My Golf Sim

[tay1062]

Been reading this forum for years, lots a really great people who have been very informative and very helpful for my build I started a few years ago. I re-purposed the back of my garage which was a 19 ft x 20 ft space with a 10 ft ceiling at the back of my two car garage.... I carried out all the work myself, carpentry, electrical , plumbing , painting as well as the heating / cooling system ( I live in a cold northern climate ) . I fully insulated the room then both heated and cooled the space....
My original build was for a cheap OptiSoft simulator which lasted about 1 year, I then upgraded to the Foresight Sports GC2 for two years ( which is still working very well) before adding to the GC2 with a Uneekor a few weeks ago ( using both as I had my home course sign a contract with Foresight and they designed it for their simulator and its great to be able to play all year round, however I really like the new E6 Connect courses and decided to have the best of both worlds in keeping the GC2 and adding the Uneekor ) .
My Simulator is driven by a dedicated High end PC, an Optima GT1080HDR Projector, an ELO touchscreen remote pad (which is awesome for use during game play) , 2 inch flooring from 5 star ( with all cabling hidden under the floor , in the walls or in the ceiling ), the two launch monitors with Foresight Sports GC2 - T and the Uneekor QED / Refine version.
I have over 200 courses between the two LM's and a great year round practice and entertainment area... Also found a lot more golf friends in the neighborhood .. LOL.

[gene438]

Congrats on a very well done setup....looks functional, comfortable, and I'm sure you will enjoy it for years to come. Nothing like coming home and being able to hit a few balls before dinner....best investment you can make...

One question, when playing e6, do you see a difference in shot delay between the GC2 and the Uneekor?

[tay1062]

Thanks for the reply. YES you are right the ability to play any day of the week and anytime of the day is awesome, the investment is worth it and my game has improved significantly. Regarding the ball shot delay.... its exactly the same, E6 on the Uneekor is instantaneous as is the GC2. Zero delays

[JackedUpSwing]

Uneekor is instant with TGC, but there seems to be about a half-second delay in E6.... This is from my experience with the demo.

[wbond]

That looks great.

[Dax]

An excellent room!

[EasyW]

Spectacular! One the best open concept designs I have seen. How is the noise?

[tay1062]

Not sure what you mean by noise ? The sound is controlled by a Sony AV unit with 7.1 surround sound and it’s awesome for the sound with the simulator

[EasyW]

I meant...since it's an excellent "open" concept....i.e. no doors. Did you do anything special to dampen impact noise throughout your house? What screen size do you have as well?

[Brettster]

Sweet!!!! So nice to see the build pics from framing to finish... gives me an excellent idea on how my build will go to finish it out.

A few questions:
1.) it looks like you built up your floor before turf went down, did you do that to have a decent size cup to putt into, or for some other reason?
2.) What is the Sony AV Unit with 7.1 surround you are using and have you found one of the software packages to work better with surround sound than another?
3.) What did you use for heating/cooling (I'm also in a northern climate - Northern Indiana, just a few miles from Michigan) and have considered a Mini-split.
4.) You mention working with Foresight to have them design your home course - can you mention how much something like that would cost, and how long it takes for them to finish it?
5.) Do you have any process in place for hitting on a rough (short/medium/heavy) mat?
6.) Of the 2 launch monitors you have a.) GC2, or b.) Uneekor, do you find one of them more accurate than another? Is there any difference switching back/forth between them, and how do you adjust to different software between the two of them?

Thanks for pics!
-Brett

[tay1062]

Brett

thanks for the questions

1. I didn’t actually build up the floor, I installed frame around the entire build utilizing 2 in window brick mold anchored to the ground with angle brackets and drilled int the concrete. Then topped off the frame with wooden millwork. This then created a place for me to lay the 2 in hitting mat and stance mat without them moving . I laid all my usb cables for the launch monitor, touch screen and swing cameras under the flooring then put the mats onto, easy the lift out and replace or do maintenance work.
key here also was that I had my impact screen sitting directly on the concrete floor with the 3/4 EMT pipe 2 inches below the hitting surface and avoid any missed low shots and impact to the pipe.
2. The AV unit is set up with 7.1 surround , key for my build was that it has HDMI switch ports, as I run directly from my PC to the AV unit for video and sound , then switch between my regular PC mode to the simulator , with cable to my projector, then hook in my touch screen so that I have video workin on the PC, impact screen and touch screen all at once and surround sound. sound of wind, birds and commentary on the software is much better with the speakers around the simulator rather than coming form 5e projector or the Pc.
3. I am much further north in Minnesota with temperatures as low as -30 deg in winter I have Goodman Gas Furnace and Cooling unit , I installed natural gas to the garage connected the furnace and installed cooling coil on top of the fan unit duct work up into the ceiling and distributed the air through ceiling mounted grilles, built a dedicated furnace closet and have the room stable at 72 deg year round.
4. My home course is a high end , highly rated course in the twin cities and they have a golf academy using Foresight GCquad, I spoke to the course Pro about his interest in having our home course as one for practice and lessons year round, I then connected with my contacts at foresight and got the paperwork started between them. If the course agrees and foresight has an interest and the course doesn’t want it exclusively for their use only then the price is $0.00. If they want it exclusive the cost is $30k last time I checked. Not all courses are interested as they potentially loose revenue if people play the simulator vs the course I guess ? Time to get the build and the software done is about 6 months .
5. I have a hitting mat with first , second and third cut which lays in place and is removable for hitting different lies
6. both the GC2 and the Uneekor are very similar in accuracy , the Uneekor includes club face data as I didn’t get the GC2 HMT add on unit or the Quad. I really like both for various reasons and really moved to the Uneekor because they allowed third party courses from Truegolf E6 and TGC2019. I use both all the time and switching between them is very simple . When I start my PC and get ready to launch the software, I simply turn on the AV unit for my projector and impact screen, then I have Alexa power plugs for both launch monitors and use voice command to start the LM I need using the appropriate software....it’s seamless ...

TAY

[tay1062]

The room is at the back of my garage, it is separated from the house by the two car garage and has door into the garage as well as two doors out to the yard. It is insulated in the walls and roof by 6inch insulation for thermal reasons which helps with noise reflection as well. Don’t really have any noise issues with this

[tonybrown32]

I have to say my favorite part of this build is the cart stakes, rough, and small shrubbery.. I am going to shamelessly steal that idea when I get to my build.. lol... so cool.

[tay1062]

After seeing the wall mural of the simulator by Ruscal in Scotland ... I just needed to add one to mine

[Gman17]

Looks awesome! Congrats and enjoy!!

[Golfmechanic]

Nice job on build. I am currently looking for a good
PC system for my simulator build. Could you tell me your specifications and cost? Thanks

[EasyW]

The mural is a super nice touch! Well done!