It might not be one size fits all
One of the key considerations when purchasing a golf practice net is the size.
Needless to say we all want our Golfing From Home environments to be as safe as possible. The last thing you want is to have a golf net that is too small and have a real golf ball travelling at full speed accidentally launching into....well, basically anything BUT your golf net or impact screen.
With radar based launch monitors gaining popularity amongst the Golfing From Home community, golfer's are required to hit the ball more than 8 feet away from the net. This means buying the right sized net has become really important, especially if you want to use all the clubs in your bag for simulator golf play.
As a general rule of thumb, a 3m x 3m (9' x 9') net will work well in most cases. However you may not have that kind of space in your garden or your garage. Also nets that size can start to get pretty expensive too.
In this article, I will give you a guide on how to work out what the right size golf net might be for your needs.
I will also provide some practical tips on what you can do if are 'space challenged'.
Right Height for a Golf Net
By using some high school Trigonometry, we have worked out that if you are stood 8 feet away and want to hit all your clubs, you will need a net that is 9 feet (3m) tall. We have a more in-depth article on how the calculation works, so feel free to check it out here.
If you are not able to fit a 3m tall golf net in your space, here are a couple of ideas to consider:
- Standing closer to the net will reduce the height required, even if you just do this for your higher lofted clubs. Of course this might not work if you are using a radar based launch monitor.
- Consider a photo-based launch monitor - these launch monitors (e.g. GC2/3/quad or Skytrak) would only require a couple of feet of ball flight so you can be hitting much closer to the net. Given the minimum space/distance requirements, these units are ideal if you don't have tons of space and would produce much more accurate results indoors.
- Hanging something on top of your net - hanging some netting or even a old bedsheet on top of your net can be an effective option to catch balls which overshoot your net. If you have a low ceiling in an indoor set up, hanging some netting or some padding along the roof would also work.
- Stick to lower lofted clubs - you can still get a lot of practice done and even play simulated golf without using your sand and lob wedges.
Right Width for a Golf Net
If you are able to rely on a bit of high school maths to confidently work out the right height for a golf net. It's probably a little bit less straightforward when it comes to what the right width is.
In general, if you are able to hit a good shot time after time, you don't really need a very wide golf net. Even if you hit snap hooks or big blocks, when the ball only has 8 feet or so to travel, you don't actually need a net that is super wide. From 8 feet, even if you are 20 degrees offline then you will only be off centre by about 3 feet on the net (Trigonometry to the rescue once again).
So from a safety perspective, the reason you need a net that is ideally 3m wide is so that you can catch those hosel rockets (FORE RIGHT!) and it's pretty hard to predict what sort of angles those shots will be coming off the neck at.
Based on my experience testing golf nets and using our products on a pretty frequent basis and hitting plenty off the hosel, my strong advice is that you need a golf net that is 3m wide.
This is based on me aiming at the centre of the net. Although I've come pretty close to running out of 'golf net real estate', so far a 3 metre net has been sufficient for me. Of course, the wider the better, but a narrower net without any extra protection could lead to disasters.
If you've only got a narrower space to work with, here are some ideas to shore up the safety of your golf set up with a narrower net.
- Get Depth with Side Nets / Side Padding - a way to make a narrower net safer is to add some side netting (A.K.A shank net), effectively making it more of a cage-like set up. For indoor set ups, you can also use curtains or foam padding for added protection. In my own garage set up where I only have enough space for a 2.5m screen, I've opted for both curtains as well as extra netting on the sides to ensure I have a safe sim golf environment.
PS: A common cause of Indoor Swing Syndrome (ISS) which is detrimental to your golf swing comes from not feeling safe/confident to swing your golf club freely within your indoor golf set up. So you don't want to be standing over the ball wondering what's going to happen when you accidentally neck one.
- Give yourself more space - if you've got a narrower net, you can also hit off centre and try to give yourself more space on the shank side.
Wrapping Up
A primary function of a Golf Net is to provide you with a safe place to play and practice your golf at home. You can only achieve this by choosing the right sized net for how you intend on using it. Of course the net will also have to fit within the space that you have.
I hope the advice in this post will help you in figuring out how big of a golf net you will need as well as what you can do to make your home set up safer even if you have to opt for a smaller net.
*Shameless Plug Alert* /ff you are looking for a high quality golf net which offers plenty of golf net real estate to hit into, be sure to check out our Kaizen Golf Full Swing Golf Net.
