Sim Golf on a Mac? SkyTrak ST Max on a MacBook Air

Running a golf simulator on a Mac is one of those niche topics that almost never gets covered — but if you own a MacBook and don't want to drop money on a gaming PC, it's exactly the question you need answered.

In this setup I've got an M4 MacBook Air hooked up to a projector, running the SkyTrak Mac app paired with the SkyTrak ST Max launch monitor. The goal was simple: prove that you can play really nice virtual golf on Apple hardware, and see how well it actually holds up over a few holes and a range session.

SkyTrak ST Max

SkyTrak ST Plus

A genuinely full-featured Mac app

The thing that sets SkyTrak apart is platform flexibility. The Mac app isn't a stripped-down afterthought — it's full-featured, giving you course play, practice modes, and the driving range, the same as you'd get on Windows. SkyTrak also offers apps for PC and iOS, so you can even run the whole thing off an iPad if you want.

Not many other launch monitor manufacturers offer this much flexibility. For Mac users in particular, that's a big deal, because most premium sim software (GS Pro being the obvious example) is Windows-only.

Course play and the SkyTrak catalog

For this session I loaded up Silverleaf Club, one of the Trackman courses available in the SkyTrak catalog. The flyin views are immersive and give you a great read on the hole, and I'd rank gameplay on SkyTrak as my second favourite course-play experience — just behind the Bushnell Launch Pro.

Where SkyTrak really earns its keep is the course access you get for your money. The catalog is deep, and they add new courses every month to keep things fresh. If you're on one of the higher-tier subscriptions, it'll be a long time before you run out of new courses to play.

You get so much for your money as far as course access with the SkyTrak.

In terms of accuracy, short chips work really well in my experience. The one area it can struggle is full swings on high-lofted wedges like a sand or lob wedge, but inside that range I rarely have issues.

The driving range and club data

The SkyTrak range is one of my favourites. It shows all of your club data without needing stickers or any special markings on your clubs, and the metrics are laid out cleanly. Club path, total distance, the way everything's presented — it's a great practice environment and a big reason I keep coming back to it.

Performance on the M4 MacBook Air

This is the part that genuinely surprised me. The MacBook Air ran the SkyTrak app at max graphics quality and handled it beautifully. I'm only projecting at 1080p here rather than 4K, but at that resolution it does a fantastic job — honestly, it ran better than my Windows gaming PC.

My suspicion is that any M1-and-up Mac, whether it's a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, will run this great. The one open question is the MacBook with the phone-class chip — that may not be compatible. If you've tried it, let me know in the comments.