Certification

The Golfspedia Certified Installer standard.

Anyone can call themselves a simulator installer. There is no licence for it, no trade body, and no equivalent of the certification that exists in older trades. So we published a standard instead, and put the whole thing on this page — every requirement, how each one is checked, and what causes a badge to be withdrawn. Applying is free.

Standard published 12 August 2026

Why it starts with the manufacturer

Most trust badges in home improvement are self-referential: a directory invents a mark, sells it to the companies listed in the directory, and the mark ends up meaning that someone paid the directory. That is worth nothing to a homeowner spending five figures on a room.

Golf simulators have one credential that is genuinely independent of us. The platform manufacturers — Trackman, Foresight Sports, Full Swing, HD Golf, Uneekor — authorise the companies allowed to sell and install their systems, they revoke that authorization when things go wrong, and they keep their own records. Anchoring on it means the hardest part of our standard is a bar we did not set and cannot lower.

Everything else on this page is the ordinary contractor diligence a homeowner should be doing anyway and mostly does not: licence, insurance, warranty, complaint record. We do it once, in writing, and publish the result.

The standard

Every requirement has to be met. There is one badge, and no partial version of it.

RequirementWhat we checkWhy it matters
Manufacturer authorizationWritten confirmation that you are an authorised dealer or installing partner for at least one major simulator platform — Trackman, Foresight Sports, Full Swing, HD Golf or Uneekor.The anchor of the whole standard. It is the one credential in this category that an independent party already issues, already withdraws, and keeps its own record of.
Time in businessAt least three years trading under the same entity that will do the work — not a parent company, not a predecessor.A workmanship warranty is only worth the company standing behind it. Three years is short enough to admit good young firms and long enough to exclude a name registered last quarter.
LicensingActive contractor registration wherever your state requires one, and a licensed electrician on the job for dedicated circuits.A simulator bay is a construction project with a power requirement. Unpermitted electrical work is the failure a homeowner discovers years later, when they sell.
InsuranceA current general liability certificate, and workers’ compensation cover wherever you have employees on site.These installs happen inside occupied homes. An uninsured contractor moves the risk of an accident onto the homeowner.
Independent reviewsA public review profile we can read, holding at least a 4.5 average across a minimum of twenty reviews.A rating on its own is noise at low volume. The count matters as much as the number.
Complaint historyWe read the public complaint record and look for unresolved patterns rather than isolated disputes.Every builder with real volume has an unhappy customer somewhere. What separates firms is whether the same complaint keeps recurring.
Workmanship warrantyA written warranty on your own labour, stated in months or years, separate from whatever the equipment manufacturer covers.Manufacturer cover protects the hardware. It does nothing about an enclosure that racks or a screen that was hung out of true.
Completed residential workPhotographs of at least three finished home bays you built, with the room type and approximate ceiling height for each.Commercial venue experience does not transfer cleanly. Basements, garages and low ceilings are their own problem, and homeowners ask about them first.

Requirements are verified from documents the applicant supplies and from public records, at the point of review. A badge describes a company as it was when it was checked, and is rechecked on the schedule below.

Certified installers

No companies are listed yet.

The programme is open and applications are being reviewed. Nobody is listed on this page until they have actually passed, and we would rather show an empty directory than a padded one — a badge that gets handed out to fill space is the exact thing this standard exists to be an alternative to.

Certified companies will appear here with their service area, their platform authorization and the date of their most recent review.

How a review works

Five steps. Most applications are decided on the documents alone.

  1. You send the documents

    Proof of authorization, contractor registration, certificate of insurance, your written workmanship warranty, and photographs of three completed home bays. Email them tostephen@golfspedia.com.

  2. We confirm the authorization

    Directly with the manufacturer, or against their published dealer listing. This is the requirement that most often ends an application, so it is checked first.

  3. We check licence and insurance are current

    Against the issuing state's own register and the certificate's stated expiry, not against a copy of a copy. An expired document is treated as an absent one.

  4. We read the public record

    Review profiles, ratings, volume and the complaint history — looking for recurring unresolved patterns rather than counting individual bad days.

  5. You get a decision and a review date

    If anything falls short we say which requirement and why, so it can be fixed and resubmitted. A decline is not permanent.

When a badge is withdrawn

  • Manufacturer authorization ends, lapses, or is revoked.
  • A contractor registration becomes inactive, expires, or cannot be verified.
  • Insurance expires and a current certificate is not supplied.
  • The public rating or review volume falls below the stated minimum.
  • A pattern of unresolved complaints appears in the public record.
  • Documentation supplied to us turns out to be false or misleading.
  • Homeowners we referred report the same serious problem more than once.

Withdrawal removes the company from this page. We tell the company which requirement failed and, where the failure is fixable, what would restore the badge.

The badge

Certified companies get the artwork to display on their own site, in PNG and SVG.

The badge links back to this page, so anyone who clicks it lands on the standard it represents and can see whether the company is still listed. That link is the point of it — a mark nobody can check is decoration.

Terms of use

  • Display it only while your certification is current.
  • Keep the link to this page intact — an unlinked badge cannot be verified.
  • Do not recolour, crop, rotate, or add to the artwork.
  • Do not place it where it implies Golfspedia endorses a specific product or price.
  • Remove it within seven days if the badge is withdrawn.

Embed code

<a href="https://www.golfspedia.com/certified-golf-simulator-installers/"
   rel="noopener" target="_blank">
  <img src="https://www.golfspedia.com/badge/golfspedia-certified-installer-300.png"
       alt="Golfspedia Certified Installer"
       width="300" height="294">
</a>

Downloads:PNG 1200px ·PNG 600px ·PNG 300px ·SVG— the PNG is the one to use on a website. The SVG is for print and large formats; its lettering resolves against whatever sans the viewer's machine has.

The Golfspedia Certified Installer badge: a gold shield reading Golfspedia, Certified, Home Golf Simulator Installer.

Apply to be certified

Free to apply, free to hold. Send the documents listed above and we will come back to you with a decision or with the specific gap to close.

Write to stephen@golfspedia.com from whatever you normally use for email.

Email your application

Certification costs nothing. Homeowner enquiries are priced separately and discussed directly — the standard is not for sale.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Golfspedia Certified Installer badge mean?

It means a company met every requirement in the table above at the time it was reviewed, and that we saw documentation for each one rather than taking a claim at face value. It is a statement about the business — its authorization, licensing, cover and record — not a prediction about any particular install.

Who can apply?

Any company that installs residential golf simulators in the United States and holds authorization from at least one major simulator platform. Builders, AV integrators and specialist simulator firms all qualify on the same terms. We do not certify individual salespeople, and we do not certify equipment resellers who subcontract the whole install.

Does certification cost anything?

No. Reviewing an application is free and the badge is free. Golfspedia earns from homeowner enquiries, which are priced separately and discussed directly — so the standard cannot be bought, and paying us more cannot move it.

How often is a badge reviewed?

Annually, and immediately whenever something material changes — a lapsed licence, an expired certificate of insurance, an authorization that ends, or a pattern of complaints appearing in the public record.

Does the badge mean my install will go perfectly?

No. Certification is not a guarantee of your outcome, and any company that tells you otherwise is overselling. What it removes is a specific set of avoidable risks: an uninsured contractor, an unlicensed electrical connection, a firm with no manufacturer relationship, or a pattern of unresolved complaints you could have seen before signing.

What happens to my details when I ask to be matched?

They go to a single installer, not a list — you are not put into an auction. Our privacy policy sets out exactly which fields are sent and to whom.

Planning a simulator in your own home?

Answer a few questions about your room and budget, and we will match you with an installer who builds in spaces like yours.

Get matched with an installerEstimate the cost first

Free & confidential · No obligation · Takes about 2 minutes