Equipment
What Actually Goes In A Bay
Five components. The money moves between them, and where you put it changes what the room is good for.
Every simulator, from a spare bedroom build to a six bay venue, is the same five things: something that reads the ball, something that stops it, something you hit off, something that puts a picture on the screen, and software that ties it together. Understanding which of those carries your particular build is most of the buying decision.
The Launch Monitor Reads The Ball
This is the instrument. Everything else is furniture around it. Units differ in where they sit (overhead, beside you, or behind the ball), what they measure directly versus calculate, and how repeatable they are shot to shot.
Repeatability matters more than headline accuracy for most people. If you are trying to detect whether a shaft change did anything, you need the unit to give you the same answer for the same strike. That is also why placement is not a detail. Every unit has environment requirements for distance, alignment, lighting and background, and a unit installed slightly outside those produces plausible data that is quietly wrong. We commission with a controlled test rather than assuming.
The Screen And Enclosure Stop It
Impact screens are consumables with a lifespan, not permanent fixtures, and the lifespan depends entirely on volume. A home screen used a few times a week lasts a long time. The same screen in a paid venue can need replacing inside a year, which is why commercial builds get commercially rated material and a replacement schedule in the quote.
Screen tension is what keeps the projected image geometrically correct and the ball response consistent. A loose screen looks soft and behaves unpredictably. The enclosure carries that tension and contains anything the screen does not.
Turf And Subfloor Are Not The Same Thing
The hitting surface is where people economise and where they regret it. Turf laid directly onto a concrete slab reflects impact straight back into your wrists and elbows. It feels fine for a week. By the second month you have stopped practising and you are blaming your swing.
A subfloor solves that, and it does a second job: it lets you get the hitting area genuinely level. On a sloped garage slab that is not optional, because an unlevel lie changes your stance and drifts your readings in one direction, which is maddening to diagnose later.
If one line in your quote is worth protecting, it is this one. It is the most common thing we get called out to fix.
Projection Is Where People Overspend
A mid range projector in a properly darkened room beats an expensive one in a bright room, every time. So fix the light first. Blackout treatment is cheaper than lumens and more effective.
The other projection variable is throw distance. Small rooms need short throw or ultra short throw units, mounted to avoid casting the golfer shadow across the screen. Fitting a standard throw projector into a room that cannot accommodate it is the most common specification error we correct in small builds.
Software Decides What The Room Is For
Practice tools, course libraries, multiplayer and league formats all live here, and the differences between platforms are larger than the hardware differences for most users. Two things to check before you buy that almost nobody does. First, what happens when the vendor stops updating the platform. Second, whether your licence permits what you actually intend to do, because home licences generally do not cover paid commercial play and that exposure sits with the operator.
Where To Put Your Money
| Component | If you want accurate practice | If you want entertainment |
|---|---|---|
| Launch monitor | Lead the budget here. Repeatability is the product. | Good enough is genuinely good enough. |
| Hitting surface | Critical. Level, stable, subfloor beneath. | Still important. Comfort drives usage. |
| Screen and enclosure | Size to the room. | Bigger helps. Group sightlines matter. |
| Projection | Mid range plus blackout. | Worth more here. Picture is the experience. |
| Software | Practice and gapping tools. | Course library, multiplayer, fast reset. |
Questions We Get Asked
Which launch monitor should I buy?
It depends on the room before it depends on the budget. Overhead units need ceiling height. Units behind the ball need depth. Side mounted units need width. We shortlist against your actual dimensions and your goal, because the best unit that cannot be placed correctly in your room is the wrong unit.
Do I need a subfloor under the turf?
On concrete, yes. It absorbs impact your joints would otherwise take, and it lets us level the hitting area. On a timber floor over joists it depends on the build up, and we assess it during the survey. It is the single most common retrofit we are called in to do.
How big should the impact screen be?
Sized to the room rather than to the catalogue. An oversized screen in a small room crowds the space and forces compromises in projector placement. We work back from your width and the throw distance available, then pick the largest screen that still leaves proper clearance.
Can I upgrade components later?
Usually yes, and the launch monitor is the most common upgrade. Worth designing for it now: leaving the mounting options and cable routes to accommodate a different unit later costs nothing at build stage and saves a rework afterwards.