My new house sim build

[wolverine41]

Hi All –

I felt compelled to post my recently completed build in the new home as I’ve learned so much from this site starting 2 years ago mostly just reading and understanding how to build a great golf simulator room. Thanks to all.

We recently built a new home and I was fortunate enough to be able to design the basement to accommodate a dedicated simulator room.

My Goal: Simulator and right and left could play on with accuracy but also access to TGC 2019 for fun sim play and open-ended course selection. Secondary goals double as theater room and kids play area for karaoke, basketball (much to my chagrin).

Room Size: 18ftx19ft with a 3ftdrop from rest of basement to make ceilings 12.5 feet in hitting area. L-shaped couch in back.

Launch Monitor: Uneekor QED, 3.5 feet behind hitting area. This gave me the best balance of right and left handed play, clean out-of-way look, reasonable pricing, good tech support and open software. So far it’s been wonderful, Austin and Doug are great to work with - $7500 with Refine (middle) package and upgraded marked balls, along with third party options to use stickers.

Software: Uneekor QED ignight and refine, TGC 2019, Protee Play
Gameplay – I used ontopreplica program to combine the uneekor ignite data and club video ontothe TGC course, decreasing the need to go back and forth from computer to projector screen. Still have to figure out most efficient way to control the keyboard without moving back and forth. Probably either air keypad on an ipad, or voice attack to use verbal commands.

Projector: Sony VPL FHZ 65W with VPL 3007 short throw lens. This I purchased on ebay for around $1500 dollars new. It’s a commercial laser projector with 6000 lumens, 16:10, WUXGA. Positioned directly above hitting area (9’5’’), tilted down and keystone corrected.

Computer: CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool Gaming PC, Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB – $1400

Enclosure: Angle iron from home depot. Secured directly to OSB after covered with black 24x24 carpet squares 2.50 / sq foot (no padding needed underneath carpet), in front half of simulator. Carpet squares were secured with crown staples.

Screen: Par2Pro SQ custom screen viewable size 14’ w x 8’9’’ H with finishing carpet material for surround, and install kit (bungees). $2500.

Given I wanted to maximize area, I put screen 8 inches from wall. This works fine, but required lots of work behind screen. Purchased in archery net, same size as screen, for behind impact screen from west coast netting - 500$, along with 3-inch foam mattresses in direct hitting area 250$. One hung from angle iron, one overlapped and secured to wall with screws and 2-inch washers all the way to floor.

Floor and turf: I had a carpenter build a osb subfloor on 2x4 sleepers up to about 2.5 inches. This allows to put putting holes in and flush out the hitting mat with rest of turf. ($1500 labor and materials)

Hitting mat – True Strike – 400$
Turf – STI NP 50 4.30/ foot =1500 $

The true strike was modified to fit flush with the turf. The decorative ends were cut on each side, and sanded down to fit into area built specifically for mat. Area was made slightly bigger in order to remove to replace in future.

Tees – tried tomahawk, birdie and tee claws with real tees – found tomahawk work best, others work fine. Attached tee claw to tomahawk so don’t have to collect tees at screen so often.

Hitting zone is 8.5-9 feet from screen given Uneekor’s generous area to hit
Golf Cup is 8 feet from zone for perspective on putting distance during game.

A/V: I have a control 4 system running the speakers and monitors. It is a work in progress.

I think the hardest aspect was getting screen to correct tension and height, along with padding behind screen so shots would have minimal bounce.

I think the total build was probably around 18-20 k, though hard to assess given that some of the work was being done for house build anyway.

I attached some photos from along the way .

Hope this is helpful, as you all here have help me over last few years.

[abirdie4me]

Excellent job! Looks like a lot of fun.

[Dax]

Great looking room!

[airbaker]

Awesome looking set up. I'm almost done with mine and will try to compile some pics of my build process.

Would you mind expanding on the "ontopreplica" software(?) and how that integrates with Ignite. I'm new to the PC world after having gone mac for the last 15 years or so. One of the best features that lead me to the Uneekor was the actual shot video and I'd love to find a way to display that on all golf sim platforms. Thanks!

[double_eagle_jtp]

Sweet! How’s the noise in the rest of your house? Any lessons learned? Hoping to get going on my project later this summer.

[wolverine41]

Noise is definitely a downside , Being open, and next to the stairs allows the sound of hitting a driver carry to 1st and 2nd floor. Our whole house is Not particularly good at stopping noise, despite having mineral wool insulation between all rooms, I think because there is a lot of wood floor throughout, and not a lot of doors separating rooms. I like the open concept in ability to see what’s going on from the other aspects of the basement, But if I had to do it over I would find someway to close off the area, or at least put a door at the top of the basement stairs, which we don’t have either.

[abirdie4me]

Heavy curtains in strategic locations should help cut down noise a lot.

[wolverine41]

The application ontopreplica Is a free download, that allows you to select portions of your second screen, in my case was ignite, and put it onto the projector screen without having any windowing issues. You can pick the parts of ignite that you like, like the swing video. You can see in one of those pictures that the swing video is up while TGC is running a course. It’s pretty simple to use.

[GoldenSim]

Nice work on the build and great write up

[Stetson]

Very cool setup, the noise component is important to consider.

[Stetson]

Is there anything you wish you had the contractor do but didn't happen? (Extra outlets, built in cabinets, more soundproofing, etc)
Is there anything the contractor did that you thought would be useful but it has not been? (Extra outlets, built in cabinets, etc)

On the enclosure you used 24x24 carpet squares. Do you like that carpet? Do you wish you had done something else or used a thicker carpet?

I like the cleaner look of carpet straight to the OSB but there are so many different ways to do it that asking is the only way to filter through the options

[wolverine41]

I wish I would have done an extra 2-3 feet for the dimensions of room - a 20x20 room would have made it feel a little more comfortable, but I was kinda working with existing dimensions of foundation from plan.

We put outlets on ceiling for projector and launch monitor, next to where computer would be and in wall for TV.

The trim carpenter built a small simple computer desk which I think has been useful.

I had the carpet guys install the turf which was a mistake. I was trying to add some gentle breaks to the right and left holes by screen but they glued down the turf (not needed) and this made the foam underneath to give the turf contour look horrible. It had to be taken out and put back without contour. I would either laid that myself or had someone who has done putting greens do it.

Carpet squares look and function well. I would do it that way again for sure. Much cleaner look than nets or curtains. You have to staple them as just glue will not work. Can't see staples. I was going to do carpet padding below but decided against it and its not an issue. Even if my son hits one into the wall, it's OSB, and isn't even that loud.

[mthunt]

Great room and like mine. LOL. Carpet tiles and all. You'll love it.

[wolverine41]

as they say, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[mthunt]

I'd do it the exact same way next time. LOL

[Godfather]

Well designed room. You thought of everything.

[Wormburner]

I see your screen sits flush with turf. Is screen tied off to something behind it to keep it there?

[wolverine41]

This took a little trial and error, and DIY to get flush with floor.

Getting the screen the proper tension from the top bungees were the first step. After that, the Par2pro screen has a flap in the bottom that you are run a bungee material through and fasten at each end to make tight. This helps a little, but the right and left ends of screen were still 1/2 inch from the floor. The last thing I did was sew velcro strips to the bottom of the underside of the screen, maybe 1 foot, just at the right and left ends. then I screwed other end of velcro to turf/subfloor. The velcro pulls the ends to the floor and takes some of the corner wrinkles out. Balls occasionally get stuck behind, but putts stay just fine

[Wormburner]

wolverine41 Thank you for info. My screen has about 6 inches excess material to keep balls from running under screen. The excess material just lays there on the floor. Since it is not tie off on the bottom the screen is not as tight. I like the look of yours.

[JayJo13]

Well done! Looks incredible!

[Pickled]

Wow another beauty build.

My footings are currently being formed so I'm a long ways away but I love reading about all these builds. Nice to have time to plan.

Question:

What cup works at with a sleeper subfloor. All I have been seeing is 4" cups and the other 1" spike ball cups. I'm going to ask my builder if we can put 2 or 3 pvc pipes where my cups will be and then they will be in the floor of the foundation. Then I can avoid a subfloor all together. I'm not sure if this is possible so I'm interested in your cups. That would help with keeping the hitting mat level as well.

Awesome job.