DYI Home Golf Simulator

[Josh Parker]

3 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

For those that have went full sim build, what did you use for landing/putting area between the hitting mat and screen. Just got my garage all cleaned out and gonna start on piecing together the build. Since the Mevo Plus allows for putting I’d like something that putts smoothly. 

I used another hitting mat and put it behind. It gave me enough room, but I found I had to put the ball closer to the Mevo+ (1.5ft or so )  

[Lefty11]

Nice looking setups everyone!  

[Tom the Golf Nut]

If you look at my photo from January 6th you can see what I'm going to explain.

I have a net behind the screen which wraps around the sides. At the base of the screen there is a rubber coated foam gym mat that you would put equipment on like an elliptical or tred mill to protect floors. The ball hits the screen and when it drops there is no bounce. You can see that I brought the bottom foot of the screen out by tying it off to the the side rails. This acts like a slight ball return. Works well. In front of that is a 10 foot Odyssey putting mat. You can't see the holes from that angle. I can practice for faster greens on that.

I thought about taking out the ridiculous poka dot carpeting that came with the house however they are exactly the same size as a golf hole. The carpet rolls the same stimp as the greens on my course. I can practice 18 foot putts easily. Actually 3 times a day I practice putts on the carpet and I don't allow myself to stop until I make six 15 footers in a row. 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

9 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

I used another hitting mat and put it behind. It gave me enough room, but I found I had to put the ball closer to the Mevo+ (1.5ft or so )  

This was my original thought but my wife’s cats like to go in the garage and will most definitely roll around on it so I need something I can’t vacuum/sweep the hair off of

[GolfSpy_BNG]

8 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

If you look at my photo from January 6th you can see what I'm going to explain.

I have a net behind the screen which wraps around the sides. At the base of the screen there is a rubber coated foam gym mat that you would put equipment on like an elliptical or tred mill to protect floors. The ball hits the screen and when it drops there is no bounce. You can see that I brought the bottom foot of the screen out by tying it off to the the side rails. This acts like a slight ball return. Works well. In front of that is a 10 foot Odyssey putting mat. You can't see the holes from that angle. I can practice for faster greens on that.

I thought about taking out the ridiculous poka dot carpeting that came with the house however they are exactly the same size as a golf hole. The carpet rolls the same stimp as the greens on my course. I can practice 18 foot putts easily. Actually 3 times a day I practice putts on the carpet and I don't allow myself to stop until I make six 15 footers in a row. 

I did see a post online about using the foam workout squares and topping it with felt type flooring. As I mentioned above it has to be something I can vacuum/sweep off. Did you have to glue anything down?

[MattF]

10 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

For those that have went full sim build, what did you use for landing/putting area between the hitting mat and screen. Just got my garage all cleaned out and gonna start on piecing together the build. Since the Mevo Plus allows for putting I’d like something that putts smoothly. 

You can use foam puzzle pieces. The cheap ones from Harbor Freight will work well. Or you can get some artificial turf from Lowes, HD, Menards etc fairly cheap and you only need about 6 feet.

[Josh Parker]

You can always do some outdoor carpet and either put foam under or just use a sheet of OSB and rip it in half to get the right thickness to match your hitting mat.  Gives you plenty of distance and would give a level platform for the Mevo

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

This was my original thought but my wife’s cats like to go in the garage and will most definitely roll around on it so I need something I can’t vacuum/sweep the hair off of

 

[schooner44]

11 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

For those that have went full sim build, what did you use for landing/putting area between the hitting mat and screen. Just got my garage all cleaned out and gonna start on piecing together the build. Since the Mevo Plus allows for putting I’d like something that putts smoothly. 

I used an old area rug for the area between my hitting mat and the net. I have the Spornia 7 net which has an auto return feature so the balls got that part of the net first. I would recommend checking out their nets as they're very versatile and fairly priced. They also have a larger version as well.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

I did see a post online about using the foam workout squares and topping it with felt type flooring. As I mentioned above it has to be something I can vacuum/sweep off. Did you have to glue anything down?

My hitting mat is built with 2x4’s and plywood. Then I used spray adhesive to hold the puzzle piece flooring to it, then used the spray adhesive again to hold green outdoor carpeting to that. Wrapped the carpet around and under then stapled. I built it so I could recess the hitting mat into the platform so everything would be flush. 

Nothing in the net area is glued down.

[GolfSpy_BNG]

3 hours ago, schooner44 said:

I used an old area rug for the area between my hitting mat and the net. I have the Spornia 7 net which has an auto return feature so the balls got that part of the net first. I would recommend checking out their nets as they're very versatile and fairly priced. They also have a larger version as well.

I appreciate the thought on the net but I’m going full sim build. Screen projector whole 9 yards. 

[schooner44]

17 minutes ago, GolfSpy_BNG said:

I appreciate the thought on the net but I’m going full sim build. Screen projector whole 9 yards. 

I have a full sim also. My setup is posted on the first page of this thread 

  

[GolfSpy_BNG]

3 hours ago, schooner44 said:

I have a full sim also. My setup is posted on the first page of this thread 

  

My bad I didn’t realize the net had a screen.  I have almost everything with the exception of what to do between the hitting mat and screen.  This is what I had in my FIL shed this winter for the Flightscope review. Gonna modify the cage down to 4-5’ deep and use some black sheets to darken it just a touch for the screen. 

[BLSkee]

On 8/2/2024 at 8:56 PM, GolfSpy_BNG said:

For those that have went full sim build, what did you use for landing/putting area between the hitting mat and screen. Just got my garage all cleaned out and gonna start on piecing together the build. Since the Mevo Plus allows for putting I’d like something that putts smoothly. 

Honestly I actually don't bother too much with putting on the sim -- it feels pretty fake and I'm not really into it. But just under the impact screen, I've got a bunch of foam garage puzzle pieces and then used spray adhesive to attach some okayish putting turf. I -could- putt on this, but it's really just to keep the balls from bouncing too much when they come down. 

 

One thing you may want to watch out for is any hard metals/wood you might be able to hit with a ball, even through thin padding. I've topped a couple of balls that smacked the base metal bar and the balls can fly right back at you ... We should all invest in some extra foam to protect those hard frame spots.

[Mnaks]

I went a slightly cheaper build (ignore my father in law "testing" it out) - I spent about 250$ on the Spornia spg7 net, 70$ on the mat and then just under 500$ on the Garmin R10 approach. I've easily used this thing upwards of 100 hours and it's been great for just getting an idea for what's going on with my swing (face to path angle, launch angle, etc.). I also got some of the Pro V1 RTC golf balls that improve the tracking accuracy with the R10 - I won those off a buddy in a bet over a round of golf

[BLSkee]

On 8/6/2024 at 12:25 PM, Mnaks said:

I went a slightly cheaper build (ignore my father in law "testing" it out) - I spent about 250$ on the Spornia spg7 net, 70$ on the mat and then just under 500$ on the Garmin R10 approach. I've easily used this thing upwards of 100 hours and it's been great for just getting an idea for what's going on with my swing (face to path angle, launch angle, etc.). I also got some of the Pro V1 RTC golf balls that improve the tracking accuracy with the R10 - I won those off a buddy in a bet over a round of golf

Nice work! That's plenty to get a feel for the swing! I didn't grow up playing golf-- it was baseball for me instead. But what I learned back then was the amount of effort and reps required to see valuable improvement. 

The whole, in-home sim setup, whether it's fancy or not doesn't really matter so much. What's important is having the area to get some work. 

I actually haven't played a "real" round since I setup the sim (we've recently had a new baby), but I'm 100% sure I'm going to shoot my best score ever next time I get out. Those club-path vs face-angle metrics were so so so eye opening. My consistency and awareness of the club face are 10x better.

Glad to hear others are having success with the home sim!