Anyone ever built their own adjustable putting green?

[barwick11]

I'm considering making my own indoor putting platform, maybe 6' x 15' or something like that, just built out of 2 x 4's for a frame, some MDF for a base, and some type of putting surface. But a large flat putting surface seems "meh". Much more interesting would be an adjustable green where it can do up/downhill plus left/right slopes. Kinda like this link:

https://www.scienceandmotion.com/puttlab-platform/

So that got me thinking about building one of those, just with some linear actuators of my own. Has anyone considered (or built) a homemade one of these by chance? My initial idea (which actually my 11 year old simplified) seems like it could be pretty easy to do, but if someone else has already done it and has DIY, I'm all ears.

[Brettster]

Hey barwick11 - funny you should mention it, I've considered doing that myself recently... I'm using real nice 'club champion' turf in my Sim Shed, so I won't do it there, but I may consider it in my basement using Camry (as in Toyota Camry automobile) carpet.

There's a guy that's big into that, and he has a DIY on how to build one quite easily, and it's fully adjustable using furniture levelers all for about $200. Check it out here:

https://camrygolf.com/indoor-putting-green-diy-build-plan/

Let us know how it goes... I may build my own later this Winter too... looks quite good.

[Laboroflove]

I built one about 10 years ago. It’s currently in my sons room and is great. Looks something like this Brunswick one.

https://www.billiardfactory.com/the-macdonald

it’s a manual adjustment but does the trick well and has been a lot of fun over the years. Were I to do it over again I’d skip the MDF because it’s so heavy. The thing is a beast and it would have been nice to prioritize weight to allow it to be moved. Overall great project. Have fun with it!

[barwick11]

Thanks, I hadn't seen either of those before. I'd searched for lots of different setups but never came across them.

I'll probably end up starting with a setup like this, and see if we can't make it work with adjustment. Pretty good maker project for the kids to work with me on if we can somehow get electric scissor jacks or something and program in different levels of breaks with an Arduino.

[chrisward3]

There’s a good thread here on how that puttlab platform came to be.

https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/655008-indoor-putting-platform/

I used it as a reference when doing my own, using 8020 extruded aluminum, 3/4” Baltic birch, truline green turf, and scissor jacks to control the slope and break. Mine is 12x5’ overall which gives me a 9’ putt. It sits perfectly level on 8 levelling feet, and then can be raised/lowered using the 4 scissor jacks. I use a drill with 3/4” socket to quickly raise and lower the green, and made a ball return underneath the platform so all three holes collect in the middle of the green underneath.

let me know if you have any other questions!

[Brettster]

Wow chrisward3 - that's one amazing adjustable putting green. How much did all the jacks and metal (extruded aluminum) and wood run you to build that? Sure looks amazing. What is the biggest break you can setup on it? Is this your work from 10 years ago, or you followed the thread and built your own (showing in the pics)?

[chrisward3]

I think the setup ran about $2500(CAD), with the aluminum (and shipping to remote location). Sing the biggest costs with the project. The version in the link is not mine, just adapted to fit my needs.

I can set a pretty ridiculous break on it (PGA specifies 4* I think, and this will easily exceed it). Regardless of the break set, it forces me to pick a line and speed, and hit that consistently.

[barwick11]

That's a pretty sweet setup there Chris. I don't know if I want to invest in the T-slot aluminum, that sounds pretty expensive, but also ridiculously awesome.

I just ordered the Camry carpet and plan to make a 4 x 16 setup (15' of carpet plus some area in the rear I'll put fringe or something on to extend the standing area). Planning to order two electric jacks and wire them into relays that will be controlled by an Arduino, which if I can do this right, I'd like to have hooked into a closed-loop control system with an accelerometer to give me pitch and roll, so I can program in fractional degrees of slope up/downhill, and left/right at the same time.

I plan to use ball and socket joints to mate the electric jacks to the structure itself, screwing one end into a flange that will go into a cross-member, and the other end into the jack itself.

[Brettster]

barwick11 - dang, would love to see how that arduino setup goes... how fast can that be adjusted for putts? Curious if that's capable of using for every hole and making adjustments based on what is seen on screen??? Any way to tie in the putting green to that arduino and have the electric jacks controlled automatically?

[chrisward3]

I liked the modularity of T-slot aluminum (I’m military and move frequently, so setup/tear-down, and adjusting the overall size as required was a priority.

I looked at the electric jacks, but these were $40/pair and figured I could do a little manual labour in the meantime. Please keep me posted though how the jacks and arduino sets up, as I might look at upgrading down the road if it makes the setup more slick!

[iacas]

I did a similar thing with 8020 as well:

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/88036-help-me-design-a-basement-putting-green/?do=findComment&comment=1264215

It's 12' x 5' or so. I didn't end up cutting holes in it, as we just putt to things that we can move. I occasionally prop up one side or the other with blocks to add break.

[barwick11]

I liked the modularity of T-slot aluminum (I’m military and move frequently, so setup/tear-down, and adjusting the overall size as required was a priority.

I looked at the electric jacks, but these were $40/pair and figured I could do a little manual labour in the meantime. Please keep me posted though how the jacks and arduino sets up, as I might look at upgrading down the road if it makes the setup more slick!

Will do. Right now we've got all the wood built. I was stupid and used 2 x 4's on the 16' long portion and it was super wobbly, so I bought 2 x 6's and attached them on the side. Turns out Camry Carpet usually does that anyhow, but their 2 x 6's then serve as the "edge" of the green (I bought about 40' of quarter round for mine). Now it's pretty stiff.

The top surface I made out of 3/4" MDF, which is freaking heavy. Heavy heavy. In total this thing easily weighs 300# and I don't even have carpet on it yet.

As far as the Arduino, that's my plan, with our little wanna-be engineer (and this NASA engineer) together we should be able to put together one of the Arduino digital level projects so we can read the pitch and roll angles in real time. From there it's just a matter of using two 12V relays capable of at least 10A to power the jacks, and having the Arduino auto-adjust each jack based on the current pitch and roll.

Know what the hardest problem I'm having with it right now is though? Finding a ball joint with a threaded end at M20 x 2.5. I've found one and it's a hundred bucks. Absolutely insane. These will be screwed into the electric jacks to compensate for the difference in angle between the putting green structure and the jacks themselves.

If I can't find something that fits well I may need to just go without them at all, we'll see.

[barwick11]

So I've been putting on this all winter and just decided to jimmy rig my own stimpmeter out of 2 alignment sticks. Marks at 30" travel, 20 degree angle on them. My camry carpet went... 14' 6" on the stimp meter. Slightly uphill.