In-home set-up. I must have the most understanding wife in the world...

...We got ourselves an OptiShot for Christmas.  Initially intending to just have a small setup, swinging with no ball and seeing results on the laptop screen.  Well, somehow I convinced her to let me expand on that, in our dining room, with the understanding that it be unobtrusive, and easily removeable.

A challenge!

While it requires a little bit of time to setup and take down, usually about 5 minutes, which, isn't a lot of time when you consider I can get 18 holes in in under an hour, it meets her requirements, and mine.

Basically, I found some decent-ply screen material at a local banner-printing shop. $20 for a 8'x10' sheet.  This material holds up perfectly using the restricted-flight, yellow practice balls.

I purchased a 10' wooden dowel from my local big-box lumber store.  Around $10-$15.  A 3'x4' hitting mat and some extra padding material to go beneath it, both to raise my feet to the same level as the OptiShot sensor, and to protect the hardwood flooring in the dining room.  And finally, an inexpensive, and thus far, reliable projector off eBay. Around $175.

I attached the screen material to the dowel using a combination of duct tape (add this to the 1001 uses for duct tape) and staples.  3" screws in either end of the dowel, leaving about an inch extending.  A couple of cup-hooks screwed into ceiling molding to rest the screws in to support the screen while in use.  Makes for easy removal of the screen from the dining room area when directed to do so by the wife.  Otherwise, I just leave it rolled up in-place, ready to use.  Which I do, almost every night.

I just need to move the dining table and chairs into a corner of the dining room, lay down the floor padding and mat, un-roll the screen, and away we go.  Even my wife, who is just taking up the game, enjoys playing, especially since, unlike the $40/hour simulator venues, the sensors pick up just the club motion, not the ball, so, when she occasionally  whiffs, the swing still registers, and she's still in-play :-)

While playing the first few rounds, a slight wrinkle showed up.  Balls hit lower than the screen, the bottom of which is about 2 feet above the floor, would need to be retrieved from the den or the kitchen, or wherever they ended up flying to.  Simple fix was to take some discarded tent screen (I never throw anything away), and attach a strip of it to the bottom of the screen.  Required some grommets and zip-ties to connect them.  Catches those low shots, and the putts (which I can now use a "real" ball for).

It's a tight fit in the dining room, and, I had to go on the diagonal in order to get it to work, but, I am 6'2" and can take a care-free full swing with my driver without fear of hitting anything but the ball (and the occasional cat that ventures into the room to see what's going on).  They've actually figured out where the "safe zones" are, and, except for chasing after the balls and tees that go flying after the swing, they stay clear of the action :-)

One last observation.  The tees that come with the OptiShot are OK, but, not very durable. For as much as I play, the smaller tee quickly became broken.  Rather than $7.95 for a new pair from the vendor (this could become expensive if I wear out a small tee every 2 weeks), I picked up a pack of 50 of those plastic "zero-friction", 3-prong tees for about $8.  I cut about an inch off the bottom for a standard driver tee, more for a par 3 shot, leaving it just long enough so that the tee can rest in the holder with a ball on it at the proper height.  Works like a charm, and, usually these last at least a couple of weeks before I have to dip into the box of 50 for another one.