Planning First Simulator -- Limited to 7x9 Screen?

[Schmoulty]

New member, great forum with a wealth of information! I am looking at setting up a sim room in an attic over a garage (pic of space attached). Dimensions are hard to calculate because of the roof slope. The ceiling height in the middle is about 12' high, but the slope is fairly steep, so at 7' in height, I'll have about 10 feet of width, at 6' high it is about 12' wide. The room is about 18' long, not including the stairway area at one end. Plenty of room to swing driver, but I will be offset a little to the side, as I'll stand towards the middle. I am thinking about making an EMT cage, and it would be in front of the windows at the end of the room (similar windows at other end) with another net over the top as a backup. My biggest worry is an errant shot going off something solid and taking out a window, so I may put a net on both ends.

Do people think the 7'x9' size of the impact screen will be adequate? I am thinking of adding a PC by the hitting mat with two monitor support and a touchscreen? Will probably replace the old driving range mat from a friend with a True Strike or something equal or better. I mainly want it for practice.

Any other thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks!

[Lynchdpm]

7 x 9 is more than adequate... assuming you are swinging and hitting into the center of the screen. For instance I have 10 wide by 8 high, hitting from 7.5 feet away, BUT I like many others in a limited space similar to mine have to offset our hitting location. Your only issue would be projecting in 4:3 you may not be able to fill the entire screen with the projected image, But others on this site have more experience than me.

[Schmoulty]

Thanks, it sounds like you have a bit larger screen. I wouldn't be centered in the room hitting at the screen, I would definitely be offset right. My understanding is that the aiming target can be adjusted in the SkyTrak/GC2 software, is that correct?

As an option to an EMT cage, since I have exposed rafters, would it make sense to hang the screen/net with steel cable?

Is True Strike a good mat option?

[Lynchdpm]

Yes, skytrak and TGC if you so choose, both can be offset. My setup is on the 2nd floor of my barn. I have one room that I dedicated to my sim 10 feet wide by 25 feet long by approximately 18 feet high (with exposed rafters. The other side is a larger room used as a bar and poker room


The 1st picture, is the sim room prior to being built. I too have exposed rafters and used that to my advantage. Basically I took a 1 x 6 board x 9.5 feet long and stapled my screen and heavy blanket material to the back of the board. I lifted the board up, placed the back of the board with the screen material that was attached directly to the rafters at my desired height. The board will lay at 45 degrees (the angle of the rafters) I screwed the board on every rafter it touched. The screen subsequently laid directly downwards. I added a few bungees and tarp clips along the side and ran foam pipe insulation filled with sand along the bottom of the screen to add weight. (The picture above shows some screen sag, but that pic was before I added the tarp clips near the bottom). The whole process was done by myself in under 30 minutes. As you can see, I hit with an offset but as mentioned before the software allows for an offset. Works great. If needed I can send more pics if needed

[Lynchdpm]

Just a quick addendum. The screen material and blanket lay over the front of the 1 x 6 board wrap over the top of the board, overhang on the back of the board a few inches and then are stapled. The back of the board with the 3 inch inches of stapled, overhang screen material is what is directly touching and is screwed to the rafters. As a result the screen material hangs directly down from any height you wish to achieve. If you want pics I can try to take a few.

[PunchoutPro]

Awesome Bar! Hopefully you are on some "Home Bar Forum" too!

[Lynchdpm]

As for the mat. I bought mine from amazon... Super Mat Tee Golf turf 48 x 60... cost 169.99 US. It is not a mat you would want to stand on (too soft). It will hold tees on its own, can be easily cut to fit, very easy on the wrists, and elbows. It will punish you for fat shots, but has improved my game tremendously.. You will become a better ball striker.
What I did... is covered the barn floor with those black foam interlocking tiles 2feet x 2 feet, cut out the shape of the mat, then insert mat which will then lay on the bare barn floor. The mat was at that point a little higher than the surrounding floor with the black foam tiles, so I added another layer (yellow foam tiles in pic). They all are at the same height and the area you stand on is nice and firm. Relatively inexpensive and both the mat and flooring can easily be replaced if worn or visibly dirty. In front of my screen and the entire back of the room where the couch is has a green shag carpet laying on the underlying black tiles.. looks like rough, is bright and really soft to kill the balls when they come off the screen. In addition all these layers have insulated the room quite well. Being in new jersey it gets pretty cold outside in the barn

[Schmoulty]

Looks like a terrific setup, Lynchdpm, love the bar! I’ll check out the mats, too. Are you happy with the Simulator, as well?

[Lynchdpm]

Thanks. Honestly I only get an hour or so every few days to hit. I really enjoy the skytrak. Normally at a range I hit a bucket of 25 balls and either get bored or frustrated. lets face it, range balls suck, there is always some crosswind, you are rarely hitting at multiple targets directly infront of you and you cannot differentiate distances over 130 yards.
The skytrak range is awesome. Sometime I find myself hitting 75 to 150 balls without even knowing. You can really see the difference when trying different adjustments to your stance, swing, tempo, ball position, and get immediate measurable feedback. Perhaps a different ball will get you 4 mph difference in ball speed and net you a handful of extra yards. It measurable, its right there in front of you, on the range you would never know. Ive mentioned it here before, but all those claims on the back of the ball boxes are real. If you are a skilled golfer and consistent you can hit 10 different balls, multiple times each and see the difference in: launch, amount of spin, ball speed etc that set each type of ball apart. Ball fitting yourself on skytrak is really cool if you put in the effort. I cant say enough about skytrak. I love it. my only negative is a few misreads during each session (no big deal) and alignment issues, which im still playing around with.
As for TGC. by the time I warm up and work through my bag on skytrak I have very little time for TGC. Its fun and all but seems to exaggerate the side spin a bit on shots. I don't care to putt on the greens, so I set to gimmie. Therefore basically Im hitting a driver then approach and gimmie. Also most courses are way too long for sim play. The visuals are great, but since ive seen the amazing alpha testing on TGC2019 Im waiting until its release to really use the sim on a regular basis. The new TGC2019 will have multiple tee boxes and outstanding graphics.

[BSCampbell]

Schmoulty, please keep us updated on your project. I have a very similar space that I am very curious as to how to make it work. Hopefully, seeing how you manage it will help me be able to move forward and convince my wife that this space will work!

[Schmoulty]

Will do! First step is having a real staircase built, as the pull-down staircase is not going to cut it. Hoping to have it done by next Fall.

[Schmoulty]

So this is what I have so far, and really like it. A Giant Izzo net (10' high by 12' wide), with another "backup" net in front of the windows, an old driving range mat for stance, Fairway Divot Pro Mat, Skytrak launch monitor, and an iPad driving a 55" Samsung TV. Next, I may spring for the FiberBuilt mat. I was going to do the side nets but the Giant Izzo has been catching the "all too frequent" hosels. Any other recommendations from sim vets? Thanks for all of the help so far!

[abenjami]

With those exposed beams, mounting a custom net would be the way to go. You can order custom nets from www.justfornets.com. I just ordered a custom net from them, price is very reasonable for their top of the line impact netting.

Use eye hooks and carabiner clips to attach the nets to the eye hooks.