Help me design my custom DIY office practice putting green

[jkelley9]

Now that I've finished up a bunch of home DIY projects primarily in anticipation of our WHOLE family coming to our house for the Thanksgiving holiday, it is now 1. cold outside, it came quickly, 2. I don't have many projects left and I'd like to do a fun one.

I have a 14 x 21 ft. office that is basically an office/man cave all-in-one. My wife and I have no kids yet but we may have one soon. This would be a good opportunity to create something in the house that I can relax and do while still watching the baby.

I started my research and found some awesome custom indoor practice greens with fringe and everything... check the price tag and nearly fell out of my chair! $3,000-$6,000 for something like what I was thinking. 

I would say my budget is < $1,000. It would be built over the existing tight berber carpet.

My main focuses are:

1. A quality, durable, even putting surface. My NC greens are bentgrass. They play slow (stimp 9 to 11 if I recall). If I can get something similar to this that would be excellent. I don't mind spending more for higher quality here.

2. I would like fringe around the majority of the perimeter because it should look a little nicer and it would be good practice putting from some fringe (which I often do). Our fringe is typically bermuda - so something like this would be great. I believe my initial design has some good space to include some larger sections of fringe. 

3. I do not care about adding break components in this project. I'd rather focus my indoor practice on getting putts on line and some distance control with good, straight and flat feedback on my stroke. 

4. I want it to have real holes. I'll also get short flag sticks.

I've attached my rough draft I just whipped up of my initial design thoughts. It should be relatively to scale. Rough overall dimensions would be 7' x 17'.

Right now I'm thinking I'll make the base out of 2x4, 3.5-in height + 1/2-in drywall is about ~4-inches tall plus putting/fringe surfaces. I'm worried though that because of the overall length of the green that it will flex under the padding of the carpet. Maybe not a big deal though? I might be overthinking that one. For the various more rounded edges I'll just do multiple cuts at varying degrees of edge cut to make a turn  and then just cut a more rounded fringe? Or maybe find a more creative way?

I think the areas I need the most help with are the surface materials, what type, where to get them, how to apply them best, and also some design components for good practice. Should I make a larger chunk of it fringe? Maybe the first 3-5 ft from the top area all fringe? Hole locations? Different fringe area cutouts? What would you do to maximize practice/drills (but without any break )

Here's some stuff online that I really liked: http://www.carolinacustomputtinggreens.com/indoor-putting-greens 

I would likely start this build in late February 2017. I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. 

TIA!

[iacas]

A few quick notes/thoughts:

• Even if you could get a 20' surface, give up on working on distance control. It's almost pointless at short lengths. Distance control is important when you get outside of 30' or so.
• 9-11 stimps are not slow.
• Don't cut in real holes. You'll likely regret where they are later. Get some fake holes or discs and putt to those. Saves you from having to bend down and pick them out, too. Plus, if you REALLY want real holes, you can add them at a later time, but plugging holes you cut and patching the carpet is not going to work as easily.
• Plus, without real holes, you can just lay it down on your carpet, or not worry about building a "riser" at all - you could just build it on top of some particle board. Then you could disassemble and move it, or store it, much more easily.
• Real holes also require at least about a 4-5" height. That sucks, plus with that much wood, it gets heavy fast. And long pieces of wood are often slightly warped.
• I don't think drywall is the way to go… particle board, maybe. Build it like a subfloor if you build a "riser" at all.
• I get that the fringe will be decorative, but consider scrapping it. Unless you really want the decorative look.
• Limit the number of swoops and curves and bulges and whatnot on the green. They'll dramatically limit the angles you can putt to and stuff.

As you saw my basement one was more utilitarian. It's just a rectangle, maximizing the usable space. The holes I can move around. I can lift up an edge to make a break. Etc.

[Rainmaker]

I read about Erik's basement putting green because I basically want to do the same thing.  We just bought a new house and I have to give up my garage practice area - the new garage is unworkable.  I still haven't worked out a location for my mat and net . .unfortunately for my new neighbors, it might just end up in the backyard.

I do get a nicer office, though.  So I researched all about indoor putting greens - including Erik's.  I am not committed to this project - but if I do it, I want to make it look just like one of these:

http://www.theonlygreen.com/

Obviously, it won't be *as* nice, lol.  But I want to do a basic build like Erik did - using either nicer wood for the outsides or possibly using some kind of laminate.  I definitely want the standing platform . .but I definitely will not try to copy their break system . .instead I'll just put shims under one side, etc.  

That would look SO cool in my new office.  I am doubtful, though, that I'll do it .. because I really just put on carpet to plates and cups, etc - and think that's pretty much fine, lol.

[jkelley9]

51 minutes ago, iacas said:

A few quick notes/thoughts:

• Even if you could get a 20' surface, give up on working on distance control. It's almost pointless at short lengths. Distance control is important when you get outside of 30' or so.
• 9-11 stimps are not slow.
• Don't cut in real holes. You'll likely regret where they are later. Get some fake holes or discs and putt to those. Saves you from having to bend down and pick them out, too. Plus, if you REALLY want real holes, you can add them at a later time, but plugging holes you cut and patching the carpet is not going to work as easily.
• Plus, without real holes, you can just lay it down on your carpet, or not worry about building a "riser" at all - you could just build it on top of some particle board. Then you could disassemble and move it, or store it, much more easily.
• Real holes also require at least about a 4-5" height. That sucks, plus with that much wood, it gets heavy fast. And long pieces of wood are often slightly warped.
• I don't think drywall is the way to go… particle board, maybe. Build it like a subfloor if you build a "riser" at all.
• I get that the fringe will be decorative, but consider scrapping it. Unless you really want the decorative look.
• Limit the number of swoops and curves and bulges and whatnot on the green. They'll dramatically limit the angles you can putt to and stuff.

As you saw my basement one was more utilitarian. It's just a rectangle, maximizing the usable space. The holes I can move around. I can lift up an edge to make a break. Etc.

Yea I may take your advice on the real holes thing. I suppose there's no need for them to be real. I'll check into that some more and see if I can find something I like.

I certainly did not mean drywall LOL. I meant plywood, preferably the higher grade stuff, maybe even MDF. Drywall would be a DISASTER haha.

I don't really WANT it to be a platform, but I'm worried about any other type of board that's flat on the ground will have ply from the carpet padding. 

The fringe is something I really want. If not for any measurable practical application for my practice, I think it will look a lot nicer in the office that way and it will break some edges up from my eye. What I'm thinking of doing here is putting a THIN layer of velcro around the perimeter of the surface and then the backing on the end of the fringe. That way I can pull them up easily but they shouldn't "walk" much. If I wanted to take all of the fringe up then I'd have just the putting surface with a thin layer of velcro around the perimeter. I may even do the fringe later and not worry about it for now in that case.

I get what you're saying on the distance control thing. Unfortunately my putting technique is quite atrocious to the point that I'll frequently be 10' away and putt it 3-4 ft short or 5 ft long. It's embarrassing. So I figured a longer ~17' putt would at least give me some options on controlling distance. Also, if I make it just a rectangle I'm very limited on distance at that point. The widest I could make it would be 8 ft. Sure that would be fine but I figured I could also decorate the place up a bit with a nice custom look - including the fringe. I think it would look really nice in the office.

Thanks for the advice 

[Pretzel]

If you are looking for any help to collaborate with someone else in putting together your Bill of Materials and overall design I would be happy to help if you shoot me a PM. I helped @iacas out the little bit I could, but it was definitely a back and forth where he contributed as much or more than I did. I know what kind of materials you're going to want to use for the framing if your priorities are straight putts and you don't need to move it around (since it appears like you want to plan for a bit of a behemoth). I have some finals coming up this week, but after Wednesday I'm free to give all the help you'd like.

[RussUK]

19 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

. My wife and I have no kids yet but we may have one soon. This would be a good opportunity to create something in the house that I can relax and do while still watching the baby.

 

As a father of 2 boys (3yrs and the other 7 months) all i can say is good luck with that 

 

[jkelley9]

9 hours ago, Pretzel said:

If you are looking for any help to collaborate with someone else in putting together your Bill of Materials and overall design I would be happy to help if you shoot me a PM. I helped @iacas out the little bit I could, but it was definitely a back and forth where he contributed as much or more than I did. I know what kind of materials you're going to want to use for the framing if your priorities are straight putts and you don't need to move it around (since it appears like you want to plan for a bit of a behemoth). I have some finals coming up this week, but after Wednesday I'm free to give all the help you'd like.

I appreciate that. The main thing I'm having the most trouble with is finding a suitable putting surface. I'm finding artificial turf vendors online that make claims on some of their products by the roll ($200-500 range) but there are several variations of polypropylene and nylon variants but some sites are claiming that they are all the same stimp @ "between 9 to 11 stimp."

Also, my claim of my greens being 9 to 11 stimp was incorrect. Mine are much slower than that. My local courses (and my home course) keep their greens long which dramatically drops the speed. They are still bentgrass. I don't know what stimp they are but I'm trying to find something in the "slow" category.

I can't find any reviews online regarding which of the polypropylene or nylon variants would be best for me. There are no qualitative comparisons between them, especially for indoor needs.

It looks like I'm going to have a hard time finding one that's designed specifically for indoor use but not also paying out the wazoo for something that was designed for outdoor use. I don't want to pay more for something I don't need. Those turfs looks great but all the water-wicking and durability investment in those products makes them above what my needs are.

Anyone have any good direction? Right now I'm looking at allturfmats.com 

[iacas]

Talk to the folks at SynLawn.

http://www.synlawn.com/artificial-grass-products/golf-putting-green-products/

The costs are higher than you are looking at, but they're completely modular and you could move it to another room, your basement, your patio… sell it to a friend in six years… etc.

http://www.synlawngolf.com/real-golf-products/dave-pelz-greenmaker-putting-green-system/

We have Synlawn turf at our downtown facility in Erie.

Photos are here: http://thegolfevolution.com/metro/ . It's held up AWESOME.

[jkelley9]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

Talk to the folks at SynLawn.

http://www.synlawn.com/artificial-grass-products/golf-putting-green-products/

The costs are higher than you are looking at, but they're completely modular and you could move it to another room, your basement, your patio… sell it to a friend in six years… etc.

http://www.synlawngolf.com/real-golf-products/dave-pelz-greenmaker-putting-green-system/

We have Synlawn turf at our downtown facility in Erie.

Photos are here: http://thegolfevolution.com/metro/ . It's held up AWESOME.

Yea I found that site in my searching. Looked like great stuff. 

I will give them a call, but I'm really only interested in purchasing the material itself and doing it myself. Not sure if they do that. Spending thousands of dollars on a custom "turn-key" putting green isn't really attractive to me, especially when I enjoy DIY projects. I'm sure it would come out better that way, but I'm in it for both the project aspect as well as the final product.

[iacas]

Just now, jkelley9 said:

Yea I found that site in my searching. Looked like great stuff. 

I will give them a call, but I'm really only interested in purchasing the material itself and doing it myself. Not sure if they do that. Spending thousands of dollars on a custom "turn-key" putting green isn't really attractive to me, especially when I enjoy DIY projects. I'm sure it would come out better that way, but I'm in it for both the project aspect as well as the final product.

They may be happy to sell you the materials. You might just use them for the putting turf, even, particularly since you probably don't need the foam things to chip to the green.

The surface itself is great. I can personally attest to it. Tell them Dave and Erik at Golf Evolution sent you.

You might also want to email our guy there. I'll PM you his contact info.