A Tour Pro’s Paradise – Callum Shinkwin’s studio
If you were a European Tour Pro, with 2 wins against the best competition in the world, what would you put in a golf studio? This question was answered when Callum Shinkwin, recent winner of the 2022 Cazoo open, approached Golf Swing Systems about outfitting his brand new studio. There were a number of key factors to accomplish. Enjoying the launch monitor and graphics provided, establishing the perfect hitting position and mat and running everything from the top of the line technology. In this blog we are detailing all of Callum’s top priorities so you can take the tour pro model and build your own simulator to match!
The Launch Monitor
As with lots of the top players in the game, Callum loves to see a myriad of data. To achieve this he is running the latest software on offer from the TrackMan 4 launch monitor. With its stunning course graphics and unparalleled accuracy when monitoring shot performance, TPS9 offers the highest standard of golf simulation. With its latest update TPS9 has a simplified user experience and also offers the revolutionary on-course practice feature. With Callum due to be playing the Dunhill Links (Finished T2) we chose to practice the iconic 18th tee shot. As you can see in the video, Callum managed a pretty impressive effort of well over 300 yards!
The Perfect Hitting Position and surface
The normal advice when building you studio, it to set the hitting position at approximately 8-12ft from the screen. This gives the radar enough time to measure the spin of the ball, creating accurate distance and shot shaping data. When you are a player of Callum’s ability though, the rules don’t need to apply. Owing to his extremely low launch angles and controllable ball flights, we were able to set Callum’s hitting position at a staggering 21ft. Does this allow slightly more accurate measurements? Possibly. Does it look really cool? Definitely. To preserve the clean lines of his studio Callum wanted a smaller hitting area when compared to many of our other installations. To achieve this we took his favourite mat, The Quad Tech Mat, and cut it into smaller strips to be inlayed with the putting turf. This ensures a perfect roll on putts and a fantastic hitting surface for practice.
The Gaming PC
With TrackMan graphics, comes a level of processing power required. To ensure immediate response times and the ability to run TrackMan and entertainment software at the same time, we beefed up Callum’s setup significantly. Taking our standard TrackMan setup and upgrading the graphics card we made a future proof rig, ready for anything a golf pro can throw at it! To check out our guide to gaming PC’s click here.
Putting Practice
With a studio measuring over 9m long and 6m wide, you have a unique opportunity to create a fully functioning putting studio. Using our unique Eagle Putting Turf Callum established over 50m squared of perfectly pure putting turf. Rolling at exactly 10 on the Stimpmeter, the Eagle putting turf provides an accurate replacement for a green in the UK. Callum is a unique case where the greens he plays on may be slightly faster, but for the vast majority of golfers, a green rolling at 10 on the Stimp equates to a medium fast green.
All in all this studio represents the ultimate practice facility. To watch our interview with Callum after our handover, click here.
