New to golf sims (and golf for that matter) - build out

[cruz878]

Hello folks,

First a little background: I myself am not yet a golfer but have been toying with the idea of getting into it for a few years. My dad who is an avid golfer has been trying to get me hooked for over a decade but I resisted for some unknown reason. This year for Christmas he purchased my 6yr old son golf lessons. I've been taking him to the lessons these last few months and picking up some pointers along the way.

Just 3 weeks ago I started looking into building a hitting net under my elevated deck (11') for my son to practice... Our housing community has an 18hole course and small range less than a mile from my house but I thought it would be easier if we had a means to practice right at home. Things quickly escalated once I discovered golf sims in general and this forum!

So now I am building out an optishot setup.

Goals:
- garage installation 9'3" ceiling height (removable as I need to park cars here when not in use)
- must be portable (I at least want to be able to hang the net under the deck for non-sim practice in the warmer months)
- must accommodate both RH/LH swings (I am technically RH but my natural golf swing is LH)
- must be usable for both my 4' 6yr old and 6' adults
- $600 budget (hopefully feasible as I have a computer and a projector)

Purchased:
- Optishot ($210)
- jagmanjoe monster turf cover ($73)
- Almost golf balls ($36)
- 8' x 10' Mesh Tarp ($22)
- 2 60 in. x 72 in. Moving Blankets ($19)
- 2 40 in. x 72 in. Moving Blanket ($10)
- white queen sheet ($11)
- Utility Putt 6' x 9'Artificial Synthetic Turf Putting Green Grass ($90)

Still needed:
- grommets and tool
- Hanging hardware
- weight for bottom of screen
- projector mount (fabricate or purchase)
- platform base
- cables (hdmi/vga/power)
- lighting (led?)
- blinds for garage windows

My first dilemma: I intended on upgrading the projector in my theater room prior to starting this build and was planning to re-use the old one for the golf sim. Problem is, it is neither short-throw or high lumen as recommended. It's a LED based LG-HW350t. When I first bought my house I did use the projector on my brown living room wall for a week and was able to view it fine by limiting light (and this was a huge image probably around 144"). My thought is I can still re-purpose this projector but will only end up with an image around 85" to 96" diagonal. Anyone else hitting into a screen this small?

For the net/screen my tentative plan is to layer the moving blankets/mesh-tarp/sheet and hang from hooks on the ceiling. Once I get the projector sorted out glue dark green felt around the white sheet as a border to help with light control and reduce wrinkles in the screen. Then I can move it outside minus the sheet when we want to hit real balls in the yard. I prefer not to bungee for tension due to logistics, but read of someone using something like a 1" pvc pipe filled with sand to weigh it down. I could have my wife sew a sleeve into the bottom of the tarp to slip the weighted stick into but should I weigh just the mesh tarp and let the moving blankets and screen hang free? Also, any insight on potential damage with almost golf balls and a 10' wide screen is appreciated as I would like to avoid side curtains. I'm thinking we will hit from 9' to 10' away but expect plenty of shanks (at least at first).

On to the platform... Planning on 9'x4', optishot centered, with a putting extension added on later. I have some spare interlocking exercise mats so I may try and use these as a base for the putting turf. I've also read about insulation foam sandwiched between plywood. Waiting on depth dimensions on jagmanjoe's turf cover at which point I will need to settle on a solution.

My hope is to have this all set up by 03/06. If anyone has advice on anything I missed or suggestions please chime in.

Regards,
Dave

[cruz878]

Screen is pretty much finished... Going to be a few months until I get my new projector in at which point I'll get the exact image size set and tighten up the bottom corners of the sheet and felt around the unused white.



Total cost for screen came in at $130.

I've got all the materials for the platform so probably start on it today.

[wbond]

Is this where you will be hitting balls? If so, what will you do about thin shots? Looks like the bottom of the screen is off the floor quite a bit. The ball could go through the dryall, if thats what you have, or come rocketing back at you. Also, you may be limited to what clubs you hit, you don't want to catch the garage door track either. I know it's up high, but unless you have excellent ball striking ability at this point, anything is possible and you should protect for it.

[cruz878]

I made it adjustable so can lower the entire screen or move it to a different area by simply un-clipping the 9 spring hooks. In that picture it is 13" from mesh tarp to the ground and my platform is looking to be around 3" high so anything that doesn't get up at least 10" will most likely hit the pvc. Tee to screen will be about 9'. As for the door track, I can swing my driver fine between them but I'm sure balls will inevitably make contact. I thought about getting some pipe insulation to stick around there but if it becomes a hazard I may just relocate it to the front wall. The benefit to this wall is the screen can stay up on a semi-permanent basis as it won't be in the way of the cars.

I will only be hitting "almost golf balls" in the garage and my impression is those won't be able to easily penetrate drywall (unless I manage to develop a crazy swing speed!). Admittedly I only hit about a dozen so far with my 8 iron and the 4th shot was thin enough to catch the PVC and ricochet but I was a good 4' closer than I will be once the platform is finished.

Once Spring rolls around I can move it to my backyard and see how it handles real balls. I've got an elevated deck with a good +10' clearance and no windows to worry about down there (hence my motivation in making it easily portable).

[cruz878]

Platform came out to about $157 (+73 for optishot cover). 9' x 4' would of been perfect but required too much effort to construct so I went with standard 8' x 4' (thanks JagmanJoe for the guide). Used OSB as it was cheaper and I'm guessing the entire platform weighs about 50lbs.



Still in need of a putting platform but I'm thinking I may just purchase one and elevate it to match the hitting platform height. I see the below one for $51 and by the time I purchase more OSB and insulation foam I'll probably end up at the same cost:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230964124454...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

@wbond: you were absolutely right about the screen being too high. Shots were consistently sneaking under. For now I added a second tarp that drapes out across the floor but the next time I get over to Lowes I will pickup some wood to lower the entire screen 6".

I am playing Optishot on my laptop when solo or moving a 39" TV out to the garage if playing with others. As soon as LG releases this PF1500 I'll be moving my old theater projector down to the garage.

[wbond]

Can anyone else see the pic?

Cruz-If you are going to go with the OSB and foam for the putting platform, you may want to just get a piece of the green indoor/outdoor carpet, it will be about a 1/4 or 1/3 of the cost of the one in the link. I think it comes about 8x8 or something from HD or lowes. Then you can make it any size you want.

BTW, what do you think of the jagman joe cover and the optishot itself? Now that I have better lighting conditions, i'm finding the optishot to be pretty acceptable for playing a round.

[cruz878]

Pic should be fixed now (I always have trouble publishing via OneDrive).

I have a 8' by 14" piece of turf left that I can use on top but the 2" insulation foam board was $35. By the time I buy the glue and OSB I'm not sure I'll see any cost savings vs just buying that one on eBay and raising it with some spare exercise mats. I may still go the build route as then I can go 8' long.

Love the jagmanjoe cover! As for the Optishot, v1 software was giving me some headache but since moving to V2 I have yet to get a single misread. I also replaced all bulbs in the garage with LED and will be putting up blinds on the 3 windows this week. So far I am extremely satisfied. Impatiently waiting for my new projector now!

Looks like I'll end up about $100-$150 over budget by the time I sort the putting platform out and mount/cable the old projector.

One added bonus for me is that a buddy who is a golf pro a couple hundred miles away is giving me virtual lessons. He has me use this V1 golf app to film my swing from different angles in slo-mo and then shows me what I'm doing wrong.