Custom Golf Simulator Installation: Beyond the DIY Kit

TL;DR

When considering a custom golf simulator installation, particularly for a luxury home or commercial space, it’s crucial to distinguish between a basic kit setup and a comprehensive design-build approach. A true professional installer goes far beyond simply assembling components; they integrate the simulator seamlessly into your environment, addressing unique architectural challenges like soffits or ceiling impediments, and even creating hidden doors for optimal room utility and aesthetics. This level of customization ensures the golf simulator room not only performs flawlessly but also complements your interior design vision. Furthermore, evaluate potential installers not just on the initial quote, but on their ability to provide ongoing support, maintenance plans for consumable components, and remote assistance. A reputable company will also manage the entire process, including electrical work, patching, painting, calibration, and thorough training, ensuring a truly turnkey golf simulator experience with premium components that stand the test of time. Be wary of ‘fly-by-night’ operations that may offer lower upfront costs but lack the expertise for bespoke solutions and long-term client care.

Evaluating Your Golf Simulator Installation Partner

Stephen: Well, today, I think we’re just gonna kinda shoot through some questions that I know a lot of people have specifically regarding premium installer evaluation and vendor comparisons. Obviously, you guys are, operating where you are, but if somebody’s maybe outside of that or, or could, could use some help evaluating who they’re maybe looking to hire as an installer, I think a lot of these questions are gonna be helpful for that. Yep. Going into the first one, what should buyers look for when they’re hiring a golf simulator installation company?

Cliff: , I would say the most important thing is somebody that’s done it before many times and with quality. Right? Just like any construction project, does this person know what they’re doing or this company know what they’re doing? Have they done it before? Can they deliver, on budget, on time, with good quality? Do they take care of their customers? So I’d say that’s probably the most important thing from my perspective. And, it’s fair to ask those questions to your installer. Right? How many of you how many of these have you done? Can I talk to customers?, look at the reviews online, but we love it when a client says, hey.

Cliff: Can you put me in touch with, a couple customers? We’ll give you a list of 20 or 30 customers and say, hey., have at it. Call them. Ask many questions you want., to me, that’s that’s the basics. I would then say, do they have their own crews? Right? Are they just subbing this out to a long list of subs and they don’t have any control over quality or consistency?, our crews are our crews.

We’ve got dedicated people that all they do, all day, every day is build golf simulators. And some of those people have been with us for multiple years and built hundreds of simulators. Are they an expert?

Cliff: Do they have experience? Can they deliver with quality? Do they have happy customers? Maybe one other aspect before I flip it to Tyler would be, are they beholden to a particular brand or product? Right? We are technology agnostic. We will deliver the right technology, the right solution for your needs and your budget. There are vendors out there that only work with one brand. Right? And that’s, they’re stuck with that brand, and that’s what you’re gonna get if you go work with them. And I think it’s important to be able to pick from the best thing that’s available on the market and that’s gonna meet your needs.

Tyler: Tyler, anything else Just echoing off of Cliff, I think looking for companies who are regularly posting and updating their installations and showcasing their work. I know in our particular case, we’ve got a, social page, particular in Instagram, where we are regularly posting in progress work, new builds that are going out. Certainly, on our website, we also have a variety of different builds with different scenarios that we put out there as well too. Just getting gets back to a lot of things Cliff was saying. Looking for somebody who has done this work consistently and is, creating very happy clients from the work that they’re delivering and showcasing and, wanting to showcase that work.

Tyler: That goes a long way in helping to evaluate some of the other things to mention and making sure that there’s crew members that know what they’re doing.

They’ve done this a few times. Or if they’re growing crews, they’ve got people supervising and giving all the feedback and growing that experience., those are a lot of the key considerations. Yep.

Stephen: Yeah. Kinda honestly digging into that a little bit deeper even, how do you evaluate a golf simulator installer, that you’re looking to hire?

Tyler: Yeah. I’ll I’ll jump into that one, and I’ll I’ll extend it to also golf simulator installers that focus on more of the design and build aspects like we do., it’s one of those things when you talk about custom builds. There’s always going to be some new frontier. I think being able to explain to your client, how we have we have done a variety of different things, whether it’s different accents on the walls, customize our padding with embroidery or different fabrics, handling different flooring situations or impediments in the ceilings, like working around soffits or Clint has mentioned in some of our other conversations how we’ve created hidden doors and other things so we could still use the room and the orientation that made the most sense, but make the house usable or give some additional storage space.

Beyond the Standard Build: Creative Design and Integration

Tyler: I think, there’s a difference between somebody who’s just going an installer who’s just going to set up, a DIY kit and kinda put that into your space like you might get online versus an installer that’s going to be able to build into your space and, handle the creative design that you, your spouse, your interior designer may have as well. And being able to show you examples of how they’ve done those things or, how they can take an idea that you have and turn it into an actual reality and, again, show any examples of that. But, yeah, Cliff, feel free to give your thoughts on that one.

Cliff: Yeah., I think you covered the basics really well. It would just be I I probably sound like a broken record here, but, show me an example of where you’ve done this before. Right?, I’ve Tyler and I both came from consulting, way back in the day, and, it would we called them quals. Right? Like, show me examples. What’s your portfolio? Where have you done this before? Where have you removed a wall, to create more space and built it into a golf simulator? And then there’s probably some more kinda technical business oriented questions I would ask as well. Right? Yep. Are you a licensed general contractor?, do can you pull a permit if we if we need to for this project?

Cliff: Do you have insurance in case something goes wrong on my project? Right? Like, all those sorts of things that are, the basics. And sometimes when you get a quote from a cut from a, maybe a more fly by night type operation, they’re not gonna be able to answer yes to a lot of those questions.

That would be very important for me if I’m inviting somebody into my home to do work. You can answer if you can’t answer yes to those questions, you probably shouldn’t be working with that company.

Stephen: No., that makes total sense. Sometimes I think in this specific regard of people’s hobbies and passions, they start to look past those things. And I’m I’m glad that you guys bring them up because it is, obviously, a very important detail. Going on to the next, almost even a deeper dive on that, what questions should you ask before you’re hiring a golf simulator contractor?

Cliff: Yeah., there’s so there’s so many., we just covered a few of them. Right? Yeah., who’s gonna be doing the work? Do they have experience with doing golf simulators? Right? It’s the are you subbing all the work out to whoever’s gonna show up to do the work that day? The licensing, the insurance type questions, all that stuff is super important. Another one that’s really important is, what am I getting? Right? If sometimes I’ll see if we’re going head to head bidding against another golf simulator company, the pro the proposal can be very generic. Right? We will build an enclosure. Well, what does that mean? Right?, what am I getting? Right? That could be a $200 tent like structure that is purchased online and assembled in five minutes versus the high end custom enclosure that we build.

Cliff: And I hate even calling it an enclosure, right, because it’s not. It is it is a custom golf simulator. Right? But I’ll see just very generic wording without any visuals to back it up.

And as a customer, I wanna know what am I getting. Right? And, I’ve experienced this in custom home building where it’s you’re signing up for a full build. It’s like, yeah, you’re gonna get granite countertops. Well, there’s wildly different costs and value of what I can get from a granite countertop, and same thing with a golf simulator. Right? Am I getting a erector set like enclosure that’s very thin fabric on the outside, or am I getting a custom build where I can pick my materials and make it look like it’s part of my home?

Cliff: To me, that’s the most important thing. Right? What am I getting or you have the business basics that we talked about. Have you done this before? Can you give me a referral to talk to somebody that’s doing a similar build or did a similar build is what I’m gonna do. What am I getting for it? And then you get into, things like timeline and budget. Is this a fixed bid? Like, what will change the cost of this? And what scenario will I end up paying more or not? And and that’s important to know how long is it gonna take. Right? When can you start, and how long will it take? When will you be in and out of my house?

Long-Term Support and the Turnkey Experience

Cliff: And then I go into probably, again, not to be too commercially for us, but, we pride ourselves on handing a golf simulator to a customer that is going to be a seamless, fun experience that they’re not frustrated with. Are you gonna configure everything for me? Are you gonna teach me how to use it? Are you gonna support me afterwards when I’m learning how to use it?

Cliff: Because there is a little bit of a wanted I’d say there’s probably a one to two week break in period where people are still learning how to open the software and get into the right places and use it how they want. Are you gonna support me? Right? We, I answer my cell phone all the time with customers that say, hey. My buddies are here. What program do I open again? Oh, yeah. Click that. Click that. We’re remote in. Get you going. Now you’re playing with your buddies, you’re not frustrated. Right? So sorry. I talked forever on that, Tyler. I don’t

Tyler: Well, no. And I think you covered the biggest one that I was thinking through, Cliff., everything you said was important, but, it’s really what is that hand off experience, that immediate support, and also ongoing support. I know in our case, we offer ongoing support and maintenance plans, for customers that, maybe need additional support over time or they wanna come through and have some things refreshed over time on more of the consumable components of their simulator., being a company or an installer that’s able to support that over time and, potentially remote into clients’ computers to help them walk through something or, as I mentioned, come through and help refresh the simulator every couple of years when some of the more consumable items have worn down. Those are the key pieces. Right? It’s not just a fly by night type of seller.

Tyler: They’ll come and maybe throw something up and then they’re gone., having a company that’s a bit more established and has the ability to support over time is, I think, another key consideration outside of all those things that you would you had mentioned previously. One last quick question would be, what are my licensing costs? Right?, different technology solutions have different ongoing licensing costs, and that’s important as a part of the overall cost of ownership for a golf simulator, to know.

And they’re not staggering costs, but you’ll probably pay somewhere in the 10 to $40 a month range, for the launch monitor licensing and the and the golf simulator software licensing. Those are, again, important questions to ask. You just know you go into this decision knowing your costs, from an ongoing basis perspective.

Stephen: Yeah. I love that because that’s something that, again, we’ve we’ve had this come up in previous conversations. But, again, I would have never thought to even ask about. And I even in asking it just from, our previous conversations, I was hoping to get, something about, even, the change order aspect that you guys brought up and a couple of the other things that I think both you guys, Tyler and Cliff Right. Brought up. But I think it’s helpful to just even have at the front of the mind when you’re thinking about creating a series of questions that are going to be asked directly to, to an installer of this of this nature. Even going further past that, what should be included in a professional golf simulator installation proposal

Tyler: Yeah. For the next I’ll give that a start, Cliff, and then feel free to jump in. But Cliff covered a lot of these things. I think it’s important to know, overall, what are you getting from this installation? So Mhmm., there’s a mixture of just the overall technology and components. Right? What launch monitor, projector, the putting turf, the framing, the custom padding in our particular case? Like, those are important things to know., just some examples we’ve seen when we’ve been compared against proposals is, let’s say the type of projector used. Like, we use pretty high quality projectors that are well regarded within sim simulator space, very well tested in the simulator space. But you might have another installer who is offering a projector that on paper looks like the right specs.

Tyler: But, ultimately, maybe it’s got less lumens or it’s overall lower quality or it’s less ideal for a golf simulator space. I think one aspect is just what I mentioned, all things about the technology and components. Like, what are you getting there? Why are they important for the type of space and setup that you’re looking for? And then the other piece is some of the other things that we’ve talked about in prior client questions around just knowing that we’re gonna come through, if we need to go into your walls, which typical to do the electrical, the low voltage, knowing that we’re gonna come and patch and paint those things back up so it looks like nothing ever happened, the handover, the calibration and setup of your equipment, the training aspects of it.

Tyler: Just knowing that you’re getting, especially if somebody is saying they’re going to give you a turnkey experience, the design and build aspects of it, making sure you’re getting all those pieces with premium components, that’ll go into your space.

I think those are some of the simple things to make sure you have an understanding versus, I think, as Cliff gave the example before, just like, we’re gonna build you a golf sale, and there’s a price. Think having at least a little bit of detail about what that really means is an important piece so you really know what’s what you’re getting there. But, Cliff, feel free to add some things to that.

Cliff: That’s all of it. Just on the knowing what you’re getting piece, we’ll show up with samples of the materials we’re gonna build your custom pads out of so you can see and touch and feel it. Really digging on digging in on that. What am I getting?, we can also we have an in house design team with a three d designer, so we can create a robust three d rendering of what you’re gonna get down to the materials. You can see ahead of time what you’re getting. I also love that because it shows our crews what to build, and they have a you don’t have they don’t have to envision in their head.

Cliff: They know what we’re building, and then they just go do it. If you can’t get a good visual representation of what you’re building, I would I would steer clear. Right? You need to know what you’re getting. You need to be informed. Yeah, I’d say if you can’t get samples of the materials and touch and feel it or see a three d rendering of what you’re gonna get, I would be cautious.

Comparison at a glance