Your first time at a golf simulator, start to finish.

A simulator bay is a private room with a hitting mat, a screen across the front wall and a touchscreen beside you. PGM has six of them at 6712 Fisher St SE, just south of Glenmore Trail. Nobody works on site, so the whole visit runs on a booking and two emails.

That sounds stranger written down than it feels in practice. Once you have done it once you stop thinking about it.

What to expect at a golf simulator, in order

1. Book a slot online and pick how long you want.
2. A confirmation email lands with the booking on it.
3. A door access link follows in a second email.
4. Turn up a few minutes early with your clubs.
5. Open the door access link on your phone at the door.
6. Find your bay and get the clubs out.
7. The simulator turns on by itself at your start time.
8. Hit balls, play holes, then tidy the bay and go.

Eight steps, and only two of them are new to anyone. The rest of this walks through the parts that are worth knowing in advance.

Booking your first session

Bookings come in 30-minute blocks and 30 minutes is the minimum. The rate is per bay and per hour rather than per person, so two of you in the same bay pay the same as one.

What you pay depends on when you go, and the gap between the bands is large enough to plan around. All rates are plus GST.

• $18 an hour. Before 9 AM Sunday to Thursday, before 10 AM Friday and Saturday, and from 11 PM Sunday to Thursday.
• $30 an hour. From 9 AM to 11 PM Sunday to Thursday, and 10 AM to 6 PM Friday.
• $35 an hour. Friday from 6 PM and Saturday from 10 AM, both until midnight.

For a first visit, an hour is the sensible booking. The suggested length is 1 to 1.5 hours per player with warm-up included, and 30 minutes is enough only if you want to see the room and hit a few. The rates page has the full board and a cost planner if you are splitting the bay.

If nobody has the bay after you, the block can be extended on the day, so a short first booking is not a trap. Cancelling needs at least 24 hours notice by email, and same-day bookings cannot be cancelled.

The confirmation email and the door access link

Two emails arrive, not one. The first confirms the booking. The second carries a door access link, and that link is how you get in.

Open it on your phone when you are standing at the door. That also makes a flat phone battery the one thing that genuinely stops the plan, so find both emails before you leave the house and keep them where you can reach them.

Finding the bay

Unit 80 is the part of the address worth reading twice. Put 6712 Fisher St SE, Unit 80 into your phone before you set off, and look for the unit number when you arrive rather than for a sign.

Inside there are six private bays. Each one is its own room with its own simulator, so nobody is watching you and nobody is waiting behind you. The venue is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, which is why the door runs on a link instead of a person.

The touchscreen, and the first ball

The simulator turns on at your start time and shuts down at the end of your block, so arrive a few minutes early and use that time to get the clubs out and change your shoes rather than to stand and wait.

Everything else happens on the touchscreen beside the hitting area. There are more than 200 virtual courses, a virtual driving range, and Swing Cam for watching your own swing back. All of it is included in the bay rate, so you are not choosing between features.

Start on the driving range rather than a course. Half a dozen wedges at half speed will settle the nerves, and it gives you a chance to see how the screen reacts before anything counts.

Then hit one. The first ball is the only genuinely awkward one, because you are hitting at a wall that happens to have a golf hole on it. The ball goes into the screen, the shot carries on in front of you, and after three or four swings your brain stops noticing where you are. Ignore the numbers for the first ten minutes and just hit.

Indoor golf for beginners: what to bring

• Your own clubs. PGM does not provide clubs, so borrow a set if you do not own one. Four clubs and a putter are enough for a first hour.
• Clean indoor shoes. Any flat, non-marking sole. Spikes do nothing on a mat.
• Clothes you can turn in. The room is warm and you will be swinging for an hour. There is more on this in
  what to wear to an indoor golf simulator
  .
• Water and a small towel. Sixty minutes of full swings asks more of you than it looks like on paper.
• A glove, if you use one. You will hit more balls in an hour indoors than in a full round outside.

Four house rules cover the rest. Minors need an adult with them, there is no alcohol on the premises, golf balls must not be marked with a Sharpie because the ink transfers onto the screens, and the bay gets left clean for whoever has it next. The unwritten ones are in the golf simulator etiquette guide.

Book the first one

A first time at a golf simulator does not need a plan or a lot of skill. Book an early morning hour at the cheapest rate, bring clubs and a charged phone, and let the first ten minutes be messy. If you are still unsure about anything, the FAQ answers the short questions and the phone line answers the rest. Pick an hour on the Calgary booking page and let the rest look after itself.