Indoor Putting Greens for the Hibernators Out There - My Project

[NotSoMiniTiger]

Hi Guys, I'm fairly new to this website. I wanted to join to begin a forum on Indoor Putting Greens. I know most of us reside in the cold states where we can only sit and dream about golf. I grew tired of this routine of playing golf and finding my game by the time it was too late and the leaves began to fall and soon enough the snow-birds were snow-birding again.... lol.

Anyways, I'm an avid golfer, a golf junkie, a golf pyscho, a serial golfer... whatever it is I'm just obsessed with the game. I love it, like all of us do on this site. I've got 3 kids, so this project was a MUST DO. I made a massive putting green in the basement after reading many reviews for the material Kevin Na and Ben Crane were touting about a couple years ago. I learnt many of the tour pros used this material so I HAD to get my hands on it. I thought it would've been pricey but it was super affordable. I spent about 2 weeks building and boy, was it worth it. The finished product was beyond my imagination - I've played many great golf courses and the green actually emulated the best. I even added slopes. And for the record, I'm basically here to spread the word that it is completely possible to have a massive(or small) putting green in your home without breaking the banks like these synthetic turf company's charge. The project literally cost me less than $400. The kids love it, they're down there and have practically forgotten about their Ipads and Ipods and video games(true story). But best of all, the WIFE APPROVES. Here are some pictures - If people are interested in how I constructed, please just feel free to comment. We do not need to be golf hibernators anymore! :) 

 

 

 

 

[14ledo81]

Welcome to TST!!

Very nicely done putting green.  It would be great if you could post some pics taken during construction.

[cromulent]

That looks fantastic- very well done indeed. One important technical question though. How did you get the missus to approve?

Oh, and you might want to invest in a couple of extra putters. You look like you're close to running out there

Edited December 22, 2016 by cromulent
typo

[RandallT]

Welcome, @NotSoMiniTiger! Can you tell us about the different slopes you've got on different sections of the setup? Is there enough room to do a large enough area at one slope so that you can do a putt with a constant non-zero slope on it- yet still leave enough area to do flat putts?

[dennyjones]

If you don't have construction pictures, please post a material list and the steps you used to complete your good looking putting green.

It will generate a lot of interest 

[CarlSpackler]

Welcome to the site! Very nice putting green. I think the construction pics would be awesome primarily because I love to build things.

[Rainmaker]

Love it!  I'm in the process of moving to a new house and definitely going to do something along these lines.  I've been leaning more towards a small putting green - something around 4x12 with a moveable 'standing platform' .. but I really like what you've done.  I might reconsider to much larger putting green . .I can see it looking really cool if I can configure it the right way around my desk/work area . .not that I'd be getting much work done!

It's already bad enough with my practice area in the garage . .if I get on a long boring conference call, I'll go out there, put it on mute and hit balls while I listen.  With a putting green near my desk . . just forget it, lol.  

 

[NotSoMiniTiger]

6 hours ago, dennyjones said:

If you don't have construction pictures, please post a material list and the steps you used to complete your good looking putting green.

It will generate a lot of interest 

6 hours ago, dennyjones said:

 

As it was my second indoor green I honestly did not take during construction pictures LOL. Wow, do I ever regret it. Here's the material list though - 

The box area is 14x14 and the long area is right at 21ft.

You can have a putt about 22 ft across.

I put 12 holes in so my 3 kids would have plenty of options.

I went with 2x4's to make framing and support beams.

Topped it off with 3/4 particle board. Sturdiest boards out there. 

I used normal carpet adhesive spread with 1-1/16th" trowel to glue on the material.

I change the break by adding 2x4 wedges in the corners.

The putting green material was the icing on the cake. Rolls at 10-10.5 speed and completely true every direction. I was on a budget so I was looking for the best one for the price. This is where I got the idea for choice of material - (dang well I cant post the link for some reason but just Google "Camry putting material Ben Crane"). I found someone selling it on eBay. I had Birdie-ball before on smaller scale but it wore out. 

1 hour ago, Rainmaker said:

Love it!  I'm in the process of moving to a new house and definitely going to do something along these lines.  I've been leaning more towards a small putting green - something around 4x12 with a moveable 'standing platform' .. but I really like what you've done.  I might reconsider to much larger putting green . .I can see it looking really cool if I can configure it the right way around my desk/work area . .not that I'd be getting much work done!

It's already bad enough with my practice area in the garage . .if I get on a long boring conference call, I'll go out there, put it on mute and hit balls while I listen.  With a putting green near my desk . . just forget it, lol.  

 

Haha.. remember anything is possible as long as the wifey approves. I actually made a putting green constructed(prior to building my own) around my cousins bed who played NCAA golf. Turned out fantastic - Here's a picture.

[NotSoMiniTiger]

6 hours ago, RandallT said:

Welcome, @NotSoMiniTiger! Can you tell us about the different slopes you've got on different sections of the setup? Is there enough room to do a large enough area at one slope so that you can do a putt with a constant non-zero slope on it- yet still leave enough area to do flat putts?

I made 12 holes for the purpose of having variety. But trust me - no slopes like Augusta reside on the putting green lol. I've got straight putts, left to right, right to left. I can also add slopes in whenever I want a change by using wooden wedges. The holes were made after the particle board was laid on and wedges underneath so I planned everything with what came naturally.

[NotSoMiniTiger]

4 hours ago, NotSoMiniTiger said:

As it was my second indoor green I honestly did not take during construction pictures LOL. Wow, do I ever regret it. Here's the material list though - 

The box area is 14x14 and the long area is right at 21ft.

You can have a putt about 22 ft across.

I put 12 holes in so my 3 kids would have plenty of options.

I went with 2x4's to make framing and support beams.

Topped it off with 3/4 particle board. Sturdiest boards out there. 

I used normal carpet adhesive spread with 1-1/16th" trowel to glue on the material.

I change the break by adding 2x4 wedges in the corners.

The putting green material was the icing on the cake. Rolls at 10-10.5 speed and completely true every direction. I was on a budget so I was looking for the best one for the price. This is where I got the idea for choice of material - (dang well I cant post the link for some reason but just Google "Camry putting material Ben Crane"). I found someone selling it on eBay. I had Birdie-ball before on smaller scale but it wore out. 

Haha.. remember anything is possible as long as the wifey approves. I actually made a putting green constructed(prior to building my own) around my cousins bed who played NCAA golf. Turned out fantastic - Here's a picture.

 

[Ty_Webb]

Hi NotSoMiniTiger,

Thank you for your post. I'm looking into doing something similar, though slightly smaller scale. I found some interesting threads on here and just joined! Mine is going to be 8' by 14.5' (fits the space). I've been going all over the place looking into what carpet/artificial turf to use and I found the Ben Crane reference to this stuff. The only source for it I can find is on ebay and that's only in 54"x90". I could get four of those and it would fit reasonably well, but I'm worried about the seams. How did you deal with that? Or did you manage to get a single piece? 

Thanks!

Ty

[NotSoMiniTiger]

@Ty_Webb Hi Ty! I bought it from the same guy on eBay. The lengths are made in one piece, but the widths are all constant. So you would get 4.5x180" in one piece and 2 quantity. I had no problem with the seams as they are practically unnoticeable! He gave me a good deal since it was a bulk order. 

[Ty_Webb]

Thanks! I think I might do that. Did you glue the carpet down and just make sure the edges were well aligned? Having the seam in the middle will be good as I don't really plan to putt a lot across the diagonal anyway. 

[NotSoMiniTiger]

@Ty_Webb yup exactly that! I used a 1-1/16" trowel to spread it very thin. 

[Braivo]

This is great, I've got a big corner of my basement just waiting for something like this. Thanks for sharing. 

[Ty_Webb]

On 1/6/2017 at 5:51 PM, NotSoMiniTiger said:

@Ty_Webb yup exactly that! I used a 1-1/16" trowel to spread it very thin. 

Hello again - I got my carpet. Just need to finish the base and glue it down now. Did you put any kind of underlay between the plywood and the carpet or just glue the carpet directly to the plywood?

[Traegolf]

On 3/3/2017 at 8:27 AM, Ty_Webb said:

Hello again - I got my carpet. Just need to finish the base and glue it down now. Did you put any kind of underlay between the plywood and the carpet or just glue the carpet directly to the plywood?

I have this question as well.  Did you put a pad of some sort down between the plywood and carpet?

[Club Rat]

7 hours ago, Traegolf said:

I have this question as well.

Those guys are gone, a "strike-through" the name indicates they were banned from the site.
Also, look at the dates of the posts. 2016 - 2017
Not very likely they will reply, but other current members may offer suggestions or information.
There are other threads on putting greens, maybe even some as recent as last year.