Your Golf Room — Prepared for James
Prepared for James · August 2026
One room, two jobs: golf studio by day, Sky sports lounge by night.
You said you need everything, mate — enclosure, screen, mat, projector and launch monitor — with a projector that also runs the telly, and a monitor that works for both kids, one a lefty and one a righty. This is that full package: three complete options, every cost on the table down to the HDMI cable, and a clear recommendation for the £5k launch-monitor line you set.
A 90-second look at the Garmin Approach R50 — the all-in-one unit I'd build your room around.
Your 4.75m × 3.1m study is a proper fit
From your architect's ground-floor drawing: a 4.75m long by 3.1m wide study, with the new stairs to one side. Because you're building it, the one dimension that usually causes grief — ceiling height — is yours to set. That changes everything for the better.
The room everything shares — including your TV
The enclosure, screen and projector are the parts you see and hear every day, in golf mode and in Sky mode — so they don't change between the three options below. The projector is a proper laser home-cinema unit with HDMI in: plug your Sky box or a Fire Stick straight into it and the same screen that shows Augusta shows the football. And because the recommended launch monitor has its own built-in screen and drives the projector directly, there's no PC to buy — nothing else is hiding in this list.
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| SimSpace Sim 1 enclosure 2.6 × 2.5 × 1.5m — steel frame, netting & the 3-layer 4K Platinum impact screen, all included · the clean, contained answer to "should I just pad the walls?" — proper ball containment and a tensioned screen the kids can't damage | £1,299.01 |
| SimSpace hitting mat durable strike surface that takes iron shots all day and protects the floor below | £200.00 |
| BenQ AH500ST short-throw laser projector + floor case this is also your television, so it's not the place to save — 1080p laser, 20,000+ hour life, no lamp to replace, HDMI in for Sky | £1,849.00 |
| HDMI 2.1 cable, 10m a full-bandwidth run from the launch monitor to the projector — keeps the picture sharp for golf and for sport | £29.99 |
| Foundation total | £3,378.00 |
Why the full enclosure, not padded walls
You asked whether you could skip the net and just pad the walls out. You can go screen-and-frame only — but you'd still be buying a screen and a frame to hang it on, and you'd lose the netting that catches mishits and the tidy, finished look. For a family room the kids will use, the Sim 1 enclosure is the safer and, once you've added the bits back, barely-costlier answer. It's included above.
Three launch monitors — all inside your £5k line
You called it at "£5k tops," and all three units below come in under that — the difference is what kind of room you want. As you spend more you get more accurate data and richer software; but for a family room that's also the sports lounge, the most expensive isn't the best. Here's how I'd rank them for your use, most-recommended first.
Why the R50 wins for your room
The other two are more accurate instruments — but they both need a separate gaming PC, and they turn a family room into a bit of a project. The R50 needs none of that: screen built in, plug into the projector, both kids set up with their own hand, done. For a room that has to be simple enough to switch on for the football and get golf out of on a wet Sunday, that simplicity is the feature. If a serious single-figure golfer emerges in the family later, the GC3S is the natural upgrade — and the whole foundation, screen and projector stay exactly as they are.
What you can play, and what it costs
Each unit runs its own software, and this is where hidden costs usually hide — so here it is in full. Every option plays from day one; the rows show what's free and what each upgrade costs per year.
| Software route | Garmin R50 | Foresight GC3S | FlightScope Mevo Gen2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Included / free from day one what you can play at switch-on | Home Tee Hero built in range, practice & skills free on the unit's own screen — no PC | Full FSX suite included FSX Play + practice, unlocked at purchase, no subscription ever (runs on the PC) | FlightScope app free ball & club data on a phone or tablet |
| Full course play, the brand's own way the flagship experience per unit | Garmin membership ~£100/yr unlocks 43,000+ courses & online play in Home Tee Hero — still no PC | Nothing to buy full course play is in the included FSX | E6 Connect ~£240–£480/yr via FlightScope's Pro package |
| GSPro — the community favourite 200,000+ courses, best physics · £200/yr · needs a PC | Optional later would need a sim PC added (~£1,199) + £200/yr — most R50 owners happily stay on Home Tee Hero | ~£200/yr supported through the included FSX licence — PC already in this build | ~£200/yr PC already in this build |
You only ever need one paid route, and you can switch or cancel any year. The GC3S never needs a subscription at all if you stay on its included FSX software.
The 5-year and 10-year picture — nothing hidden
| Option | Complete upfront | 5-year total | 10-year total | ≈ per year over 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The All-in-One · Garmin R50 | £7,677.00 | £8,177.00 | £8,677.00 | £868 |
| The Serious Data Room · GC3S | £8,567.00 | £9,567.00 | £10,567.00 | £1,057 |
| The Value Build · Mevo Gen2 | £5,776.00 | £6,776.00 | £7,776.00 | £778 |
Subscriptions included above: the R50 on a ~£100/yr Garmin membership for full course play; the GC3S and Mevo on GSPro at ~£200/yr. Run the GC3S on its included FSX instead and its 10-year figure drops by £2,000. For context, this room is also your cinema and your Sky sports lounge — one build doing the job of three.
- No lamp replacements. The AH500ST is laser-driven, rated 20,000+ hours — years of golf and football with nothing to change.
- One wear item. The impact screen; a replacement is ~£400 down the line, not a rebuild.
- Delivery in 3–5 days once your room is ready — which lines up nicely with building over the next six months.
Two kids, two hands — and the telly
Which unit works for a lefty and a righty?
All of them — that's the good news. Every launch monitor here reads a left-handed and a right-handed swing; the only difference is a profile you switch between. You set one up for each of them once in the software and from then on the kids just pick their name and play. The one physical thing that matters is a centred hitting position, so neither of them is crowded against a side wall — and your 3.1m width gives a centred 2.6m enclosure exactly that, with room to spare on both sides.
Will the projector really do Sky and sport?
Yes. The BenQ AH500ST is a 1080p laser home-cinema projector with a standard HDMI input — a Sky Q box, a Fire Stick or an Apple TV plugs straight in, and the same impact screen that shows the course shows the match. Laser means it fires up fast and there's no bulb to replace. With the sofa at the stair end facing the screen, the room is a genuine sports lounge the moment you're not hitting balls.
Let's get 20 minutes on a video call
You're building this once, so before you commit, let's jump on a quick call — I'll show you each option on screen, run the software live, and we can pressure-test the room layout against your builder's drawing together. Just reply to my email with a couple of times that suit you over the next week and I'll set it up. Any questions before then, fire them over.