Best layout for this room

[ks-man]

Hi all,

Just joined the site after spending a lot of the morning researching on the web. I'm just starting my potential journey towards a simulator. The first step will be getting the wife's permission which probably means I should stop everything now but hey, I'm an optimist. I've attached a photo of the room in the basement that I'm hoping to use. The ceiling is about 9.5 feet but I need to double check for the exact number. I'm trying to decide if the best setup would be a longer room but not as wide or a wider room but not as long. The entryway shouldn't be an issue with either layout but I need to also be cognizant of the door to the bathroom. Any recommendations on what typically works out better?

Also a few other things to mention to see if anybody has any thoughts. Right now my son (who is only four) is a lefty and I'm a righty. As he grows older I'll want him to be able to also practice on the simulator so is there anything I should consider at the beginning to allow for use on both sides? I don't really mind physically moving the simulator but I'm guessing it is still something I should think about.

Finally, from my morning of research it looks like Par2Pro is one of the leaders for purchasing. I also like the look and simplicity of golfsimulatorguys.com although they don't appear to be as mainstream as Par2Pro. Any other vendors I should consider? Pricing is pretty up in the air right now. If I do this I want to do it right so could see spending what is necessary for a good system. I don't necessarily need the best setup but would be willing to spend an extra $5-15k if it means a far more enjoyable and accurate experience.

Thanks.

[aja]

Think you are tight for space, particularly if you want to accommodate both righties and lefties.

ProTee provides pretty good guidelines here: http://csc.protee-united.com/entries...tor-dimensions

The 14 foot width suggested is pretty well the minimum if you have hitters from both sides of the ball.

[Sascha1818]

I don't think the 9,5 sealing height will do buddy. Swinging a driver will need more. From experience (having a setup in an apartment) I can tell you that
you will swing very different if you know you get somewhere close to the sealing. I was able to swing a 7 iron (max) but even with a 9 I never got the distance.
I questioned the ST I just got but after I took it to the range I realized that it was the "confined" space that made me swing different. I even hurt my back a little cause without even realizing I tried to slow the club down hard after hitting. My sealing was 8,5 feet

[m3w]

Everyone's different. I only have 8.5 feet of ceiling height (with a ceiling fan directly above the ball position that hangs even lower), and I can swing my driver just fine.

[ryanoneill1]

I am 5' 10" and have 8' 10" ceiling and can swing a driver without an issue. it all depends on swing plane

[wbond]

I don't think you are going to be able to make it work for both left and right without having to either move a unit or have two floor mounted systems. I probably have one of the smallest hitting areas, it's about 9' wide by 14' long. It's only used for righties. Also, i have space behind the 14' that when i hit the net it probably gives about a foot or so. The hitting spot is 7'6" to the screen and 6'6" to the wall behind me. For the time being, you could get a nice system for yourself, and get an optishot for your son. There are ways to make it work. You will lose some height though with your hitting mat and any floor mounted club tracking system.

[bionicboogerboy]

Hi ks-man

This is Bret from golf simulator guys. Your footprint is fine for a sim. All you need is 9' high to swing a club for height. You need 12' in width to swing both lefties and righties. With our studio you need about 18' feet in depth. We unfortunatley increased our depth to accomodate a longer throw projector. But that projector is a 1080 so it is worth it. We do have a new widescreen 16:9 format coming out this fall but it will be about 13'6" wide. So if you were to use our studio you would have to by the 4:3 aspect ratio which is only 10' wide. If you have any other questions feel free to give us a call.

Bret
golfsimulatorguys.com
317 626 0660

[Dax]

I agree that 9.5 foot height should be enough, but definitely measure and take into consideration how high up you will be raised depending on system used. Can you blow out the closet to give you a little more room if needed, perhaps this can take your projector. As for the lefty issue, you could always set up to ensure you have enough room and given that your kids will have at least 10 years until it becomes an issue, you could just live with a slight offset if the measurements that Brett provide above don't make you feel comfortable. However, these guys set systems up for a living and so I would say they know what they are talking about (but you need to be comfortable with the set up).

[wbond]

Ks-man, I suggest before you get too far along that you swing within these dimensions. If you are tall, use modern length driver of 45" with a flat swing, having only 6' from hitting area to wall behind you may be very tight. Same could be true with an upright swing for ceiling height. A lot of these dimensions are suggestions because the need can vary based on user height, length of clubs and types of swings. If you plan on having friends over, they will expose any design shortcomings very quickly.

[ProTee United]

If you decide to buy a ProTee system, you need 14' to make sure both left and right handed players have enough room to make a swing.

Aja posted a picture of a typical setup above.

A good test is to stand in the room (if its build already) and place a golf ball on a position you want to play from. Then hit a couple of practice swings with a driver, iron and wedges. Make sure you do not hit the wall behind you or the ceiling. A tight space will limit you to swing in full.

[ks-man]

Thanks for all the comments. I did bring up the topic to my wife and she didn't immediately shoot it down. Currently there is a ton of stuff in the room that needs to be cleaned out before I could take any swings. I also noticed there is a ceiling fan in the room that would probably first have to come down. At that point I will be able to take some practice swings and confirm that I'm not restricted. Am I correct that most people are recommending using the room as 12' wide and 18' deep rather than the other way around? Nothing about an enclosure or net would block the path to the bathroom that way would it? Is the only reason for that recommendation to accommodate the projector? I had always been under the assumption that it would be better to have a wider room with less depth than the other way around.

Thanks again.

[Hoosierdaddy]

Thanks for all the comments. I did bring up the topic to my wife and she didn't immediately shoot it down. Currently there is a ton of stuff in the room that needs to be cleaned out before I could take any swings. I also noticed there is a ceiling fan in the room that would probably first have to come down. At that point I will be able to take some practice swings and confirm that I'm not restricted. Am I correct that most people are recommending using the room as 12' wide and 18' deep rather than the other way around? Nothing about an enclosure or net would block the path to the bathroom that way would it? Is the only reason for that recommendation to accommodate the projector? I had always been under the assumption that it would be better to have a wider room with less depth than the other way around.

Thanks again.

You need almost 6 foot behind and 6 ft in front of golfer to swing. That will put your screen at 6 inches from the wall. You need 18 inches min. behind the screen. I don't think a wider setup will work. And having an offset in the stance is not optimal either. It tends to make you want to hit towards the center of the screen. which will result in not so accurate results. But that's not saying it won't work. You just have to remember not to hit towards center. If there is a will there is a way.

[Sascha1818]

I had the Same, not being Center. What i did is marked a straight "setup line " on the turf and put a target mark on the screen straight ahead of the setup position and off center of the screen/net. Not ideal but it worked for me.

[wbond]

With my dimensions, i have to hit offset of the screen and as stated above, i also have target lines to make sure i am hitting in line with my system and not to the center of the mat. It's not ideal obviously but i don't have any issues with it.

[ks-man]

Did some cleaning out of the room and noticed a few more things I'll need to consider. There is a soffit that comes out of the wall by the bathroom about 23.5" and down 14" from the ceiling. The ceiling height is exactly 9'6" in the spot I measured. So essentially that means I have about 10.5' of space with a 9.5' ceiling and 2' of only 8'4". I did bring my driver to the basement and am able to swing it in the room without obstruction if I'm a little offset from the center. Since I'd imagine I would only get at most a 10' wide screen the offset might not be too bad for hitting (since the screen is offset too. I'm looking at a few of the different options such as GolfSimulatorGuys HD impact screen and Par2Pro's Net Return Simulator Series. I think I need to look at a lot of photos and room layouts around here to get a sense of what I'm dealing with.

Do most people handle the installation of the systems themselves or do they hire professionals? If nothing else I'd love to find a place around here that sells or installs simulators just so I can see what some of them look like installed in person. I also imagine I'm going to want to do extra padding around the outside of any screen or enclosure to protect the walls from complete mishits. I could try and do the padding myself but I'm sure it wouldn't come off looking that good.

Also, are there any threads around here that detail different step by step process of installing a home simulator type studio? I'm trying to decide what else I will need when figuring out if we can salvage some of the furniture in the room. I realize that I'll need a laptop but can't decide if I should use a coffee table we already have or do something else. Do people also install wall hanging TVs or something like that for easy stat readouts?

Anyway, thanks again for all the help people have been offering. I'm still a good bit away from getting this thing actually installed but it is starting to come closer to a reality that it will actually happen.