Projector vs TV for a Golf Simulator: Which Should You Fit?

A projector can give a lovely bright picture right up until about four in the afternoon, when low sun comes through a window or roof light nobody thought about, and the image starts to look like a photocopy of a photocopy. A blackout blind fixes it. That is the whole projector-versus-TV argument in one example: neither is simply "better", it depends entirely on the room you're putting it in.

Below is how I'd decide between a projector on an impact screen and a big 4K telly behind a net, plus what each one really costs once you add the bits people forget.

The real question isn't projector or TV — it's what your room does the rest of the day

A golf simulator display has to survive a golf swing three feet away and still look good. That's a very different job from a home cinema. Before you fixate on lumens or inches, answer one thing honestly: can you get your hitting space properly dark when you want to play? If yes, a projector wins comfortably. If the space is a shared garden room, a garage that doubles as a gym, or anywhere with windows you can't cover, a TV starts to make a lot more sense. Everything else follows from that.

Image size: the projector's home advantage

This is the one a TV can't win. A projector will happily throw a picture 2.5 to 3 metres wide, which fills the full width of a standard enclosure and gives you that wrap-around feel where the ball genuinely looks like it's flying into the distance. A 75-inch TV is about 1.66m wide; an 85-inch is around 1.88m. A 2.5m projected image is more than double the viewing area of that 75-inch screen. When you're standing at address, that difference is the gap between "playing a course" and "watching a course on the telly in the corner". If immersion is why you're building a sim, the projector is doing something the TV physically cannot.

Image quality and brightness: where the TV walks it

Flip it round and the TV takes an easy win on raw picture. A modern 65 to 75-inch 4K panel is brighter, sharper and holds its contrast in a lit room in a way no affordable projector manages. Projectors fight ambient light for a living — get any daylight or a bright bulb landing on the screen and the blacks turn grey and the whole thing washes out. You can beat that, but it costs: a 3,000-lumen-plus projector, or a high-contrast grey screen instead of a plain white one.

That grey-screen point matters more than most people realise. The SimSpace UltraMAX enclosure (£1,499.99) comes with a high-contrast grey screen exactly because it claws back contrast in rooms that aren't pitch black — it's the closest a projector setup gets to behaving like a TV in daylight. If your room can be blacked out anyway, a bright white screen on the SimSpace Sim 5 enclosure (£1,299) gives you punchier, more vivid colour.

The bit nobody costs properly: the impact screen

Here's where the projector path quietly gets more expensive, and where I see the most mistakes. You cannot project onto a garden net or a bedsheet and expect it to last — you need a proper impact screen built to take a driver strike and give you a flat, taut surface for the image. That's a real line on the invoice.

The SimSpace Elite Impact Screen is £199.99 and is the sensible starting point for most home builds. Step up to the SimSpace Platinum Impact Screen at £399.99 for a tighter weave, a smoother picture and a longer life under heavy use. If bounce-back and noise are your worry — a common one in an attached garage — the Close Knit Baffle Impact Screen at £236 softens the return and dampens the thwack. None of that applies to the TV path, and that's the honest trade: the projector's bigger picture comes bundled with a screen you have to buy and hang properly.

What it actually costs, end to end

People compare the projector price to the TV price and stop there. Cost it properly and it's closer than you'd think — the projector just spreads its spend across more parts.

Add it up and a sensible projector build and a big-TV build land within a couple of hundred pounds of each other. Cost is rarely the thing that decides it — the room is.

Installation and the room you've actually got

A TV is the simpler job by a mile: mount it, run one HDMI cable, done in under an hour, no calibration. A projector needs mounting in the right spot, cabling routed cleanly, and aligning so the image sits square on the screen without keystone distortion. It's not hard, but it's a proper afternoon's work and it wants a permanent home. The other thing people miss is throw distance. A standard projector mounted on the ceiling needs clear space between it and the screen, and in a low garden room that's often exactly where your club is at the top of the backswing. A short-throw or ultra-short-throw unit sits close to the screen and solves that — it's what I recommend for most UK garden rooms and garages, because the ceilings are rarely generous.

Ball strikes, safety and the TV problem

An impact screen is designed to be hit — that's its entire job, and a decent one shrugs off thousands of drives. A TV is not, and this is the risk people underrate. Put a telly in a golf sim and you must have a net or a full cage between the ball and the screen, and if the panel sits anywhere near the firing line I'd add a polycarbonate shield on top. A mishit off the toe can spray sideways and a shanked drive can go almost anywhere; one bad strike and a £900 TV is scrap. The net that keeps it safe also sits in your eyeline, so you trade a little immersion for that protection. With a projector, the thing you're hitting and the thing you're watching are the same surface — cleaner, and safer for your wallet.

The PC still has to drive it

Whichever display you pick, something has to run the simulator software and push a clean picture to it — and this is where budgets quietly blow up. Course rendering is genuinely demanding; an underpowered laptop stutters, drops frames and ruins the immersion you paid for. I supply a sim-spec gaming laptop at £1,750 built specifically to drive GSPro and the like at a smooth frame rate on a big image, precisely so this doesn't become the weak link. The display gets the attention; the machine behind it is what makes it feel real.

What I'd fit

If you've got a room you can black out and you want the sim to feel like the real thing, go projector — a short-throw unit onto a SimSpace impact screen inside a proper enclosure. That's the setup I recommend most often. If your space has windows you can't cover, gets shared with the rest of the family, or you just want it up and running this weekend with zero fuss, put a 75-inch 4K TV behind a full cage and enjoy it. Don't agonise over which is "best in the world" — pick the one that matches the room you're standing in, and spend the difference on a launch monitor and a decent mat instead.

FAQ

Can I use a projector in a room with windows?

Yes, but only if you can cover them. Blackout blinds are the cheap fix. Without them you're relying on a very bright (3,000-lumen-plus) projector and ideally a high-contrast grey screen like the one built into the SimSpace UltraMAX enclosure. If you genuinely can't darken the space at all, a TV is the more honest choice.

What size TV do I need for a golf simulator?

65 inches is the sensible minimum, 75 inches is the sweet spot, and 85 inches is lovely if the wall and budget allow. Below 65 inches the image feels small enough that you lose most of the immersion that makes a sim worth having.

Will a golf ball damage a TV?

A direct strike will destroy a consumer TV — they aren't built to be hit. Always run a net or full cage between the ball and the screen, and add a polycarbonate shield if the panel sits close to the hitting area. An impact screen, by contrast, is made to be struck.

How long do projector bulbs last?

A lamp projector runs 3,000–5,000 hours, which at a few hours a week is many years, and a replacement lamp is £50–£150. Laser projectors last 20,000-plus hours and effectively never need a bulb — you pay more up front for zero ongoing cost.

Do I need a short-throw projector?

In most UK garden rooms and garages, yes. A standard long-throw projector needs clear space between it and the screen, which is usually right where your club travels on the backswing. A short-throw or ultra-short-throw unit sits close to the screen and stays out of the swing path — it's what I recommend as standard.

Which gives the more immersive picture?

The projector, comfortably. A 2.5–3m projected image is more than double the area of a 75-inch TV and fills your field of view at address. A TV wins on outright sharpness and brightness, but no affordable panel matches the sheer scale that sells the illusion of being on the course.