What room size do you need for a golf simulator?

A golf simulator needs a 10 ft (3.05 m) ceiling and 15 ft (4.6 m) of width to take a full driver swing for golfers of either hand, and 9 ft (2.74 m) is the lowest ceiling any maker checked here will name. Depth is the figure that changes with the launch monitor: about 12 ft (3.66 m) for a camera beside the ball, 14 to 16 ft (4.3 to 4.9 m) for a Garmin R10 radar behind it, 18 ft (5.5 m) for a Trackman 4. Below, five makers' figures meet the geometry of a 45 3/4 in driver and ANSUR II arms. Bay sizes are on the garage hub.

Three ways to read the ball, and where each one sits#

The room is set by where the launch monitor sits:

• Radar behind the ball. A unit on the floor looking down the target line: Garmin's Approach R10 at 6 to 8 ft (1.8 to 2.4 m) behind the tee, Trackman 4 with the screen 18 ft (5.5 m) from the unit.
• Overhead. A ceiling-mounted unit above the hitting area, such as Trackman iO or Uneekor's EYE XR.
• Beside the ball. A camera on the floor next to the hitting area, such as SkyTrak or the Uneekor EYE MINI, on the far side of the ball from the golfer.

Only the radar adds a distance from unit to ball, and that is where the retailer pages go wrong.

Measure to the screen face and to the lowest thing overhead#

Depth is measured from the face of the impact screen or net, not the wall behind it: every "ball to screen" figure is to the surface the ball hits, and the screen hangs off the wall by whatever gap its enclosure maker gives.

Height is measured from the surface you stand on, mat included, to the lowest object above the swing: a joist, a duct, a light, a projector mount or, in a garage, the door track. That is the same datum the site uses for a home gym's clear height, and the general method is in how we measure. Width is measured across the room at shoulder height, not at the skirting.

Where 10 ft comes from: shoulder height plus arm and driver on a 58.5 degree plane#

The top of a swing is set by shoulder height, arm length and club length. Treat the lead arm and club as one straight lever swinging round the shoulder, tilted at the shaft's angle at address, and the top of the circle is:

swing top = shoulder height + (arm + driver) x sin(lie angle)

PING's G430 MAX 10K driver is 45 3/4 in (1.16 m) long with an average lie angle of 58.5 degrees; sin 58.5 is 0.853. ANSUR II, the 2012 US Army anthropometric survey, gives standing shoulder (acromial) height and shoulder to wrist length for 4,082 men and 1,986 women. For a median man that is 56.7 in shoulder height and a 23.7 in arm: 56.7 + (23.7 + 45.75) x 0.853 = 56.7 + 59.2 = 115.9 in. Worked person by person through the survey:

A 10 ft (120 in) ceiling clears that figure for 99.7 per cent of women and 88.5 per cent of men. A 9 ft (108 in) ceiling clears it for 23.9 per cent of women and 0.8 per cent of men.

This is the site's worst case, not a prediction. A golfer bent from the hips has lower shoulders than standing height, and a hinged wrist shortens the lever, which is why plenty of golfers do swing a driver under 9 ft and why SkyTrak's 9 ft minimum "will depend on your height". A swing steeper than 58.5 degrees climbs higher, the case Trackman means when it says very upright swings "will benefit from more".

So both published figures are right: 9 ft is where a test swing decides, and 10 ft, Trackman's "practical floor, not a luxury", is where the worst case clears nearly everyone. The general case for ceilings is in ceiling heights and datum lines.

Ceiling, width and depth by launch monitor, from five makers#

The EYE MINI row is a retailer's figure, not Uneekor's. Garmin's English text prints the upper limit as "2.4 ft. (8 ft.)", a slip for 2.4 m, as the other editions in the booklet show. Trackman's summary across both systems is 10 ft of ceiling, 15 ft of width and 18 ft of depth; a 12 x 12 ft (3.66 x 3.66 m) room "may allow short-iron swings".

Depth: why the radar's 6 to 8 ft is mostly room you needed anyway#

The same lever that sets the ceiling sets the room behind the ball. When the arm and club point straight back along the target line, the clubhead is the full 67 to 72 in (1.7 to 1.8 m) behind the golfer's shoulders. Every simulator therefore needs up to about 6 ft (1.8 m) of clear air behind the ball at roughly shoulder height; Trackman's iO guidance says it without a number: "Behind the ball: enough for a comfortable swing." A Garmin R10 sits in that same space, on the floor below the club's path.

Width: 5 ft each side of the ball line, so 10 ft for one hand and 15 ft for two#

Across the room the tilted circle reaches the lever times cos 58.5 degrees, 0.522 x 69.5 = 36 in (0.92 m) either side of the golfer's shoulders for a median man. The shoulders stand back from the ball by about the shaft's horizontal reach at address, 45 3/4 x 0.522 = 24 in (0.61 m). So a golfer's swing reaches about 5 ft (1.5 m) from the ball line on their own side, by the site's arithmetic, and a foot past the ball on the other.

So SkyTrak's 10 and 15 ft and Trackman's 15 ft agree: 10 ft works for one golfer with the ball offset towards the far wall, the offset hitting position Trackman suggests for narrow rooms, and 15 ft lets a centred ball serve either hand. PlayBetter notes that a side unit like the EYE MINI must be moved and realigned for a left-hander.

The screen is the other width. PlayBetter says the common 12 and 13 ft (3.66 and 3.96 m) enclosures want more than a 10 ft room, and the projector that fills them is sized by throw distance, worked through in projector throw distance and screen size or quickly with the projector throw calculator. Keep its mount over the flight, not over the golfer.

Overhead units have a ceiling window, not just a minimum#

Uneekor's EYE XR manual puts the unit 3 ft 6 in (1 m) behind the tee, centre of hitting zone to centre of unit, and "between 9-10 feet / 2.7m-3m for the ceiling height". Outside that range, above as well as below, it needs a drop mount, or "accuracy issues" follow. So an 11 ft (3.35 m) ceiling, ideal for the swing, needs a drop mount hanging into the room above the golfer. Trackman gives the iO 10 ft or more and no upper figure.

What shifts the figure: the golfer, the mat and the garage door#

The golfer. Each extra inch of shoulder height adds an inch to the worst-case swing top, and each inch of arm or shaft adds 0.85 in. The 95th percentile man needs 121.7 in (3.09 m), so a tall household should treat 10 ft as the minimum.

The mat and the floor. A mat, a platform and any rubber under them come off the ceiling inch for inch; typical build-ups are in gym flooring thickness.

The garage door. An open sectional door and its horizontal track occupy the ceiling behind the opening for the door height plus 18 in (457 mm), which is 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) of depth for a 7 ft door, inside the 12 in (305 mm) headroom band above the opening, so below 96 in (2.44 m). The derivation is in garage door sizes, headroom and backroom. On the same arithmetic, a median man's backswing does not come down through 96 in until about 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m) behind his shoulders along the target line, so the golfer has to stand that far beyond the end of the track when the swing points towards the door. A floor radar can sit under the door zone. And in a garage at the common 8 ft (2.44 m) ceiling, which garage sizes explains as a 7 ft door plus 12 in of headroom, no figure checked here supports a driver.

Other ceiling users. Keep overhead storage racks out of the bay, and see car lift ceiling height if a lift shares it.

A 20 x 20 ft double garage: hit across it, not towards the back wall#

A 20 x 20 ft (6.1 x 6.1 m) nominal double garage is about 19 ft 4 in (5.89 m) square inside; assume a 10 ft ceiling and a wall-mounted operator, since a rail opener's head adds another 24 to 36 in (61 to 91 cm). With a 16 ft wide door and its track running 8 ft 6 in back, there is 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m) of clear ceiling behind it. Aim the screen at the back wall and the arithmetic runs out: 10 ft 10 in, less 4 ft 4 in for the backswing to clear the track, less 1 ft for the screen to stand off the wall, leaves about 5 ft 6 in (1.7 m) from ball to screen. That is short of an R10's 8 ft, and the track stays put with the door shut.

Turn the bay sideways and it works. With the screen on a side wall, the target line runs across the garage inside the clear strip at the back, and the depth available is the full 19 ft 4 in less the screen's 1 ft: 18 ft 4 in (5.59 m). That takes an R10 at 14 to 16 ft, an iO at about 16 ft, and a Trackman 4's 18 ft with 4 in to spare. The 10 ft 10 in strip becomes the width: a ball line 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) off the back wall gives a right-hander's swing the 5 ft it needs, and the club passes only a foot beyond the ball on the door side, low.

A 24 x 24 ft (7.3 x 7.3 m) garage, 23 ft 4 in inside, leaves about 9 ft 6 in (2.9 m) from ball to back-wall screen by the same sum: an R10, not an iO. The car-and-gym version of this trade is in garage gym layout, and whole-room sizes are in standard room sizes. Terms are in the glossary, feet and metres in the unit converter, and how maker figures sit beside codes in standards and codes.