Commercial Golf Simulator Bay Size and Build Requirements

TL;DR

ForeFront Simulator Solutions founder Cliff Stevens recommends commercial bays of 16 to 17 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet deep, with ceilings closer to 11 to 13 feet, to fit every type of golfer and allow foot traffic behind the bays. He also points to heavier durability needs, ADA compliance, fire ratings and sprinkler requirements, and codes that vary from city to city and state to state.

• Cliff Stevens puts the residential starting point at about 15 feet wide by 18 feet deep, but recommends 16 to 17 feet of width per bay in a commercial setting because you cannot predict which golfers will come through the door.
• With three or four bays in a row and traffic behind them, 20 feet of depth does not work well; he recommends 25, 27 or 30 feet so there is room for both the bays and walkways.
• A 10-foot ceiling is usually safe, but ForeFront prefers 11 to 13 feet so tall golfers with upright swings can enjoy the facility.
• Commercial bays may be used six to eight hours a day, every day, compared with an hour or two a day in a home, so the build needs to make screens and hitting mats easy to swap out.
• Commercial builds involve ADA compliance, fire ratings and fire marshal sprinkler requirements, and code varies from city to city and state to state.
• Adding a commercial kitchen with grease traps is a $500,000 to $1 million build-out on its own.

How big should a commercial golf simulator bay be?

Cliff Stevens: We err on a larger size from a commercial setting perspective. We say somewhere in the 15 feet in width and 18 feet of depth in the residential space is where you want to start. In the commercial, you’re going to get all different types of golfers. You’re going to get taller golfers. You’re going to get golfers with flat swings, with steep swings. You can’t really predict what’s going to come through the door, and you don’t want to deny somebody membership because they’re 6’5″ and have an upright swing. So maybe it’s more like 16 to 17 feet of width in a bay for a commercial setting.

From a depth perspective, you’re probably going to have more people coming in and out, walking behind the bay. There’s all sorts of configurations. But if you’re thinking about three or four bays in a row, you’re going to have traffic behind the bay. You don’t want your golfers stopping and worrying about who’s behind them. So that 20 feet of depth doesn’t work really well. You need to start looking at more like 25, 27 or 30 feet of depth so you can have your golf bays. You can have traffic areas.

That’s where all the design aspects come in. You want to map all that out, figure out where your traffic pattern’s going to be, where do you want people spending time hanging out, like the bar near the simulator? It’s a much more complex decision criteria around the dimensions of a commercial facility versus what you would do in a residential setting.

What ceiling height does a commercial simulator bay need?

Cliff Stevens: And ceiling heights, 10 feet is usually really safe. But you might have somebody that’s 6’5″ with an upright swing, and they’re not going to be able to enjoy your facility. So we like to look at closer to 11 or 12 or 13 feet, and it makes for a more enjoyable experience for a broader group of customers.

When should a simulator expert review a commercial space?

Cliff Stevens: Bigger is better, but from a commercial side, you want to engage some experts. We’ve had so many customers reach out to us and say, hey, I’m looking at starting a commercial facility. Will you guys come along the journey with me? We’ll go do site visits with you. We’ll check out the commercial space with you. People send us drawings and plans. We assess them. We give feedback.

Because the last thing you want to do is sign a five-year lease where you’re putting up a personal guarantee, and then you get in and you realize you can’t build the simulator bar lounge or whatever you’re building the way you wanted to because of space constraints. Engage us. We’re here to help. That’s part of what we do, and we could save a lot of time and wasted energy and wasted money.

What construction and code requirements apply to commercial simulators?

Cliff Stevens: It’s very similar to residential. You’re going to have some different nuances in a commercial setting. So we look at things like ADA compliance, fire ratings on things. We’ve got to make different aspects of the commercial build much more durable. It’s going to get a lot more wear and tear. It’s getting used all hours of the day, whereas a residential sim might get used for an hour or two a day or two to three hours a week. These bays are hopefully getting used six to eight hours a day, every day. So there’s a lot more consideration for durability. How do we build in a way that it’s easier to swap out screens, swap out the hitting mats when they wear out?

And then there are some of the regulatory requirements. The fire marshal’s going to come in, and we’ve got to have sprinkler heads throughout the commercial facility, and we really don’t like mixing sprinkler heads with golf clubs and golf balls flying around. There’s so many aspects of a commercial build that you want to have an expert involved, all the way from assessing the space if it’s going to be right for you, to designing and planning for it, to working with your GC to make sure we build it in the right way.

Durability and the regulatory requirements are super important. All the code and commercial settings vary city to city or state to state. And then planning the space a little more intently is another thing.

How should a commercial simulator build plan for future changes?

Cliff Stevens: One last thing I’d say: a lot of commercial facilities will have drop ceilings and things like that. So building in a way that if we ever need to change things in the future, we can. Things like conduit or drop ceilings are our friend when we’re trying to build a facility like that.

You can get into things like commercial kitchens with grease traps and multiple bathrooms and merchandising facilities, where you really need an expert that knows what they’re doing, because a commercial kitchen is a $500,000 to a million dollar type build-out. You’ve got to do it the right way. You’ve got to be compliant and build it in a way that’s going to support your business. The short answer is there are so many more construction considerations to take into account when you’re talking about a commercial facility.

Edited for length and clarity from a recorded conversation with Cliff Stevens.