My new backyard putting green!

[Ferrins]

Similar contouring to Royal Saint George.

[NewyMitch]

Recently, replaced an 8 seat dining suite with a 2 stool breakfast bar.Leaves enough space for a 5m x 1.8m, all weather, day-night putting green.Eventually, it may get set in the ground outside (possibly joined to a couple more).p.s. I have no idea why the photo has been rotated. Stupid computer.

What synthetic turf did you buy for this?

[Dotty]

What synthetic turf did you buy for this?

Tuff Turf 12mm from Bunnings, at $269 for the roll.

Still waiting for it to flatten, although I have a few small slabs of granite leftover from a mate's kitchen that I can use as an iron.

Here is a Australia Golf Digest article that got me thinking over lockdown ...
CORONAVIRUS BE DAMNED: Here's how YOU can build your own backyard green for less than $800 - Australian Golf Digest

[NewyMitch]

Thank you

[Dotty]

Stuff you, Wuhan.

I built a practice tee over the weekend ...



Fantastic for hitting wiffle balls with a wedge/iron into a wall 5m away. (Hybrids bounce back quite a long way.)

Long term plan is to put a 5m artificial putting green with a 1* slope in front of this (on which I could stand a collapsible net for swinging woods).

Fluked a couple of things in execution, as original plan was concrete slab but I found the old deck boards and joists under the house (when looking for stuff for council cleanup). This now allows a relatively flat chipping green in front, on a sloping block, and deck can be moved 100mm either way along the stirrups (like an adjustable driver) to best fit this (and growing trees).

In hindsight, 1500x1500 may have been better than a 1200x1800 deck, then mats could also be used in an east-west direction (and have a net permanently set-up at the side).

[markTHEblake]

Whats that at the front of the hitting mat you are using to keep it in place?

BTW i am using BirdieBalls in my setup... better feel even though they only last around 300 hits before I crack them, and you would break them very quickly hitting at a wall.

[Dotty]

Gravity, as these ones have a heavy rubber base. (I have others with a hard plastic base.)

They were made a few years back by an Italian plastic container industrialist, under the brand 'Golf G Mat', but I don't think he ever followed through with this whim.

[Dotty]

Lockdown beater now completed.
Hitting deck was made out of leftovers.
Putting deck nudged $1k and a handful of trips to Bunnings, when it was permitted.

fyi. Putting deck is 4.8 x 1.8m, bearers/joists made from H4 treated sleepers and has a 2% slope (because dopey home-owner filled in a pool in that location four years ago and had already created contouring to closer match the sloping block).

Overall 9/10.
Plus is speed difference up/down 2% slope and ability to smash long putts (as in enough to go 20m normally) uphill, only for them to softly pop up off the timber edge and back onto putting surface.
Minus is lack of bump and run practice facility.

[Dcanto]

Lockdown beater now completed.Hitting deck was made out of leftovers. Putting deck nudged $1k and a handful of trips to Bunnings, when it was permitted. fyi. Putting deck is 4.8 x 1.8m, bearers/joists made from H4 treated sleepers and has a 2% slope (because dopey home-owner filled in a pool in that location four years ago and had already created contouring to closer match the sloping block).Overall 9/10. Plus is speed difference up/down 2% slope and ability to smash long putts (as in enough to go 20m normally) uphill, only for them to softly pop up off the timber edge and back onto putting surface. Minus is lack of bump and run practice facility.

Looks great, Dotty.

[Halfer5]

Looks like a great setup, what sort of pace is it running at and can you not chip onto it from the right hand side?

[AndyP]

Very nice! Looking forward to reports of massive improvement.

[Steve57]

Lockdown beater now completed.
Hitting deck was made out of leftovers.
Putting deck nudged $1k and a handful of trips to Bunnings, when it was permitted.

fyi. Putting deck is 4.8 x 1.8m, bearers/joists made from H4 treated sleepers and has a 2% slope (because dopey home-owner filled in a pool in that location four years ago and had already created contouring to closer match the sloping block).

Overall 9/10.
Plus is speed difference up/down 2% slope and ability to smash long putts (as in enough to go 20m normally) uphill, only for them to softly pop up off the timber edge and back onto putting surface.
Minus is lack of bump and run practice facility.

Looks good Dotty but you may need another project to take you to the end of lockdown!

[Dotty]

Looks like a great setup, what sort of pace is it running at and can you not chip onto it from the right hand side?

I estimate it would be approx. 10 on the stimpmeter, and downhill putts stop similar to on the course, without being impossible to stop.

For chipping, 'turf' is straight on decking and may be unrealistic, compared to the usual roadbase/sand base. Main worry is bouncing back off a timber edge or side, towards me or a window. The original plan was to put the green in front of the practice tee, but the slope to the edge of the house was an issue (either dig into foundations, raise the bottom edge to 'target level' or risk having an unplayable slope for putting on the green).

I can do half shots off the practice mat (at the moment with SKLZ wiffle balls) towards the back wall of the house. Phase 3 is to make a chipping net out of weedmat and 40mm PVC pipe salvaged from the pool fill-in.

[Dotty]

Looks good Dotty but you may need another project to take you to the end of lockdown!

I still have another 150 m2 of yard to cover, which was the concrete and pavers used to fill in the pool (and demolished an old deck for potential bobcat access, but ended up DIY).

[Steve57]

I still have another 150 m2 of yard to cover, which was the concrete and pavers used to fill in the pool (and demolished an old deck for potential bobcat access, but ended up DIY).

That’s nearly enough area to build a hole on which to use the whiffle balls!

[WBennett]

Looks great Dotty!

[Captain Nemo]

Just launching a few hot dots into neighbours yards Dotty, nice!

[markTHEblake]

Birdie balls should be better feeling at impact than the wiffle balls. I hit mine into a towel hanging on the garden shed with door open.

[BayBum]

I have 'Almost' golf balls and they go alright. Have never hit a birdie ball so can't compare it to them.

[Johnny Canuck]

Nice work Dotty

[LarryLong]

Nice work Dotty, looks like the sand scrape at the front should be good to go soon too.

[Dotty]

Thanks for all the compliments.

Putting green still going well, survived wind and rain without an issue. I can't wait for someone else to check the 'realism' of the speed. (I'm biased and already forgotten what a grass green rolls like.)
2% slope down the long side is good. With hindsight, I could have made the deck 2.4m wide, to allow standing off the green and make full use in all directions.
I was tempted to build another with a 4% slope across the green, but at approx. $1200 per green, it could be a costly folly.

Instead, I built a practice net to absorb the velocity of the whiffle balls driven into the side of the house. Thin sleepers, a bag of concrete, a bird net and hardware leftovers, including 40mm PVC pipe dug out from the pool.

Photos later, when I work out how to take photos on a smartphone, that don't end up sideways. (I hate technology.)

[markTHEblake]

I have 'Almost' golf balls and they go alright. Have never hit a birdie ball so can't compare it to them.

Almost Golf balls go further and are much softer. On the other hand I regularily break the birdie balls. My guess is they typically last 200-300 hits off mats, and probably doesnt help with the odd shank/skull hitting a pole. I had never broken one hitting from grass. I still prefer them.

[Dotty]

Back on the course in NSW from tomorrow, so backyard golf practice area got condensed down to a 2m x 7m footprint.
It's been a good boredom beater for the last 3 months, especially finally doing something where I filled in the pool in 2017.

Good points ... roll, speed and slope of the practice green with 2% slope and 12mm Tuff Turf. Using mini-decks meant easy reconfiguration as better ideas came along (or future non-golf use). Bird net works surprisingly well with SKLZ whiffle balls, without the expense/effort/risk of proper golf netting (and pick-up dispersion is better than originally bouncing them off a wall 5m away).

Less-than-good ... lack of a bunker and chipping area for regular golf balls. (My choice, like backyard cricket with a hard ball, embarrassing property damage would be inevitable). New configuration of practice mat hits directly into morning sun, but glass half full, this means no longer hit towards floodlights on house = practice after sunset without being blinded. Originally, PITA of retrieving balls from under the decks.

fyi. Total cost of putting green came to around $1200.
Hitting deck/net used donated mats and leftovers from past projects, and another hundred'ish at Bunnings.
Plus pro-rata cost of paint, leaf mulch and sleeper edging.

[3Puttpete]

Amd you learned how to post photos up the right way.