Golf simulator dimensions: room sizes that work, with a plan for each

There’s no one right size for a golf simulator room. The build follows the room. A 10 by 12 ft spare room and a 15 by 20 ft dedicated room can both make great simulator rooms. They just hold different gear and force different compromises.

Below are four common room sizes, each with a plan. You’ll see which launch monitor to use, net or screen, where the mat goes and where the projector hangs. The rules behind the plans are on the space page. Want a verdict on your own room? The room checker takes about a minute.

All four plans use the same house numbers:

• Ceiling: 9 ft to swing a driver.
• Ball flight: 8 ft from the ball to the screen.
• Screen gap: 1 ft behind an impact screen, and none behind a net.
• Radar unit: 7 to 8 ft behind the ball. A radar sits behind you and tracks the ball as it flies, like a speed gun.
• Camera unit: 4 ft of swing room behind you. A camera unit sits beside the ball and takes super-fast photos at impact.

Projector distances in the plans are rough. The last section shows how to work out an exact one.

The four rooms at a glance

Spare room: 10 by 12 ft

This is the bedroom nobody sleeps in. It often has a decent ceiling, 8 to 9 ft, and a floor that looks too small. It’s big enough for a camera unit.

Depth picks the launch monitor. Twelve feet gives you 8 ft of ball flight and 4 ft behind the ball, with a net on the wall. With a screen, it’s 1 ft of gap, 8 ft of flight and 3 ft behind the ball. That’s a foot short of our house figure. A radar wants 7 ft behind the ball, so it can’t go here. A camera unit beside the mat doesn’t care. On a budget, we’d pick the Square Golf. If you want club data, we’d pick the SkyTrak+.

Width picks the target. A 10 ft enclosure in a 10 ft room touches both walls. So a screen here means a narrow frame about 8 ft wide, with a strip of net or padding on each side. A net and a TV is less to build and quieter. In a room this size, the TV is close enough to feel like a screen.

That 3 ft behind the ball with a screen is the compromise. It’s why our camera-unit figure is 12 ft with a net but 13 with a screen. Nobody can stand behind you, and you’ll see the back wall out of the corner of your eye on the backswing.

Basement: 12 by 16 ft

A basement usually has the floor space and the wrong ceiling. Before anything else, measure to the bottom of the joists, the ducts and the lowest pipe along your swing. A 7 ft 6 in basement is an irons room, whatever the rest of the plan says.

Sixteen feet is exactly what the Garmin R10 and Rapsodo MLM2PRO ask for, with nothing to spare.

RadarScreen

7 ftradar behind you

8 ftball flight

1 ftgap

The radar sits tight against the back wall. If the room measures 15 ft 6 in once the framing is in, a screen won’t fit. A net on the wall still works, or you can switch to a camera unit. A camera unit also lets you move the ball out to 9 ft. That means quieter hits and more space between the ball and the projector.

The projector is the tight spot in this plan. A short-throw projector filling a 10 ft screen hangs about 6 to 7 ft from it. With the ball at 8 ft, the lens is only 1 to 2 ft in front of the ball. For some golfers, that’s inside the arc of a full driver swing. Mount it tight to the ceiling on the shortest bracket you can find. Then make a slow practice swing with the projector in place, before you hit a single ball.

Garage bay: 12 by 22 ft

A single garage bay has the depth a radar wants. It also has the most stuff hanging overhead. In this plan you hit along the bay, from the door end toward the back wall. That keeps your swing under the clear part of the ceiling and puts the screen on the wall that never moves. The garage simulator guide covers the door track, the opener, the cold, and a roll-up screen so the car can still park.

Twenty-two feet is the first plan with some slack. You get 1 ft behind the screen, 9 ft of ball flight, 8 ft to a radar, and 4 ft at the door end for a bag, a chair and the PC. The extra foot of ball flight slows the ball before it reaches the screen. That’s easier on the fabric, and it gives the radar more flight to read.

Here the ceiling problem is the door track, not the drywall. In a typical single garage, the track runs 7 to 8 ft into the bay and hangs 6 to 12 in below the ceiling. The opener motor hangs lower still. With the ball 9 ft from the back wall, you’ll stand about 12 to 13 ft from the door. That’s usually past the end of the track, but measure yours before you trust it.

Twelve feet of width takes a 10 ft enclosure with a foot on each side, so lefties and righties can both play. But the car won’t park beside it. If the car has to come back in, the enclosure can’t be a fixed frame.

Dedicated room: 15 by 20 ft

This is the room people sketch when they’re planning an addition or converting a double garage. It’s the first size where nothing in the build gets squeezed.

Twenty feet gives you 1 ft 6 in behind the screen, 10 ft of flight, 8 ft to the radar and a little slack. Fifteen feet of width fits a 12 ft enclosure with room to walk around both sides. The side netting catches a shank without touching the wall. There’s even room for a seat right behind the golfer.

The ball sits 9 or 10 ft from the screen here, and the projector hangs 7 to 9 ft from the screen. Keep the mount closer to the screen than to the ball. That keeps you behind the lens, your shadow off the picture, and your club away from the projector.

Projector throw, and why the range is wide

The distance from the lens to the screen is the throw ratio times the image width. Throw ratio just means how far back a projector has to sit for a given picture width.

So a short-throw projector with a ratio of about 0.5 fills a 10 ft wide image from about 5 ft. One with a 0.8 ratio needs about 8 ft. A standard projector at 1.5 needs 15 ft, which makes it the wrong buy for a simulator room. Our simulator projector list sorts the short-throw picks by throw ratio and brightness.

Check the shape of the picture too. A 16:9 image that’s 10 ft wide is only 5 ft 8 in tall. A 4:3 image that’s 10 ft wide is 7 ft 6 in tall. Nearly every simulator projector is 16:9 out of the box, which suits a 16:9 screen. A 4:3 screen fills a tall, narrow bay better. But you’ll get black bars unless the projector and your software are both set to 4:3.

Pick the plan, then price it

Find the room above that’s closest to yours. Treat its table as a starting point, not a rulebook. If you’re between two plans, take the smaller plan’s launch monitor and the bigger plan’s enclosure. Then put your exact numbers into the room checker to confirm the fit.

Once it passes, the cost builder prices the plan. The DIY build order shows you how to put it together.