Rainy season in Pinellas, early sunsets in winter, or a lunch hour that does not allow a drive to Belleair Country Club. That is when Clearwater’s indoor golf scene steps in. The good ones do more than give you a net and a launch monitor. They let you travel through dozens, sometimes hundreds, of rendered courses with realistic ball flight, nuanced putting, green speeds you can tune, and multiplayer that does not lag. If you are chasing the biggest selection of virtual courses, a few spots around Clearwater and nearby towns stand out for both software depth and how they run the bays day to day.
I have worked with simulators in coaching studios, played league nights tucked into warehouse bays, and spent more hours than I care to admit testing ball data against real-world yardages. Variety is not just a marketing bullet. It changes how often you show up. A system with only six courses grows stale. One with a global library—Scottish links, desert target golf, municipal parkland—keeps a group rotating weekly without repeating a layout for months. Below, I break down where to go in and around Clearwater for the widest course lists, what to expect from each setup, and how to get the most out of a session whether you are a mid-handicap tweaker or a first-timer.
What “biggest selection” really means
When someone behind the counter says they have 200 courses, ask two follow-ups: What software are you running, and which license tier are you on? The difference between a base package and a full library can be more than 150 courses, and venue owners sometimes mix platforms across bays.
The big three software families that dominate indoor golf in the Tampa Bay area are TrackMan’s Virtual Golf, Foresight’s FSX series (FSX 2020 and FSX Play), and Uneekor’s platforms like Refine or E6 Connect compatibility. You will also see GOLFZON in commercial venues and occasional TGC 2019 setups in hobbyist studios. TrackMan and GOLFZON tend to offer the largest polished libraries in commercial settings, with over 200 courses available when fully licensed. FSX 2020 and its more modern sibling FSX Play sit in the 50 to 200 range depending on purchased packs, while E6 Connect can balloon past 100 with add-ons.
Course count is only one axis. The other two are physics and presentation. The best indoor golf simulator makes your ball behave like it does outside: true spin decay, launch window fidelity, and gapping that holds up across irons and wedges. That comes from a high-end launch monitor, accurate environmental modeling, and a display that does not smear small breaks. Course variety is nice, but it needs believable carry numbers, consistent roll-out, and putting logic that rewards a good stroke rather than guesswork.
The Hitting Academy Clearwater: vast selection, coaching focus
Many locals first meet simulators through lessons at The Hitting Academy. It built its name on baseball, but the Clearwater facility has expanded, and the hitting academy indoor golf simulator bays are not an afterthought. During the last two years, the staff leaned into full-swing analysis for golfers and brought in commercial-grade hardware. The standout is the blend of practice and play: a teaching bay with high-speed cameras paired with a play bay that carries a broad course library.
Course variety here depends on the bay you book. The main simulator runs a platform that supports a triple-digit course list, with recognizable names from both sides of the Atlantic. The staff invests in add-on packs several times a year, so the library steadily grows rather than sitting static. Expect marquee Florida tracks, a handful of famous majors venues from the UK and the Northeast, and a long tail of lesser-known resort courses that make for good social rounds.
If you are new to indoor golf or you are dialing in a new driver, this is an easy place to start. You get the accountability of real numbers—carry, total, spin rate, side spin—and the convenience of a flexible calendar. On weekdays you can usually slide into a bay with short notice. Evenings and Saturdays fill fast, especially during football season when bays double as watch parties. Pricing runs by the hour rather than per person, which favors groups of two to four. Ask for the practice mode first, then switch to course play once you have your tempo. The hitting academy indoor golf simulator also tracks dispersion tightly, which makes skills challenges fun when you do not want a full 18.
Where The Hitting Academy shines is support. You will not be left guessing about tee heights or putting settings, and the staff will adjust camera angles so your swing is centered in the capture window. If your goal is maximum course variety plus coaching-level feedback, this is one of the more balanced experiences in Clearwater.
Clearwater’s multi-bay lounges: TrackMan heavy, library rich
In the last five years the area has seen a wave of simulator lounges within a 20 to 30 minute drive—Clearwater proper, Safety Harbor, Dunedin, and down toward St. Pete. The best of these lean on TrackMan 4 paired with Virtual Golf 3. When fully licensed, TrackMan’s library stretches to more than 200 courses, with a polished rotation that regularly adds redesigned layouts and seasonal conditions. The physics engine is the same one trusted by tour pros for practice, so carry numbers tend to map closely to outdoor rounds if you enter the right weather settings.
If your inbox is full of league invitations, you have likely visited one of these spaces already. Bay sizes run 12 to 16 feet wide, 9 to 10 feet high, with projectors bright enough to hold contrast during daytime. The best lounges keep ceiling-mounted radars tuned and run regular calibration to eliminate face-to-path drift—an overlooked maintenance detail that separates a good session from a frustrating one.
The real draw is the course list. Want links? Fire up St Andrews, Carnoustie, or West Lancashire and watch crosswinds mess with your ball flight. Prefer target golf or stadium-style par threes? The Scottsdale area courses scratch that itch. Florida natives will recognize a few water-heavy layouts that demand carry through humid air. Winter nights, I often set green speed slower than default to mimic overseeded conditions and enable soft fairways so balls check up like they do after a rain. That is the appeal of Virtual Golf—you can tune.
For groups, lounges do social well. Big screens above the bays, food that travels, lag-free multiplayer on the same course, and a course library deep enough to keep everyone interested. If you have a mixed-skill foursome, pick forgiving settings: wide fairways on, gimme range inside eight feet, drop the green stimp a notch, and choose a course with fewer forced carries. You still get variety without carnage.
Foresight studios around town: fewer courses, superb accuracy
A few independent coaches and smaller studios in Clearwater run Foresight GCQuad or GCHawk with FSX 2020 or FSX Play. You will hear less about massive course counts and more about ball data you can trust, particularly on short shots. Foresight measures club and ball at impact with cameras, which translates to tight numbers on spin axis and wedge distance control. When I am fitting a gap wedge or checking a new ball, this is where I go.
Course variety is still respectable, often in the 50 to 120 range if the owner has invested in multiple packs. The courses look best in FSX Play thanks to updated lighting and textures. You will find classics like Pebble-inspired coastlines and a number of European tracks, plus a rotating set of fantasy courses that play fast. The putting logic in FSX has improved, though it still rewards a firm, straight stroke more than a delicate lag putt with big break. If your priority is realism on approach shots and you are willing to trade away some course variety compared to TrackMan or E6 Connect, this setup is worth your time.
A detail that matters: Foresight studios often let you bring your own ball type and will input ball model into the settings. If you are testing Pro V1 versus a Tour Response, you can feel the INDOOR GOLD SIMULATOR difference in spin windows and see it in carry across five shots. That granularity is useful when simulator golf is part of a broader practice plan.
E6 Connect and hybrid setups: the hidden course hoarders
A handful of Clearwater-area facilities, especially those that started as private hobby spaces and later opened to the public, run Uneekor or high-speed camera systems paired with E6 Connect. These rigs sometimes surprise people with just how many courses they carry. E6 Connect licenses in packs that can push total course count past 100, including a mix of real-world tracks and fictional layouts that play quickly.
The physics are solid if the launch monitor is properly calibrated. Uneekor’s ceiling-mounted systems give continuous ball tracking with good spin read, and E6’s putting model is serviceable once you tweak green speed and break sensitivity. What you get in these spaces is a buffet of options. I have walked into a converted warehouse off US-19 and found a library with obscure mountain courses that turned out to be perfect for a nine-hole sprint. The vibe is more DIY than a corporate lounge, and prices are friendlier per hour.
If a manager tells you they run a hybrid environment—say, a bay with an Uneekor EyeXO for practice and a different bay with a TrackMan for play—pay attention to which one holds the larger course library and book accordingly. Not every place advertises that distinction clearly.
How course variety changes the experience
The difference between 40 courses and 200 shows up in two patterns. First, group nights. Variety lets you choose a course that fits the group’s mood and skill. Windy links when everyone wants a challenge, forgiving resort courses when you only have an hour. Second, skill development. Cycling through different visual frames and shot demands trains adaptability. A high, soft 7-iron that lands short of a ridge and trickles down is not the same as a flat, piercing shot into a desert green framed by bunkers. A wide selection forces you out of your patterns.
The catch is menu overwhelm. It is easy to burn 15 minutes choosing a course. I pre-save a shortlist in my head: one links, one parkland, one Florida water-laden track, one desert target course. Pick among those based on who shows up and how much time we have. If you are gunning for a personal best or chasing a particular shot shape, repeat the same course for a few weeks and track your stats, then rotate.
Booking tips that find the biggest libraries
If your goal is the most expansive library in Clearwater, call ahead and ask three specific questions. Which simulator software runs in the bay? How many courses are enabled on your license? Do all bays have the same library? A surprising number of venues run mixed setups as they upgrade over time. You might book a bay with a 60-course Foresight library when the next bay over has a fully loaded TrackMan with more than 200.
Weeknight evenings fill with leagues during peak season from October through March. If you want open course access and fewer interruptions, book late afternoon slots or weekend mornings. Summer brings lower demand and, ironically, some of the best indoor golf value because owners run promotions to fill bays while outdoor rounds are brutally humid.
Bring your own balls if the venue allows it, particularly if you play a specific model. Some simulators require marked balls for spin read. If the facility uses dotted balls, do not fight it. You can still map your yardages well, and spin deltas across clubs stay consistent.
Picking the right bay for your group
Not every group needs the same thing. Here is a straightforward way to decide.
- TrackMan lounge bay when you want the deepest polished course library, strong multiplayer, and lifelike wind. Best for social rounds and leagues. The hitting academy indoor golf simulator when you want both play and coaching in the same session, plus a wide, steadily updated course list. Best for practice-forward golfers and mixed groups. Foresight studio when you care most about wedge control and exact ball data, and you are fine with a smaller but still solid course selection. Best for players working on gapping or fittings. E6 Connect or Uneekor bay when you want a high number of courses at a value price and do not mind a slightly different putting feel. Best for casual variety nights.
What the numbers really mean indoors
Newcomers often treat simulator yardages as gospel after one session. Do not. Indoor carry tends to be a hair longer if you forget to set conditions that mimic Florida humidity and summer air density. Ask the staff to enter temperature, altitude, and wind. Set fairways to medium and greens to firm if you want honest roll. On Foresight, check the spin axis and side total, not just backspin. An 8 iron with 250 rpm of right spin is telling you to square the face, even if the ball ends five yards right indoors and would have drifted more outside with a breeze.
Putting varies the most. Some software translates a six-foot physical putt to a 12-foot on-screen putt based on a ratio setting. Others use a straight distance. Spend two minutes rolling ten balls across the mat to calibrate your stroke to the screen. It saves you from three-jacking in the first two holes.
The case for leagues and season passes
If variety is your priority, leagues are a secret weapon. The better-run leagues rotate courses weekly and throw in one offbeat track each month—think a windswept coastal nine with tiny landing areas—to keep players honest. Over an eight-week season you will log more different layouts than most casual groups manage in a whole year. Add in the social pressure of a scorecard and you learn faster.
Many Clearwater venues offer season passes or punch cards that lower the hourly rate. The math works out if you play twice a month. Ask if the pass locks you to specific bays. You want the one that guarantees access to the bay with the largest library, not the overflow bay with a limited license. Read the fine print on guest fees and peak-hour restrictions.
Tuning settings to feel like Florida
The Tampa Bay area has its own playing DNA: swamp humidity, summer squalls, winter north winds that cut more than expected over the water. Simulators can approximate that if you take a minute.
Set temperature to the day’s average. Bump humidity up if you are simulating August. Choose soft fairways after rain, firm greens in winter when courses dry out. On a TrackMan bay, enable dynamic lie penalty if you want the rough to matter; disable it if your group prefers a friendlier round. On FSX, reduce green speed a notch for beginners. On E6, increase break sensitivity if putts look too straight. These tweaks make simulator play feel like your home course rather than a video game.
Mistakes that kill variety
People chase the biggest list and then only play three courses. Break that habit. Keep track of where you have been. The easiest way is to snap a photo of the end-of-round screen and drop it into an album on your phone labeled “Indoor courses.” After ten sessions you will see patterns and force yourself to branch out.
Another mistake is ignoring tees. Move up. Indoors, there is no marshal to judge you and the point is to hit greens and putt for birdie, not to grind rescues into par fours you cannot reach. A 6,200-yard tee set keeps pace, gives more wedges, and lets you sample more of the course library in a single night. If you have a long hitter in the group, alternate holes where they step back a tee for a par five and then rejoin.
A few Clearwater-specific notes
Clearwater’s indoor golf ecosystem is intertwined with the broader Tampa area. If you are willing to drive 20 minutes, your options more than double. TrackMan-heavy lounges dominate in South Tampa and St. Pete, while the Clearwater core has a balanced mix that includes The Hitting Academy’s coaching-forward environment. Parking is easier on the Clearwater side, and you can often book same day outside of league nights. Summer afternoons are wide open because locals play outside when afternoon storms hold off. Use that window to grab bays with full libraries at better rates.
Several venues host charity scrambles and nine-hole time trials that rotate through unusual courses you might not pick on your own. Those events are an easy way to expand your course repertoire without doing the research yourself. If you keep a handicap, many software packages now export round data. It will not count for USGA posting, but it lets you track trends in fairways hit and proximity, which is what matters indoors.
How to keep simulator golf fresh month after month
You will play more often if you set a simple cycle: one practice session, one full round, one skills challenge, then repeat. Use the practice day to calibrate yardages and check dispersion. Then play 18 on a new course from your shortlist. Finish the month with a skills challenge—closest to the pin, approach ladder, or par three gauntlet. Rotate a different software mode each time if the venue offers it. The variety keeps motivation high and prevents the common plateau that hits in month two.
Pair that with small equipment experiments. Bring two wedges with different grinds and watch the interaction on tight indoor turf. Test a lower-spin ball one week and a higher-spin the next. TrackMan and Foresight will show you the yardage and spin change in hard numbers. Do not overhaul your bag indoors, but do use the data to make informed tweaks.
Bottom line: where to go for the most courses
If what you want is the biggest selection of virtual courses in and around Clearwater, look first to the multi-bay lounges running TrackMan with the full Virtual Golf license. You will get a deep, frequently updated library and strong multiplayer features. Pair that with sessions at The Hitting Academy’s indoor golf simulator when you want coaching support without giving up variety. Fold in a Foresight studio visit when you are dialing wedges or testing balls, and keep an eye out for E6 Connect spaces that offer a long list of affordable courses.
The indoor golf simulator Clearwater scene is mature enough that you do not need to compromise. Call ahead, book the right bay, and you can step into St Andrews, a Scottsdale desert playground, or a Florida water-laced test without leaving town. Variety is the hook, but accurate ball flight and good company are what keep you coming back. Set your conditions, pick a fresh course, and swing.