5 Reasons to Buy the Square Golf Launch Monitor

How often do you come across an optical launch monitor under $1,000 that reads putts accurately, works well indoors, and doesn’t hit you with a subscription paywall?

The answer is never.

And that’s exactly why the Square is getting so much buzz.

At $699, it delivers camera accuracy in a category that’s always been radar-only at this price. And it does it while keeping setup simple, bringing putting into the mix and even letting you play golf without hitting an actual ball.

It’s not perfect. No launch monitor is. The Square is indoor-only. It lacks a couple of data points that more serious players may want. And the build is not as sturdy as some competitors.

But if you’re shopping for something that balances accuracy, fun, and affordability, this one needs your attention.

So let’s break it down. Here are five reasons to buy the Square Launch Monitor.

One of the biggest frustrations with radar launch monitors is that they need room to work. The Garmin R10, the Mevo+, the MLM2PRO — all of them require several feet behind the ball plus a healthy amount of ball flight in front before they can calculate anything close to accurate.

For a lot of golfers, that’s a dealbreaker. Garages, basements, and spare bedrooms often simply don’t offer that much depth.

The Square solves this problem. It’s a side-mounted, camera-based system that sits next to the ball instead of behind it. That means you don’t need 16 feet of space. It means you don’t have to redesign your garage just to make room for a launch monitor.

Photometric tracking has always been the preferred tech for home indoor golf studios. The issue, up until now, was cost. All of the competing options lived in the $2,000-plus category. The Square is the first to break that barrier and deliver the same category of technology in a package priced at $699.

If your plan is to practice or build a simulator indoors, that alone might make this your best option.

Here’s where the Square stands out even further.

Most budget launch monitors either ignore putting or handle it so poorly that you’re better off leaving it turned off. Chipping can be just as bad. Often misread, often skipped, often useless.

That’s a problem, because if you’re building a simulator to play full rounds, it’s frustrating to have to auto-putt or guess your short-game numbers.

The Square is different. And it makes sense once you know that it’s from the same company responsible for the dedicated Exputt putting simulator. That experience shows up in the Square’s ability to track short shots cleanly.

Pitches, chips, and putts all read with consistent accuracy. Even high, soft shots register. For putting, launch direction and speed are impressively tight.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. No simulator putting ever is. But the fact that the Square makes short game practice realistic and usable is a big deal. Especially if you want your simulator to feel like full golf, not just tee shots.

And that’s important. More than half of golf happens inside 100 yards. If your launch monitor skips chips and putts, you’re essentially practicing only the long game. The Square is one of the first sub-$1,000 devices that lets you play a whole round.

The Square is not just a “launch monitor with a range mode.” It’s more versatile than that.

Inside the app, you get multiple ways to use the device. There are two different driving ranges. A closest-to-the-pin game with customizable targets and rollout. A putting mode that lets you set distances and speeds. And a full game mode with 12 fictional courses that look and play surprisingly well.

On top of that, you get something no other competitor offers: the Swing Stick.

This short, sensor-equipped trainer lets you play golf without hitting a real ball. Place a ball in the hitting zone, swing the stick, and the Square translates your motion into a simulated shot. It’s not a perfect substitute for hitting an actual golf ball, and the accuracy is definitely not going to be spot on. But it opens up new ways to use the device. It’s great for kids. And you can sneak in some swing practice in a room where a real club wouldn’t fit.

I’m not saying that the Swing Stick is reason enough to buy the Square. But it is a pretty cool additional feature, at least for some people. And it makes this launch monitor a little less one-dimensional than many of its peers.

It’s also practical in ways you might not expect. Some people might not have any use for the Swing Stick. But if you’re in a place where a real club just isn’t possible, this might be your only choice. That opens it up to more potential users.

The golf simulator market has trended hard toward subscriptions. Many launch monitors require an annual fee just to unlock club data. Others charge a connectivity fee before you can pair them with popular third-party software like GSPro or E6.

The Square does neither.

Out of the box, it connects to options like GSPro, E6 Connect, and Awesome Golf without an extra payment. And there’s no “basic vs. premium” tier where you have to keep paying just to get features already built into the hardware. If you already subscribe to GSPro or another sim platform, you just connect and play.

Even the Square’s own simulator software avoids subscription pricing. Instead, it uses a credit-based model. Every hole you play costs one credit, and the unit ships with 1,000 included. That works out to more than 50 full rounds before you need to reload. After that, you can buy more credits and they only cost a couple pennies per hole.

For many golfers, especially those who only play simulator golf in the winter or a few times a month, this ends up being cheaper than annual fees.

This approach makes sense. It puts the cost control in your hands and avoids the frustration of paying every month whether you’re using the device or not.

At the end of the day, all the features in the world don’t mean much if the numbers are junk. That’s where the Square manages to exceed expectations.

Ball speed and carry distances are all spot-on with this launch monitor. Even spin rates, a notoriously tough number to get right at this price, is impressive.

With longer clubs you can expect more variance. Driver and fairway woods are going to show larger gaps, as is typical when you separate consumer-level launch monitors from the stuff the pros use. Bottom line is that if you’re spending less than $1,000, you are going to have to suffer things like the occasional missed shot or five-to-10-yard variances in longer club shot dispersions.

It’s also worth noting that to unlock full accuracy, you do need to use the included marked balls and apply shaft stickers for club data. That’s not unusual for photometric systems, and it’s a fair tradeoff at this price.

Is the Square a substitute for a $15,000 system? Of course not. But for indoor practice, simulator play, and general feedback, the Square is far more reliable than you might expect for $699.

The Square is not perfect. It’s indoor-only. It skips a couple of club metrics like smash factor and clubhead speed. The build quality feels light compared to pricier options, and there’s no shot history or session storage yet in the app.

But if you’re looking for an indoor-friendly, camera-based launch monitor that’s accurate, flexible, and affordable, there’s nothing else quite like it.

For golfers trying to build a simulator in limited space on a limited budget, the Square is a game-changer. For those who value putting and short-game realism, it’s in a class of its own. And for anyone tired of paying subscriptions just to access the features they already bought, the Square’s pricing model is refreshing.

The bigger picture here is that the Square signals a shift in what “affordable” golf tech can be. By breaking the $1,000 barrier for camera accuracy and proving that short game and putting can actually be done well, it resets expectations in this entire category.

At $699, it’s the most interesting product in the affordable launch monitor market. Not because it does everything perfectly, but because it finally brings camera-based performance and usable short-game feedback into reach for regular golfers.

If that fits your needs, the Square deserves a serious look.

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Have a great day, and I’ll see you out on the course.