Tips for Building a Golf Simulator in Your Garage

When it comes to a garage golf sim setup, space is king. Unless you have a three-car super large garage, keep in mind space may still prove limited, especially if you plan on continuing to use your garage for vehicle storage. Basically, your garage still has to conform to the width, height, and depth requirements that any other room needs if you wish to use it for a golf simulator. It's helpful to swing your longest club in the area where you will be hitting. Test out the space by taking a few swings with your golf clubs. Your garage will need to be at least 9ft high x 10ft wide x 14ft deep to house the equipment necessary, including impact screens, launch monitors, projectors, the PC running the simulator software, curtains, turf, and more.

When measuring garage space, if you plan to use an overhead mounted launch monitor and/or ceiling mount your projector, you should proceed with care. If your garage is using an overhead door, lookout for headroom or clearance, so that the door doesn’t collide with the ceiling mounted projector. Overhead garage door tracks often sit 1-2 ft lower than the ceiling, which means you should measure ceiling clearance from the floor to the lowest point of the door tracks. Furthermore, occasionally a garage may have a sloped roof or there may be electronics placed high up, such as a sizeable terminal for garage door controls. These may also be restrictions that directly limit the space you can use.

Garage space is usually limited compared to a large living room, but as we said, the advantage is that garages can be cleared of obstructions more easily. Camera-based launch monitors, such as SkyTrak, ForeSight, and Uneekor can often be used in smaller spaces, compared to radar-based launch monitors. This is because they only need to view the ball’s starting position and forward of that and take a series of super high speed photos of your ball at impact and then use them to simulate your shot.

For the projector that brings the experience to life on screen, usually you will need a short throw projector with throw ratios ranging from 0.5 to 1.1 to help you put the projector where it is needed to fill the screen while being mounted safely outside the hitting area (and without casting a shadow). The short throw design can fulfill installation need in a more limited space. Also, projectors that offer vertical and horizontal lens shift help to align the image relative to the screen, or if they have keystone adjustment to square off the picture when the projector is placed off-center.

Additionally, a retractable hitting screen is an option. If the screen is fully retractable, it allows you to deploy and take it down as needed. If you need to make room for other things simply retract the screen, roll up the turf, and return your garage back to its original form.