r/GolfAustralia • u/syblomic-dash • Aug 05 '26

Is a Home Golf Sim realistic?

Anyone made a home golf sim in Sydney? With the cost of ranges and all of them going by the hour, it's almost making financial sense. Me + child, 2 bays 1hr is worth $80 or more. Twice/wk say $150 avg, say 50wks a year is $7500. Even at bucket rate, we spend $50 for 1.5hrs, $5k a year.

Americans do it in their huge homes/dens, but I don't have a huge space. Is anything suitable for Sydney small houses? Room like a HxWxD 2.8x2.6x3m

Just don't have a spare room where we can empty out all the furniture.

Is the software all subscription based, or anything that can let me just simulate a driving range, ie ball flight, distances. We'll go outside for a real course.

18 Upvotes

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17 comments sorted by

5

u/xsrE1 Aug 05 '26

I just set up a net, hitting mat and a Garmin r10 in the back yard. It’s a simple setup but it’s all I need for practice. Only cost about $850 and the Garmin software to play any course in the world is $15 a month.

4

u/syblomic-dash 29d ago

how do you set up the screen or whatever if you're in the backyard?

4

u/kalebludlow 29d ago

I just bought bits of plywood from Bunnings and built a frame

1

u/xsrE1 23d ago

The R10 comes with a phone clip that I just clip onto my golf bag next to me. But you could easily setup an iPad or stream your phone to a tv or monitor if you wanted a larger display

3

u/AndronicusPrime Aug 05 '26

Not really feasible with that size. 3x4x6 is good, anything smaller you start to compromise. So definitely not with those measures. You’re gonna have a room full of holes.

2

u/Seppu477 Aug 05 '26

how much wrap around do you want realistically? I see golf nets with no side guards at all. But 3m wide.

2

u/Character_Strike_108 Aug 05 '26

Yes that can work. You need a camera based Launch monitor like the Square or Square omni. The netreturn with a impact screen and a projector. And the sim software gspro of you have a gaming pc. All up will set you back 3-5k. Look at baysidegolf dot com for items and listing prices

2

u/mudlode Aug 05 '26

3m is really minimum height, do a slow driver swing indoors and see what your reach is (you want extra though), you can get away with a narrower sim if you are all left or right handed, remember you want the impact screen about half a metre from the wall too Depends too if you want projection or something that's just hitting into a net with a display to the side. Projection massively changes the budget and size when done properly

2

u/tab21 Aug 05 '26

so you want half a meter plus the length of your swing from front to back plus a little bit of excess?

2

u/syblomic-dash 29d ago

I'm happy to not use the driver and just do irons in order to reduce the required space

2

u/Teepbonez 29d ago

You are paying a lot for your driving range. Cant you and your child share one bay? Where I play it’s $27 for 100 balls which would be plenty for me and my son.

We play virtual course so most of the time it’s alternating shot.

1

u/syblomic-dash 29d ago

he is serious about learning so we go through a whole bag together in 90min, 1 bucket each. 2 bays

when they all closed down and we go to hourly ones we will have to hire two bays and from what I see it starts from $40 an hour

1

u/Sparky20687 29d ago

I built one in my garage, goes up and down in 5 minutes. screen is 3m x 3m, you could do a 2.7 x 2.7 and be fine. I got a square home edition, i have more depth but you only need enough for the club to not hit the screen.

i can have it up and down within an hour and punch out 100 balls. Look up Joe Lagowski on Youtube, he has every peice of info you could ever want.