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Good morning MGS brethren! I am creating this thread to put quality information out into the community for those who are trying to research how to build an epic golf simulator. I just finished my build and it has drastically improved my game in the short time that it has been in use. When I started to research all of the different options for components however, not a lot of good information was available..... Now it will be! I will be updating this thread in a stage-type fashion. Each stage of the project will show pictures of the setup, components, and result. Each stage will also have all of the different vendors researched, the decision that was made & why, and links to the selected products. I hope that this will drastically help anyone going down the road of building their own. Enjoy!

I set this product up on carpet, then on tile floor. It actually performed better on carpet. When stretched out on tile the grout lines caused bumps in the roll; the mat is pretty thin. From the get go I wasn't too enthusiastic about this product. The ramp is the detractor. In order to put a 3' putt in the hole you have to hit it about as hard as you would a 6' putt. If you're working on speed, getting the ball to die into the hole or pass the hole by 18" this isn't the product for you. It's going to train you to hit putts too hard. If you're working on getting the proper line and stroke on straight putts, this is an OK choice. The mat has some markings that assist with alignment and distance. It took some time for the surface to actually lay flat once I took it out of the box. The sides tend to rib a little, but the middle of the mat has a pretty good surface. Pros: * 12" wide. If a hallway is your practice space this mat is thin enough to fit and still leave you room to stand to the side. *Ball return works every time. *Easy storage and light weight. *Price. $49. All other mats with ramps and ball returns are at least $10 more. Cons: *Mat is thin, plastic ramp is thin. It makes sense to roll up the mat for storage but when unrolled is tends to curl. *The ramp. I can't find a reason to want a ramp at the last 12" of a putt, besides aiding the ball return. *The ball return ramp is 3 pieces, including the mat it's a 4 piece set.

Looking to do some putting practice inside. Has anyone ever made their own version of The Putting Board? I love the idea, but not the price tag ($130). The keys to creating this is understanding if there's any arc in the board, and what the angles are for the takeaway and follow-through positions. I'll let you know what I come up with, but thought I'd check if anyone has already created one. Cheers

I'm not much for golf gadgets but this one, for some odd reason, has caught my eye. The guy doing the commercial is kind of humorous - perhaps that's what is luring me in. Anyone tried this device? It does look like a simple way to help with alignment/getting the putter face square to the intended line. If you open up the "science" hotlink, it shows test data performed by GolfWRX. I haven't found any reviews by MGS... so I'm dubious of the claims . https://www.dirtylarrygolf.com/

Perfect Practice Putting Mat Review By Chasing Scratch If you’re like me, you need to practice your putting……. A lot…… I mean take the time you want to practice each month, multiply it by 10, then add 10 hours to that. Let’s face it, of all the skills in the game of golf, putting is something many of us amateurs tend to practice the least. When was the last time you heard people at the course talking ‘bout “Man I spent 5 hours last week on my putting, and I just can’t get enough!” The putter is hit more times in a single round than any other club yet we have this avoidance affair with it. We’ll smash driver for hours on the range, look at the watch, and give 5 minutes to putting. I’m guilty of this myself. As someone who knows I need to practice my putting more, it’s just not that much fun. It’s also not very convenient for me. The closest course to my home is 25 minutes away. 50 minutes in the car is a large commitment for me just to practice putting several days per week. So given my goal of scratch golf, my knowledge of statistics, and my passion for improvement, I started looking into “at home” putting training aids. I searched around on the internet for everything from putting mats, auto-return systems, and DIY putting platform building guides. I liked a few of the products just fine and was narrowing down my options to a few of the mats. I know several had great reviews and even skill-type-games you can play, but I just couldn’t get over not having the ball fall into a cup. There is something satisfying about seeing the golf ball fall into a hole and disappear. So I started to plan out a putting platform build. I had the specs and was all set to go to the store and spend a few days knocking it out. Literally the night before I was going to go to the store, I stumbled upon a page on Instagram called “Perfect Practice Golf” and saw their putting mat. They had a giveaway contest going on for the PGA Championship so I threw my name in for the drawing. I decided to wait and see if I got lucky before I built my platform and (wouldn’t you know it!) I won! So I decided to hold off on building a platform to see if this thing was any good. Their Instagram page showed quite a few PGA Tour players (e.g., Tony Finau, Marc Leishman, Smiley Kaufman, see their quotes below) who were using their putting mat so I figured it would be good enough for me. Quality and features When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the actual putting carpet was top notch. I’m sure you’ve all seen the putting mats you can buy at the big box stores and the carpet they come with looks like something that is made out of cardboard. You have to lay encyclopedias on it and even then you may have some creases, it never lays flat, etc. Straight out of the box, this thing unrolled and lay flat. You could literally start putting on it right out the box! The actual material feels a lot like velour (that's the best way I can describe it although it is not a perfect description). They call it “crystal velvet,” but all I know is it is a very pure rolling surface. A plus is that you can vacuum it as well. On that mat, you’ll find printed markings for every foot and smaller marks for every inch (it looks like a giant ruler). You also have two alignment lines (one for the regular sized hole and one for the mini-hole). As a golfer who struggles with “seeing the line” over my putts, the alignment line really helps. The mat also features an incline up to the holes, to ensure a confident stroke and to assist with the gravity-fed ball return system. On their first version, the base and return ramp were made out of plastic. It had a good weight to it and I had no complaints. On their newest model, they made some upgrades to the base material. Namely, it is now made of wood instead of plastic, there is an insert-able backstop to catch putts hit with too much gusto, extra space behind the holes to catch balls, and the return ramp has magnets to connect the pieces. Each of these upgrade adds much more “high quality” feel to the overall product. They did not change the crystal velvet putting surface, and in my opinion they didn’t need to. It’s great as is. With the original version, my kids had a tendency to hit the ball past the holes and off the mat. They were more than happy to chase the balls down the hallway, but it was a bit of an oversight in the original design. This has been fixed in the newest version. It would take a freaking missile launch of a putt to blast it off the mat now. For the price, I’d be hard pressed to find a better putting training aid. At just over $100, you get a high quality putting surface and the mental boost of seeing a ball fall into a hole over and over and over again. You can roll it up, stick it under your bed, and putt every single day, rain or shine, all from the comfort of your home. This thing rolls fast and true. They claim it rolls up to a 14 on the stimp if you put it on hard floors (think wood floors or concrete), and you can slow it down by putting it on carpet. When I put it on my bedroom carpet, it is noticeably slower than when it is on the tile floor. If I were to have a critique, it would be that I wish the mat were just about a 1/4 inch thicker. I have tile floor in my home and carpet in the bed rooms. When putting on the tile floor, you can get a bump here or there (due to the gaps in the tiles and grout). I fixed this by using some runner rugs we have in the hallway and I typically just put them under the mat. I can’t be too critical, because I know that adding more thickness would increase the price, add to shipping, etc. Overall it is a solid putting mat well worth the price. I have hit hundreds of putts on the original model and the newest model and have yet to notice any depressions or grooves in the surface. I know this is a concern for any putting mat, but so far so good on this one. Performance on the course For the first few weeks that I had the original Perfect Practice Golf putting mat, I couldn’t get enough of it. My kids and I would spend hours throughout the day hitting 4 footers, 6 footers, 8 footers, etc. We even came up with a trick shot and had a blast doing it (see video below)! [/url] My son and I came up with other putting games to play on it to keep it fun. My on the course putting showed definite improvement as well! I rarely had less than 35 putts per round before and quite often a few three putts. When I was putting consistently with the Perfect Practice mat, I didn’t have a round over 32 putts. Those pesky 6-7 foot par save putts were falling with much more consistency. I felt like I had a real chance to hole everything inside of 10 feet. Seeing the ball fall into a hole over and over and over while practicing at home is such a mental boost for my game. I haven’t played golf in over a month, much less practiced on my mat (life just got very very crazy in the Chasing Scratch home). I want to make myself a personal goal of hitting 50 putts per day to see how good I can get. Since I have a solid mat in the comfort of my own home, there really is no excuse. If I want to get to scratch golf, I need to get those putts per round down to 30 or under consistently. The only way to get better is to practice. I’ve got a great practice aid to do it, now I just need the determination and dedication. At $130, I don’t think you can go wrong with this training aid. The upgrades are a nice improvement over the original version, and the putting surface is top notch. Take a look at their webpage (click here) and consider the Perfect Practice Golf mat if you are in the market for a putting setup for the home, office, or wherever really. They sell out quickly when they get their shipments in, so they are on pre-order right now. I hope you enjoyed this review! Now I’m off to go work on my putting! [/url](Note: The images used in this review are used with permission from the company's website) [/url][/url]