About Yardstick Golf
We are a couple of the original golf simulator experts. We’ve been researching, reviewing, testing, and playing golf simulators for over a decade. We were the first site to publish a golf simulator business plan, the first to research golf simulator buyer satisfaction, and run one of the largest golf simulator forums on the internet.
Reid Colson
Yardstick Golf founder
Reid is the founder of Yardstick Golf and a long‑time data leader with experience at multiple Fortune 500 companies. He most recently served as Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Markel and previously held several leadership roles at Capital One, including Vice President of Data Engineering.
Reid’s deep background in analytics, data warehousing, and business intelligence directly shapes how he evaluates golf simulators. He applies rigorous testing frameworks, clear criteria, and statistical analysis to compare performance, reliability, and value. That same data‑driven approach is why Yardstick Golf runs structured buyer satisfaction surveys—so reviews are grounded not just in one person’s opinion, but in real‑world feedback from golfers using the products every day.
Reid is also a dedicated golfer with more than 40 years of playing experience. He started in high school on the golf team, has a background in competitive golf, and currently plays to a 5 handicap, giving him a practical, player‑level perspective on equipment and simulator performance.
Away from the office, Reid became the “go‑to gear guy” in his golf circles, frequently advising friends on clubs, balls, and tech. That same practical knowledge and enthusiasm now power Yardstick Golf, where he helps golfers make informed decisions about simulators and other gear so they can get more value and enjoyment from their setups.
Lem Clevenger
Yardstick golf co-founder
Lem is a co‑founder and ambassador at Yardstick Golf and one of the earliest independent voices in the golf simulator space. With over 40 years in golf and more than a decade running this site, he has helped thousands of golfers and entrepreneurs understand the realities of building and using simulators.
He runs a dedicated golf simulator forum with over 75,000 followers and authors the Sim Weekly newsletter, which reaches more than 6,500 readers who rely on it for practical guidance, product insights, and industry trends. He has also been interviewed multiple times about the golf simulator business, sharing data‑driven perspectives on what works—and what doesn’t—for both home users and commercial facilities.
Lem originally dove into indoor golf while exploring it as a second career after years in the corporate world. As he evaluated whether to open his own facility, he focused on the key business drivers: how many simulators a local market could realistically support and what percentage of time those bays would actually be rented.
About 15 years ago, he began an in‑depth research effort on indoor golf businesses, simulators, and related gear. He has surveyed business owners, regular indoor‑golf customers, and at‑home simulator users, then analyzed those surveys to understand real‑world usage, satisfaction, and ROI. The results of that work are distilled into the guides, tools, and reviews featured on Yardstick Golf.
Through this research, Lem found that many simulator manufacturer ROI models significantly overstate expected play volume. He has since developed more grounded forecasting approaches that incorporate local factors such as weather patterns, number of golfers within a 10‑mile radius, home prices, and renter density to help owners project utilization more accurately.
With more than 2,000 business plan downloads and hundreds of hands‑on golf product reviews published, Yardstick Golf draws on Lem’s experience to provide golfers and operators with expert, data‑backed advice on choosing, buying, and running golf simulators.
