Horizontally Rectractable Golf Net in Front of Movie Screen?

[jobruba37]

So for my golf simulator build (which is still several months away as I am currently putting up drywall), my original intention was to buy the best Carl's screen and place it 18" in front of my end wall. Due to it being a gambrel roof this would significantly limit the size screen I can have, especially if I were to put up something like a Car'ls impact screen as it requires a few inches on each side for the grommets.

With that said, I was thinking of a second option in just painting the back wall with a specialized white paint that is supposed to be great for projectors and just place a golf net 18-36" in front of said screen. It's worth noting that this area will be my home theater, golf simulator, and cycling pain cave (because I am a triathlete and apparently golf does not inflict enough pain as is). Note that I will have a modular sofa that I will move around based on the activity I am doing. The trick would be to pull the net from the side (where I'll have heavy movie curtain anyways to take care of poor shots) and likely put some type of weight on the bottom of the netting to ensure the ball doesn't just hit my back wall. This option is cheaper, would allow me to have a bigger image on my back wall (ideally about 15.1'x8.5', keeping with a 16:9 ratio), and have the screen last longer. The downsides to this setup is that when using it has a golf simulator I would have the image projected through a net, but honestly I don't think that would bother me.

Any suggestions on such a setup? I appreciate any and all useful feedback!

[bubbtubbs]

Even with weighting, you're going to need 30+" behind the net. I have a screen in my garage but when I use the portable net outdoors at the cottage, even 6i will extend the net backwards just over 24". Driver is about 40". It'll also leave a cosmetic mark if it contacts the wall and you have a black net, so probably not ideal for a white movie viewing area.

[Brettster]

jobruba37 - I have an almost exactly the same Gambrel roof shed... have a look at this post where I show you exactly how I covered the top (gambrel area) with Commando Cloth that I grommeted and hooked onto eye bolts:

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/348365-golf-sim-shed-build-finally?p=365387#post365387

The hardest part is folding/triangulating the Commando Cloth to fit just right, and cutting in the grommets. It's really a 2 person job and may be 3 person, but I did it alone - however I did have collar joists up above to drape my fabric over and make baffles in front of.

I did my screen with a 'seconds' - triple-layer 801 from OneStopSim Shop, you can find that screen here - it's hanging 8" from the back wall with no problems other than the lowest 12" of so, where I drop down some gutter foam along the edge, and am in process of pulling it tight with 10' EMT pipe:

https://onestopsimshop.com/collections/raw-fabric/products/us-premier-triple-layer-801-golf-impact-screen-raw-fabric-seconds

The advantage of doing it the way I did, is that you don't need a net at all. I used blackout curtains along the right side, and 3-fold gym mats also grommeted and hung on the left side.

Here's the grommet tool:
https://tinyurl.com/GrommetTool-38inch

Blackout side curtains (7'):
https://tinyurl.com/BlackoutCurtains-7foot

Industrial Curtain rod:
https://tinyurl.com/BlackInustrial-CurtainRod

Tri-fold gym mats:
https://tinyurl.com/TriFold-ExerciseMat

Commando Cloth:
https://tinyurl.com/chicagocanvas-commandocloth

If you don't want to make the spend on commando cloth, you could try some of this Black Muslin, but I'm not sure it's big enough to cover the entire area in one piece:
https://tinyurl.com/BlackMuslinCloth

Let me know if you have any questions...
-Brett

[jobruba37]

Thanks Brett, I appreciate the input and have been following your progress, which has been impressive! My biggest concern is the screen. It just doesn't seem like any screen lasts much longer than a year or so, and I don't think I can justify spending hundreds of dollars that often.

At this point I would be okay with even something like a thick foam mattress cover that either I could project onto (albeit with an ugly image) or just watch the TV as to where the ball is heading. At this point a golf sim is #3 on my priority behind a home theater and cycling studio for this space (which is actually a loft above my garage).

[Brettster]

jobruba37 - I see where you're coming from and I'm the same way. Did not want to ruin a screen every year - so what I did was follow the instructions on the post up here about buying a cheap Photo Backdrop that covers the front of my nice screen. In fact, I'm just at the point of completely finishing the stretching by placing a 10' EMT pipe (1/2") that you can pickup at any hardware store and clamping that down to the floor underneath my turf at the bottom of my screen. I've been using the Photobackdrop in front of my screen for the last month or so and it's not torn at all, though it does leave a lot of ball 'burn' or 'scuff' marks that you can see in the picture below.


(Ball burn/scuff marks you can see on the Photo Backdrop), it's hard to see these from direct viewing so, it's still good to use this photo backdrop for projecting on to, but this gives you an idea of how you're saving your impact screen).

The nice thing about that is the Photo backdrop is around $20, here's where I got mine:

https://tinyurl.com/photobackdrop10x12

If you want to also have one as standby to drop in front of your screen when watching movies, you could look at one of these stands:

https://tinyurl.com/PhotoVidBackdropStand6-5x10

Here's some pics as I'm working with running this portable handheld Steamer to make the screens wrinkle free, these pics were taken before I started working on flattening the screen, the one on the left is where I have pulled down most of the photo backdrop so I could steam the actual 3-layer impact screen behind it. The one on the right is how it looks with both screens, with a lot of wrinkles and not secured at the bottom:




Here is the steamer I used:
https://tinyurl.com/PortableHandheldSteamer

Here's the post where you can read about William Jenkins discovering this for protecting your impact screen:
https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...-impact-screen

[bubbtubbs]

Did you use the same Amazon photo backdrop as in the photo screen thread? I'm considering ordering one myself since I've almost exhausted our garbage bedsheet sets we used for drop sheets.

[Brettster]

bubbtubbs I'm not sure if it's exactly the same one (yes it is, I just double checked it). There seems to be one little problem in that I ordered 10'x12' and they don't seem to have that size available right now (biggest is 10'x10'). I can tell you this one seems to be holding up fine, my swing speed maxes out though around 105mph so those with faster swing speeds may rip it to shreds, I don't know

I looked up 10'x12' ones and found these options, they are mostly polyester, which I believe is what you want (it is what I have), one is muslin (indicated below):

1.) Neewer (polyester):
https://tinyurl.com/NeewerPhotoBackground10ftx12ft

2.) Mountdog (polyester with 4 clips and spring clamps):

https://tinyurl.com/MountdogWhitebdw4clips4clamps

3.) Julius studio (pure muslin, not polyester):
https://tinyurl.com/JStudio10ftx12ftWhiteMuslin

4.) Wenmer (pure polyester)

https://tinyurl.com/Wenmer10x12ftPolyesterWhite

Again, the one I am using is this one (also polyester):

https://tinyurl.com/photobackdrop10x12

Here is the Steamer I am using:
https://tinyurl.com/PortableHandheldSteamer