My Kaizen-HQ Journey | How practicing golf at home might be easier than you think

The Kaizen Journey - how you can also practice golf at home

"I JUST NEED TO PRACTICE MORE...." 

If you have played the great game of golf for any period of time, I bet you've played with this guy...and maybe you ARE this guy. 

Yet knowing that we all need to put the work in to improve in golf, very few of us are able to get any decent practice in before we tee it up in our next round. Life simply just gets in the way. 

Having a demanding full time job and a young family, being able to go to the driving range to work on my game was a rare occasion. And I had the scores to show for it. 

Then the world changed in 2020.

In 2020, we started to see our own homes a lot more and it seemed like that overnight all of our favourate golf Youtubers all released videos with the same title - 'I built a golf net! (insert clickbait thumbnail).'

That was when the lightbulb came on in my head - no more excuses, single-digits here I come. 

I want to share my journey in creating Kaizen HQ - my home practice set up, from the initial 'cheap and dirty' to something that I truly did not think was possible 12 months ago. I hope this will give you the inspiration to build your set up at home and it might be easier than you think! 

Take 1 - Ebay golf net

Feeling apprehensive about the DIY skills that was required to actually build my own net, I hit ebay looking for ready-made answers and in April 2020 I parted ways with an eyewatering $186 AUD (yes they were obviously going like hotcakes during the height of the lockdown!) for a beach tent looking net with a target in the middle of it.

Unfortunately I ended up returning it on the same day that it was delivered. The fibreglass poles had splinters which did not get on with my hands and when the ball hit the "target" it sounded like a gun had gone off, then the straps which attached the bullseye to the frame fell off after a couple of 3/4 swings with a 7 iron. I'm sure not all fibreglass tent golf nets are born equal, but mine was exceptionally bad.

For a hitting mat, I paid a handsome sum of $99.95 AUD for a piece of artificial turf off-cut from a reputable golf retailer. I plan to do a golf mat buying guide down the track before more people hurt their joints, enough said.

Take 2 - Bunnings DIY job

Having now caught the bug of being able to swing a golf club in my garage (albeit very briefly), I knew there had to be a better way.

Given crazy lock-down prices on ebay at the time, this very instructional video on Youtube led me to the place that was not conducting daylight robbery at the time - Bunnings. 

After connecting a few PVC pipes together and hanging a heavy duty shade cloth over it (I went with the simple T-frame option), I was back hitting balls and feeling proud of my handiwork!. 

After realising the fact that the humble shade cloth would withstand the impact from a real golf ball (irons only at this stage), the backyard was obviously going to get a hitting net too. Now I could hit balls both inside and outside. Working from home just made so much more sense!

Take 3 - The PVC cage with nylon golf netting

At this stage I was able to hit balls everyday at home. But the Kaizen in me knew that there was still room for improvement. 

After a few more trips to Bunnings and getting a heavy duty golf impact net online, I was able to build a golf hitting cage.

It was a big improvement compared to the previous version and the set up was more sturdy, shank-proofed (very important!) and I was able to hit driver into the net no problem. The materials used for this set up was easily less than what I paid for the original "tent". Depending on what your needs are, this is more than sufficient. 

The Kaizen Garage Golf Studio

Fast forward to the end of 2020, when golf influencers in the UK started to run out of good weather and daylight outdoors, I started noticing videos titled 'I built my garage golf studio! (again insert clickbait thumbnail)' appearing in quick succession. That's when I decided to up the ante in Kaizen-HQ. 

After some research and coming across the ingenious idea of hanging the impact screen on steel wires, I knew I had a design.

The construction was actually fairly easy once all the materials were sourced. 

With the addition of a launch monitor, the result is nothing short of sensational! 

The backyard also got some new additions too, but that's for another time.

Oh and the practice I'm able to put in is starting to show on my scores too. 

What's next

I consider myself very lucky to have the set up at home and through my quest for Kaizen-HQ I have a learned a lot.

By launching Kaizen Golf, I want to help more golfers to not be the I-just-need-to-practice-more guy.

I hope I have given you some ideas and the inspiration to at least consider a home set up and I also hope that you would consider our products as part of your journey.

As for me, I will continue to improve Kaizen-HQ and will use my experience and learnings to develop products that will benefit my customers. 

Lastly, please don't hesitate to connect with us if you want advise on home golf practice set up ideas or if you would like more information on any of our products. We would love to hear from you!