TrackMan vs Uneekor: How We Chose the Technology Behind Clubhouse Golf NYC

When you're building an indoor golf simulator facility, the launch monitor decision is the one that defines everything else. It determines what data your customers see, what courses they can play, what the experience actually feels like. Get it wrong and you've built the rest of the business on a foundation you'll be fighting against.

We spent months on this decision before opening Clubhouse Golf NYC at 77 Charlton Street in Hudson Square, Manhattan. Here's the full version of how we got there.

Why Every NYC Golf Simulator Starts With TrackMan

TrackMan was the obvious starting point. It's the Kleenex of launch monitors — the name brand that's become synonymous with the category. It's in nearly every simulator facility in the country, it's what tour pros use on the range, and it's what most golfers have heard of if they've heard of any launch monitor at all.

I'd spent significant time on TrackMan systems before making this decision. The experience is smooth. The UI is clean and approachable. If you're a beginner stepping into a simulator for the first time, the interface doesn't overwhelm you. That matters.

But the more time I put in, the more a few things started to bother me.

The ball delay was the first thing I noticed. There's a lag between impact and the data appearing on screen that you don't notice at first but can't un-notice once you're paying attention. For casual players it's a minor inconvenience. For someone trying to build a feel for their swing, it interrupts the feedback loop in a way that matters.

The course library was the second thing. TrackMan's course development has been slow relative to what else is out there. For a simulator facility where the social experience — playing famous courses with friends — is a core part of the value, a limited and slowly growing course library is a real constraint.

And then there was a broader pattern I kept coming back to: TrackMan's marketing is exceptional. Their tour partnerships, their brand presence, the way they've positioned themselves as the professional standard — all of it is executed extremely well. But when I looked at where their investment was actually going versus what competitors were doing on the technology side, I started to wonder if we were paying for the brand as much as the product.

What the Uneekor EYE XO2 Does Differently

Uneekor doesn't have TrackMan's brand recognition. It probably never will, and honestly that's fine — they seem to know it and have focused their energy elsewhere.

The EYE XO2 uses three overhead high-speed cameras and Dimple Optix technology, which means it reads the actual dimple pattern on your ball at impact. No ball markings required. You bring whatever ball you play with on the course and hit it. That's a small thing in isolation but it changes the feel of the experience — you're not doing something artificial, you're practicing the way you'd actually play.

The data output is 24 metrics per shot: ball speed, launch angle, spin rate, carry distance, side spin, face angle, and on down the list. For a player who wants to understand their swing rather than just see a number, that's the level of detail that actually helps.

What pushed us over the line was pairing Uneekor with GS Pro on the software side. GS Pro brings over 2,500 courses — St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, Augusta, courses you'd spend thousands of dollars and years of waiting list time to play in real life. The integration between the hardware data and the course simulation is tight. The ball responds the way it should based on what you actually did with the club, not an approximation.

What We've Learned Three Weeks Into Running a Golf Simulator in Manhattan

Clubhouse Golf NYC has been open since April 11, 2026, and watching people use the system has confirmed a few things.

The data resonates with more people than I expected. I assumed most customers would glance at the numbers and focus on the course experience. Instead, a significant portion of players — including total beginners — lean into the metrics. When the numbers are right there after every shot and you can immediately see what changed when you adjusted your setup, it's naturally engaging. The Uneekor data is accurate enough to be trustworthy, which matters more than I initially gave it credit for.

The course library has driven more conversations than any other feature. People walk in, see 2,500+ courses on the menu, and start naming places they've always wanted to play. Some of those conversations turn into impromptu bucket list rounds that go well past the original booking time.

And the "your own ball" aspect of Dimple Optix comes up regularly in a positive way. Players who are serious about their game appreciate that the simulator is reading what their actual ball does, not a substitute.

Where TrackMan Still Wins

This isn't a takedown piece. TrackMan built a dominant position for real reasons and there are contexts where it's the right call.

If you're running a teaching facility where instructors need to share data with students who already have TrackMan accounts, the ecosystem integration is hard to replicate. If your customer base is predominantly tour-level players who learned on TrackMan and have specific expectations about the interface, switching creates friction. And if brand recognition is part of your marketing strategy — if you want to put "TrackMan-powered" on your website and have that do work for you — Uneekor doesn't offer that.

For us, none of those factors were decisive. Our customers range from complete beginners to single-digit handicaps. They're not coming in with strong technology preferences — they're coming in because they want to play golf in Manhattan on their schedule. The technology needs to serve that experience, not the other way around.

The GS Pro Question

One honest caveat: GS Pro has some UX gaps that I'd like to see addressed.

The guest player flow requires creating a permanent account for every player in a casual match, which creates unnecessary friction for drop-in groups. Data export requires exiting the application and sending manually from the local machine rather than sending directly from within the app. And there's no club view integration with the launch monitor, which feels like a straightforward feature that should exist.

GS Pro has an open API, and I'm genuinely curious whether anyone in the simulator community has built workarounds for any of these. The bones of the system are excellent — these are polish issues, not fundamental problems. But they're worth naming.

The Bottom Line

Choosing a launch monitor for a golf simulator is a decision you live with for years. We chose the Uneekor EYE XO2 with GS Pro because the technology is excellent, the course library is substantial, and the experience of hitting your own ball and seeing accurate data immediately felt more honest than the alternative.

Three weeks in, we'd make the same call again.

If you're working through this decision yourself — whether you're opening a facility, building a home simulator, or just curious about what's out there — happy to share more about what we found. And if you're in Manhattan and want to see it firsthand, you can book a session anytime at Clubhouse Golf NYC. We're open 24/7 and the door unlocks directly from the Clubhouse Golf Club app.

Book your session at https://www.clubhousegolf.nyc — we're at 77 Charlton Street, Hudson Square, Manhattan.