Watched the Top 100 Golf Shots — Then Went Back to My Inflatable Golf Simulator

📅 September 3, 2026 ✏ By Jiangxiaoxia ⏱ 12 min read
Home golfer pausing practice in his garage to watch golf highlights on a tablet beside his inflatable golf simulator

Every late December, the DP World Tour posts its Top 100 Golf Shots of the year, and every late December I watch the whole thing in my garage while a bucket of balls goes cold beside me. Fifteen minutes of magic — hole-outs you don't believe, putts that roll farther than some par 3s I've played. And underneath every single one of them, this is the part nobody puts in the caption: about ten thousand boring practice swings nobody filmed. That's the part I keep thinking about, because the inflatable golf simulator business, at its core, is the unfilmed-swings business.

The Video Itself

If you haven't seen it yet: the DP World Tour's official channel put out Top 100 Golf Shots | 2025 Edition right after Christmas — a countdown of the best shots from the entire 2025 season. Rory McIlroy's famous putt is in there. Tommy Fleetwood holes out of a bunker in a way that should honestly be illegal. Shane Lowry does Lowry things on home soil in Ireland, with the crowd looking like they might faint. Go watch it. I'll wait.

Watch it as a fan first. That's the correct order. Then come back, because I want to ruin it for you the way fifteen years in this business ruined it for me — I can't see highlight reels anymore without counting the invisible reps behind each one.

The Math Nobody Puts in the Caption

Scroll the comments under any of these shot compilations and it's all "GOAT" and "unbelievable" and "he's not human." Nobody types "nice ten thousand hours." But that's what every single one of these clips is.

I'm not a tour coach — I'm the guy who builds the rooms people practice in. But even from where I stand, the numbers aren't mysterious. A touring pro hits somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-plus balls on a light practice day, and the highlight reel is, what, a hundred shots? Out of a full season of swings hit for pay? That reel is the finished product. What you don't see is all the ugly stuff that came before it — the balls pushed right, the wedges left short, the putts that never got within five feet. That's where most of the work actually happens.

And here's the uncomfortable part for the rest of us: the ratio doesn't change just because you're a 14 handicap. Your best round ever was also built on the range sessions nobody clapped for. The highlight-to-rep ratio is brutal at every level — which is exactly why where and how you practice matters more than how talented you are.

Five Shots, Five Boring Truths

Year after year, the same five categories fill these reels. Here's each one, and the unglamorous rep that actually builds it.

The Bunker Hole-Out (Fleetwood's Department)

The ball lands in sand, pops up like it's on a string, and drops. The camera catches the player's face — pure disbelief. The rep behind it? Not magic. It's hitting the same bunker shot to the same target until the carry number stops surprising you. Distance control out of sand is the least filmed skill in golf and the one that shows up most in highlight reels.

The Long Putt (McIlroy's Department)

Everyone remembers the ball disappearing. Nobody remembers that the reason it disappeared is that it was traveling at the exact right speed to die at the hole from 50 feet. Long putting isn't a putting skill — it's a speed-control skill, and speed control is nothing but lag-putt ladders: same putt, over and over, until you can put it inside a 3-foot circle with your eyes half shut.

The Home-Crowd Hero (Lowry's Department)

Doing it with a home crowd losing its mind is a different sport.Pressure has a funny way of exposing whatever part of your swing isn't automatic yet. You can hit the shot perfectly on Tuesday and suddenly forget how to do it on Sunday. The only known cure is reps done with something at stake. Even small stakes. Even "I don't leave the garage until this putt drops."

The Wedge That Spins Back

The ball lands past the pin, takes one look around, and backs up off the fringe. Looks like a commercial. It's actually a distance-control drill wearing a costume: same swing length, same stock shot, known carry number — hit it enough times that the number comes to you before the strike does.

The Putt That Actually Mattered

The Sunday putt on the last green, the one worth actual money. The stroke looks identical to Tuesday's practice stroke because it is identical. The difference is that it has been hit under self-imposed pressure enough times that Sunday feels like Tuesday. That's the whole trick. That's the entire trick.

The Rep Behind the Highlight

Here's the whole article in one table — every highlight category, the boring rep that built it, and what that rep looks like in a home setup:

Shot in the Reel The Rep That Built It How It Looks at Home
Bunker hole-out Sand shots to one target until carry is automatic Motion and release reps with foam balls; the sand part still needs a real bunker — but the distance-control instinct transfers
Long bomb putt Lag-putt ladders to a 3-foot circle Turf strip or putt mat in the enclosure, same putt twenty times
Spinning wedge Stock wedge swings to known carry numbers Launch monitor carry data — pick a number, hit it, check it, repeat
Recovery shot Deliberately awkward lies, practiced on purpose Adjust ball position and stance on the mat — the intent matters more than the trees
Clutch Sunday putt Must-make putts with a consequence attached House rule: session doesn't end until this one drops

The "at home" column assumes a pretty basic setup: an inflatable golf simulator enclosure, a hitting mat, and a launch monitor for feedback. You don't necessarily need all three. It really depends on the kind of practice you want to do, which is what we'll get into next.

✉ Not Sure What You Actually Need?

Tell us what you're trying to work on — maybe it's the wedge that spins back, the long putt, or simply making better contact. We'll give you an honest answer about what kind of setup makes sense and what you can probably skip. leo@funjain.com

Why Your Garage Is More Useful Than You Think

For a long time, I thought of home practice as a nice extra. Something golfers did when they couldn't get to the course. Then launch monitors got better, smaller, and much easier to use, and I started looking at it differently.

These days, you don't need a room full of expensive equipment to get useful feedback. A reasonably priced launch monitor can give you carry distance, ball speed, launch information, and shot shape right in your garage. You can hit a shot, see what happened, make a small adjustment, and hit another one a few seconds later.

Launch monitor displaying carry distance data beside a hitting mat inside an inflatable golf simulator enclosure

But honestly, the biggest advantage of practicing at home has nothing to do with technology. It's convenience.

Going to the range takes planning. You have to get in the car, drive there, warm up, buy a bucket, hit your balls, pack everything up, and drive home. None of that is difficult, but every extra step gives you another reason to put practice off until tomorrow.

When your setup is already sitting in the garage, that changes. You can hit 30 balls before dinner. You can work on one club for twenty minutes. You can hit a few wedges on a Tuesday night instead of telling yourself you'll get to the range this weekend.

That consistency matters more than most golfers realize. You don't need a complicated training program. You just need to practice often enough for the work to start adding up.

If you're starting from scratch, our sizing guide can help you figure out how much ceiling height and floor space you'll need before ordering anything. If you're trying to decide between different enclosure styles, our tent versus enclosure comparison breaks down the practical differences.

For this article, the simple question is: what are you actually trying to practice? If you want real ball-flight feedback, you'll want a proper hitting area and launch monitor. If you're mainly working on your swing motion, tempo, or making a few extra reps, you can keep things much simpler.

Marcus's Bottom Line

The shots on a highlight reel take one swing. The frustrating part is that getting to that one swing takes a lot of ordinary ones first.

Your version probably won't involve a tour crowd or a trophy on the line. It might just be 30 minutes in the garage on a Tuesday night. That's fine. Do that often enough, and eventually some of those boring reps start showing up when you actually need them.

— Marcus, still convinced that a lot of good golf starts with an ordinary Tuesday

Questions People Actually Ask Me

Can watching pro golf actually make me better?
Not by itself. I watch the year-end reels every year, and I wouldn't pretend they're a substitute for practice. What they can do is give you a better idea of what good golf actually looks like — and sometimes that's enough motivation to pick up a club. Watch the video, get inspired, then go hit some balls. Just don't confuse watching the reps with doing them.
Can I practice these shot types in an inflatable golf simulator?
Most of them, yes. Full swings, wedge distance control, launch-monitor practice, and different shot patterns all work well in a home simulator setup. There are a couple of obvious limitations. You can't recreate a real bunker indoors, and putting practice still works best on a proper putting surface. But for the majority of the full-swing and short-game work behind those highlight shots, a home setup can give you plenty of useful reps.
How much space do I need for a home practice setup?
The two things I would pay the most attention to are ceiling height and depth. You want enough room to make a comfortable driver swing without feeling like you're going to hit the ceiling, and enough depth for your hitting position and equipment to fit safely. Every garage is different, so measure the space before you order anything. Our sizing guide walks through the measurements that matter.
Foam balls or real balls for this kind of practice?
Foam balls are useful when you're mainly working on movement, tempo, or making a few swings without worrying about ball flight. If you want accurate carry and shot data from a launch monitor, you'll need real golf balls. And if you're hitting real balls indoors, make sure your screen and enclosure are designed to handle the impact. That's one area where trying to save a little money can become a much bigger problem.
How long until I actually see improvement?
There's no honest number of days I can give you. It depends on what you're practicing, how often you practice, and where your game is starting from. But shorter, regular sessions are usually easier to stick with than one huge practice session every few weeks. Fifteen or thirty focused minutes a few times a week can add up surprisingly quickly. The important part is showing up consistently.
MT

Marcus Thornton

Field Service Manager, FunJain

Marcus works with home golf setups and has spent years seeing how golfers actually use them once the novelty wears off. He's less interested in perfect-looking practice plans and more interested in setups people will actually use. Questions about what your garage can handle? Email leo@funjain.com — the owner reads every one.

A Note on Honesty

This is independent commentary on the DP World Tour's publicly released Top 100 Golf Shots | 2025 Edition video, which you can watch on their official channel. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by the DP World Tour or any of the players mentioned. We're simply looking at the less glamorous side of golf practice — and how a home setup can make those extra reps easier to get.

Ready for the Unglamorous Reel?

When next December's Top 100 drops, you won't be in it — that's a stretch for all of us. But making your Saturday fourball go quiet for a second? That's not talent. That's a winter of Tuesdays in a setup that's ready when you are.

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