My Simulator Build

[Blaker34]

Hey everyone,


After a lot of research and literally going back and forth on doing this room 6 or 7 times in the past year, we are close to completion. What had held up this project up from taking place initially was the ceiling height. I have 9ft ceilings in my lower level. When you factor in pad, drywall, it drops a couple inches or so. A buddy of mine who is a carpenter and owns a small construction company came up with a creative way to raise the existing 9' ceiling approximately 8". As most of you know, 8" is a very significant amount when you talking about swinging the driver freely. I would have been able to swing the driver without it, but I maybe would have had 2-3" of clearance MAX. The 8" was one of the main deciding factors in me going forward with this room. This ceiling modification also required me to move a good amount of mechanicals, and an engineer signing off since they had to bring in a 6" steel beam and add support beams on each side of the room. We went from 14" floor joists to 6". The only downsize to this besides hitting my pocket book was the room was already 14 feet wide, the covered support posts narrowed the hitting area by 1.5 feet, which all in all wasn't a deal breaker. We are sliding over the hitting area 1.5 or so to accommodate the custom pillars. If I would have considered this before I built the home 2 years ago, I would have gone with 10 foot ceilings and a 16 foot wide room. Maybe our next home

Since the ceiling was modified, it's been a pretty seamless process. I've been dealing with Preston from Par2pro from the beginning. He is at my home now installing the turf, screen, projector etc.

A few details about the room. The 55" flat screen is just for TV/entertainment purposes for when I'm hitting balls or playing, the room is wired up for 5.1. The smaller screen on the side is a Viewsonic 27" touch screen which is where I will be controlling the simulation software. The PC tower and A/V receiver are hidden underneath the cabinetry under the Electrical & AV Panels. The entire floor will be a putting green , there will be a contoured fringe around the perimeter of the room/green. I will have a 6x5' CCE Real Feel mat for the hitting area. After some research into the software/simulation devices, I decided on going with the Flightscope Xi Tour. I was a little hesitant after reading some mixed reviews on Flightscope indoors, however Preston assured me the new Xi Tour with the short indoor mode has been spot on in their testing.

Below are some pictures of the room......

I will add more next week when everything is buttoned up and completed.

[Godfather]

So how was it raised 8”? Lots of people in here would be interested in ways to raise an existing ceiling.

[Boerdoc]

Great looking setup! What simulation are you going to run? Any ventilation in the room?

[Blaker34]

So how was it raised 8”? Lots of people in here would be interested in ways to raise an existing ceiling.

Besides the engineering portion and making sure everything would work(1-2 month process), moving the mechanicals was the worst of it. Part of the reason that wasn't an issue is because that's what I do, I own a mechanical contractor(Heating, Plumbing & Electrical). Once the mechanical portion was taken care of, it was on to cutting/demo. The existing TGI's were 14", they cut the TGI's up to just 6" and attached 2x6's to each TGI. The Beam was installed and runs across the ceiling and came down approximately 6.25", they furred the ceiling down so the beam was flush and we attached the drywall directly to the furring strips. The canned lights and in ceiling speakers were shallower than standard. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the side by side of the old 14" TGI's and the new modified floor joists with the 2x6's attached.

Great looking setup! What simulation are you going to run? Any ventilation in the room?

Thanks! Besides a supply and a return from the dedicated zone(forced air), there is no dedicated ventilation.

long ago I was set on doing a Daikin Emura ductless 1 head set up for the room, but I thought that was overkill the more I thought about it.

The simulation will be E6 software with a Flightscope Xi Tour.

[Blaker34]

Well, here it is. Overall I'm very happy with how everything turned out and how everything is functioning. The Xi Tour has been pretty spot on with numbers and accuracy. I'm pretty disappointed the St. Andrews package is no longer available through E6. Hopefully that changes at some point soon!

One thing I learned quickly whether I was using a a plastic or wooden tee with a driver, those things fly around like bullets! I ended up buying the claw tees and some other tees to avoid this.

[andygg1986]

Looks very nice! Maybe it is just the pictures, but it looks like you don't have a full 8 feet between your Flightscope and where you would tee the ball and another 8 feet from the ball to the screen like it says you need for indoor short mode. Does it work with shorter distances or are my eyes tricking me? I originally wanted to get an Xi Tour because my son is left handed, but my room isn't quite long enough for a full 16 feet.

[Blaker34]

The pictures are a bit deceiving. I have about 21 feet from screen to the back wall. I have approximately 10 to 11 feet in front of me and about 9 feet from the Flightscope to the ball. I have it on short indoor mode and it's performed really well. I will probably post a video here if I have time in the upcoming days.

[Dax]

Great set-up!

[Sim-dreamer]

Steel beams? Moving mechanicals? Engineers?!?!?

God I admire you.

That is a helluva golf room, well done.
I hope mine is half that nice when it gets built. Love the cupboard/counter in the back, great way to cover the panels.

[Blaker34]

Steel beams? Moving mechanicals? Engineers?!?!?

God I admire you.

That is a helluva golf room, well done.
I hope mine is half that nice when it gets built. Love the cupboard/counter in the back, great way to cover the panels.

haha. Thanks. The cupboard took some definite thought by my wife and I. I intentionally lowered the walnut countertop about 8" so it would be a place you could lean against or sit. The PC tower and A/V receiver are in the lower cabinets.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say at least 8 or 9 times I had convinced myself and told my wife something to the effect of "Ok, this probably just can't work, I'm not doing the golf room". When we built the house a few years ago, it was originally going to be a dedicated home theater room. If I had seriously considered this before the build I would have gone with 10 foot ceilings and made that room 16 feet wide and bumped my bar out a couple more feet.

[Golfbeat]

What a great set up! Did you raise the floor for the putting area and to put in the cups and the hitting mat? How did you do that? What turf did you use?

[dunginhawk]

shiiiiiiiitttttttttt i just went from thinking how I can make my current room work with my optishot to thinking maybe I could just redo the ENTIRE room to be more like this... I mean really, no reason a sim room couldnt be movie room, etc.... man it would be cool. nice work... i have a feeling you are about to cost me 20k

[gene438]

Very well done......nice job!

[Blaker34]

What a great set up! Did you raise the floor for the putting area and to put in the cups and the hitting mat? How did you do that? What turf did you use?

Thanks! There is 1" foam/rubber underneath all of the turf except the hitting mat, which is a Country Club Elite mat. I didn't do shallow cups. I cored 4 holes in the concrete and installed actual cups to standard depth. The turf is PRO12 from Par2Pro. The reason we did that is to make everything the same height. The CCE mat is 1.75" thick, the putting green is 3/4", and the rubber underlay is 1".

HOWEVER..... My local custom green guy is coming this Thursday to re-do the entire floor. There are 2 things I regret with this floor.

1.) The hitting mat is too wide due to losing putting green surface. The room is only approximately 14 feet wide, add in the white custom posts, there isn't much room to putt between the fringe and the hitting mat.
2.) While the CCE mat definitely gives you proper feedback, within 2 months my left hand/wrist was throbbing on and off and I had a lot of issues. I had read a few issues about that before purchasing, but I thought maybe it was due to people hitting the ball improperly, I'm a + handicap so I figured it wouldn't effect me. However I found out talking to more people, it effects you more when you are striking the ball properly due hitting down and making a divot consistently, which wreaks havoc on your hand and wrist.

In the meantime, for the past month I cut in a 12x24 divot action insert into my CCE mat to relieve some of that. I like the feel of the divot action, but sometimes it gets stuck and pops out of it's opening(installer error, which is me). Since I've been hitting on the divot action, most of the pain has subsided. I'm removing the CCE mat completely. He will be installing a completely new green and I'm just going to have him cut the divot action mat into the green. If I want to add a larger mat down the road, I can. There is nothing wrong with my current green, it rolls nice, looks nice, but I don't want to patch green back in. That is another reason why I regret making the hitting area so large.

When it's done I'll post updated pictures.

[jdgould]

Looks fantastic! I had the same issue with the CCE mat, but it was my left elbow that started hurting... I also cut the CCE and dropped in a divot action and the pain has started to subside. Thanks again for sharing, great looking setup.

[Viddi90]

How much did the whole set up cost you? Trying to get as much info on sim builds before i build my own 😉 btw sweet set up

[Golfbeat]

Thanks! There is 1" foam/rubber underneath all of the turf except the hitting mat, which is a Country Club Elite mat. I didn't do shallow cups. I cored 4 holes in the concrete and installed actual cups to standard depth. The turf is PRO12 from Par2Pro. The reason we did that is to make everything the same height. The CCE mat is 1.75" thick, the putting green is 3/4", and the rubber underlay is 1".

HOWEVER..... My local custom green guy is coming this Thursday to re-do the entire floor. There are 2 things I regret with this floor.

1.) The hitting mat is too wide due to losing putting green surface. The room is only approximately 14 feet wide, add in the white custom posts, there isn't much room to putt between the fringe and the hitting mat.
2.) While the CCE mat definitely gives you proper feedback, within 2 months my left hand/wrist was throbbing on and off and I had a lot of issues. I had read a few issues about that before purchasing, but I thought maybe it was due to people hitting the ball improperly, I'm a + handicap so I figured it wouldn't effect me. However I found out talking to more people, it effects you more when you are striking the ball properly due hitting down and making a divot consistently, which wreaks havoc on your hand and wrist.

In the meantime, for the past month I cut in a 12x24 divot action insert into my CCE mat to relieve some of that. I like the feel of the divot action, but sometimes it gets stuck and pops out of it's opening(installer error, which is me). Since I've been hitting on the divot action, most of the pain has subsided. I'm removing the CCE mat completely. He will be installing a completely new green and I'm just going to have him cut the divot action mat into the green. If I want to add a larger mat down the road, I can. There is nothing wrong with my current green, it rolls nice, looks nice, but I don't want to patch green back in. That is another reason why I regret making the hitting area so large.

When it's done I'll post updated pictures.

I am planning to do the same: just one large putting surface and insert putting cups and a hitting strip (divot action or something similar). I am looking for a simple way to raise the floor slightly to get the hitting strip level with the putting surface. The putting cups I will probably have to cut out of the concrete. Will follow your solution with interest!