a semi-pro player for Stirling Albion and played for Hakoah in Sydney.
But after getting a job at Royal Sydney golf course, he switched studs for golf spikes and is now in his third year of the membership pathway program with the Australian PGA.
Gavin Macpherson practising ahead of the NSW Open in the Hunter Valley.Credit: Golf NSW
Macpherson competes occasionally but practices often using a simulator, so he was well-prepared when Golf NSW announced it was launching a virtual tournament, with a first prize of $10,000 and a start in the NSW Open.
“I play a fair bit of indoor golf,” Macpherson said. “I’m a bit of a gear head, so I like to look at all numbers and data and stuff like that. Then I saw Golf NSW had come up with this pathway, and so I entered the qualifying and got into the final, and then it all paid off, thankfully.
“The course on the final was Bonnie Doon. And I have played there a few times, so I know where I was going and stuff like that. And I played quite a lot of sim golf when I’ve been practicing, so I knew what spots to avoid and whatnot.”
It may sound like a Hollywood script – successful gamer goes from virtual world to competing against real-life athletes – but golf simulators are an increasingly standard training vehicle for top golfers. And competitions are growing rapidly as well.
Gavin Macpherson winning the NSW Virtual Golf Open.Credit: Golf NSW
Players hit off astro-turf into a giant screen, but that’s the only basic stuff. Sophisticated technologies – including doppler radar, multiple sensors and cameras – track the club and ball during the swing and strike, and using data on variables like club speed, attack angle and spin rate, then spit out the calculated ball-flight on screen.
“You strike it exactly the same as regular golf. You just try and account for the different way that the software is going to pick up, whether it’s in the rough or in the bunker, on the fairway, in the deep rough, all that sort of thing,” Macpherson said.
“There’s a different kind of thought process to it, because you’re always setting off flat lie, and always with a good lie, but the TrackMan software will add different elements.
“So when you’re in the rough, instead of having 100 per cent power, it’ll give you like 70 per cent to 85 per cent power. And then you get different spin rates as well, so you need to kind of calculate and get a feel for it. It’ll account for whether the ball is above your feet and how the ball would fly, so you have to account for things like that.
Rory McIroy’s and Tiger Wood’s TGL has teams full of the world’s best golfers.Credit: Instagram/TGL
“And it does the wind and the stimp meter [pace] on the greens. I wouldn’t say it’s far off. It’s as good as you can get without actually doing the real thing. There’s a lot of technical specifications you’ve got to be across.”
The accuracy of the technology has helped simulator golf explode in popularity in recent years, carrying on the COVID boom enjoyed by golf overall. In the US, studies have shown more people are now hitting golf balls “off course” (on simulators and ranges) than on course.
And sim competitions are now increasingly big-time, too. Major stars compete in the simulator-based TGL, created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and the Next Tour Golf competition in Europe has big prizemoney – and starts on the real-life European Tour – for the winners.
“It’s only going to get bigger,” Macpherson says. “This sort of thing, it just gives people like myself that opportunity to play on the big stage, really. Because I wouldn’t have got the opportunity otherwise.”
Macpherson says he has played in “eight or nine four-round events” at different state Opens but “this will be the first with proper full-time touring professionals”.
“From my aspect it will be similar, but I guess nerves and stuff, doing the real thing will be a bit different,” he said.
“I’m feeling pretty good. I’ve been hitting it well the last couple of days, so we’ll find out on Thursday and Friday. The goal is to make the cut, and then if we make the cut, it’ll be full send on Saturday and Sunday.”
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