Will a golf simulator fit your garage? The real numbers.
Three measurements decide it: ceiling height, clear width, and depth. The first two are about your swing. The third is mostly about your launch monitor, which is the part most garage guides skip. Here are the published numbers, where they come from, and a tool that checks your space in ten seconds.
· written by the people building StowGolf in Tempe, Arizona
What are the three numbers that decide whether a golf simulator fits?
Ceiling height, clear width, and depth. As a general guide, Carl's Place lists a minimum room of 10 ft wide, 15 ft deep, and 8 to 9 ft high, and recommends 14 ft wide, 18 to 20 ft deep, and 10 ft high or more.
Those figures come from Carl's Place's room measuring guide, and they describe a traditional fixed enclosure with the golfer standing well back from the screen. They are a good baseline. Your own room can beat the minimum in one direction and miss it in another, so take each number on its own.
| Measurement | Carl's Place minimum | Carl's Place recommended | StowGolf bay itself |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceiling height | 8 to 9 ft, with limited swings | 10 ft or more | Frame stands 7 ft 6 in |
| Width | 10 ft, hitting spot offset | 14 ft or more, centered for both hands | About 10 ft |
| Depth | 15 ft total: 1 ft behind the screen, 10 ft screen to ball, 4 ft behind the ball | 18 to 20 ft total: 1 ft behind the screen, 10 to 12 ft screen to ball, 7 ft behind the ball | 5 ft deployed. Folds flat against the wall. |
The last column is the footprint of the enclosure, not the space you need to swing. You stand at the mouth of the bay or just outside it, so the depth you need to play is larger than 5 ft. More on that below.
How much ceiling height do you really need?
Enough for your own driver swing, which no chart can tell you. Carl's Place puts the floor at 8 to 9 ft with limited swings and warns that with shorter ceilings you will not be able to swing a driver.
Their advice is the best test there is: take your longest club to the exact spot and make slow practice swings. Do it on whatever you will stand on, because a hitting mat raises you a little. Check directly above the ball position and a step behind it, since the top of the backswing is where clubs find ceilings.
In a garage, the ceiling is not always the lowest thing. The open garage door, its tracks, and the opener often hang well below the drywall. Open the door and measure under the lowest point above where you will swing. If you only play with the door closed, measure under the opener rail too.
The StowGolf frame stands 7 ft 6 in, so the bay fits under an 8 ft ceiling. That does not mean you can swing a driver under an 8 ft ceiling. Many golfers cannot. A 9 ft ceiling gives a driver swing more headroom, and in a lower room, irons and wedges may be the honest answer.
How wide does the space need to be?
About 10 ft is the working minimum. At that width the hitting spot sits off center, so the room works for one handedness at a time.
Carl's Place recommends 14 ft or more if you want the ball centered on the screen for both right and left handed players. In a one-car bay you will usually be at the minimum, so plan for an offset tee position and aim the software to match. Check that the simulator software you choose lets you set that offset.
Measure clear width, not wall to wall. Shelving, a water heater, a workbench, or the step up into the house all count. The StowGolf bay is about 10 ft across, so 10 ft of clear width is snug and 11 ft or more is comfortable.
How deep does the space need to be, and what does the launch monitor add?
By our fit tool's working figures, about 9 ft of depth is the tight end and 12 ft or more is comfortable with a camera unit that sits beside the ball. A behind-the-ball radar needs a little more than 14 ft by its maker's own numbers.
Depth is where garage plans go wrong, because the enclosure is the small part of it. The rest is ball flight, the golfer, and whatever the launch monitor needs.
| Launch monitor type | Where it sits | Depth the maker asks for | What it means in a 5 ft deep bay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behind-the-ball radar, such as the Rapsodo MLM2PRO | 6.5 to 8.5 ft directly behind the ball | 8 ft from ball to screen. A little more than 14 ft in total. | The ball sits about 3 ft outside the mouth of the bay, and the tripod sits 14.5 to 16.5 ft from the screen. |
| Beside-the-ball camera unit, such as the Garmin Approach R50 | About 1.5 ft to the side of the tee, per Garmin's owner's manual | Nothing behind the golfer. Check the maker's indoor guidance for ball to screen distance. | The depth you need is the bay, the ball flight the maker asks for, and room to swing. |
If depth is your tight dimension, that table is the decision. A radar unit costs less but spends your garage. A camera unit costs more and gives the depth back. Finish your bay prices both paths, including the yearly subscriptions.
Our own fit tool treats 9 ft front to back as playable, 12 ft or more as roomy, and about 11 ft as the comfortable depth to stand and swing with the bay deployed. Those are our working figures for a beside-the-ball setup, not a promise about every swing.
Does your space pass? Check it here.
Enter your clear width, the height under the lowest thing above your swing, and the depth with the garage door closed.
- Folded, the bay sits flat against the wall and the room's depth comes back. The measured folded depth publishes with the spec sheet.
- 8.5 ft ceiling clears the 7.5 ft frame; a 9 ft ceiling gives a driver swing more headroom.
The same tool lives on the homepage. It checks the StowGolf bay specifically, which plays at about 10 ft wide, 5 ft deep, and 7 ft 6 in tall.
What does the folded footprint leave you?
With a fixed enclosure, the answer is nothing: the bay is always there. With one that stows, you get the floor back, and how much depends on how far it sticks out from the wall.
That stowed number is worth asking every maker for. The wall-mounted Murphy from Ace Indoor Golf publishes 24 in off the wall. Roll-up enclosures stow at the ceiling instead, which leaves the floor clear but puts hardware near the garage door tracks.
StowGolf folds flat against the wall in under a minute. We have not published the folded depth in inches, because it has not been measured on a production sample. When it has been, it goes on the spec sheet. Until then, do your parking math with the car you own: park it, then measure from the bumper to the wall the bay would stand against. That gap is what any stowed enclosure has to fit inside. The parking guide walks through it, and the comparison lists what each stowing enclosure publishes.
How do you measure a garage for a simulator in ten minutes?
Take five measurements with the car parked where it normally lives, then repeat the depth with the car out.
- Clear width at the wall where the screen would stand, between anything fixed.
- Height from the floor to the drywall, then to the lowest point of the open garage door, its tracks, and the opener.
- Depth from that wall to the closed garage door.
- With the car parked: the gap between the car and the screen wall.
- Where the nearest outlet is, for the projector and the launch monitor.
Then make slow driver swings at the hitting spot. If the club clears everything, the numbers above are details. If it does not, no enclosure fixes that.
Short answers.
- What is the minimum ceiling height for a golf simulator?
- Carl's Place, a large enclosure maker, lists 8 to 9 feet as the minimum with limited swings and 10 feet or more as the recommendation. The real test is your own driver swing in the space. The StowGolf frame stands 7 feet 6 inches, so the bay itself fits under an 8 foot ceiling.
- How wide does a garage need to be for a golf simulator?
- About 10 feet is the working minimum, with the hitting spot offset to one side. Carl's Place recommends 14 feet or more if right and left handed golfers will both hit from the center. The StowGolf bay is about 10 feet wide.
- How deep does a garage need to be for a golf simulator?
- It depends on the launch monitor. Carl's Place lists 15 feet as a general minimum and 18 to 20 feet as the recommendation. A behind-the-ball radar such as the Rapsodo MLM2PRO needs a little more than 14 feet by Rapsodo's own numbers. Camera units that sit beside the ball need nothing behind you.
- Can a golf simulator fit in a one-car garage?
- Often, if the bay is about 10 feet wide or less and the ceiling clears your swing. Measure the clear width between anything stored on the walls, the height under the open garage door, and the depth with the door closed. Then run those three numbers through the fit tool.
- How much space does StowGolf take when it is folded?
- It folds flat against the wall, and the room's depth comes back. We have not published the folded depth in inches because it has not been measured on a production sample yet. That number goes on the spec sheet when the production sample is tested.