Guides · Enclosures, mats and hitting surfaces
Carl's Place vs. GoSports: How Do Their Golf Simulator Enclosures Differ?
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Carl's Place is the more configurable route: it offers several enclosure families, custom sizing on selected models, screen choices, and DIY kits that can be ordered with or without a pipe framing kit. GoSports is more package-driven, with fixed-size enclosures and cage-style systems that arrive around a known footprint. If your room is awkward, Carl's Place gives you more ways to work around it. If a standard GoSports size already fits, the simpler package can reduce the amount of measuring and sourcing you have to do.
Carl's Place is built for rooms that need choices
Carl's Place sells DIY, Pro, and curved enclosure kits plus a Built-In Golf Room kit, and it offers custom sizing "down-to-the-inch." That flexibility is useful when a low ceiling, narrow wall, support column, garage hardware, or doorway makes an off-the-shelf footprint inefficient.
The DIY line also lets you source the EMT pipe yourself or buy a matched pipe kit. That can save shipping or help with a custom build, but it also puts more responsibility on you to measure correctly and order the right configuration.
GoSports is easier to understand as a fixed package
GoSports sells enclosures and cage-style systems around published dimensions. Its 10-by-8-foot simulator enclosure, for example, measures 10 feet 7 inches wide, 8 feet high, and 6 feet deep with a 4:3 screen, and GoSports recommends a room with a 9-foot ceiling.
That is simple to plan if those dimensions work in your room. The tradeoff is that the enclosure is not being tailored around the room; the room has to accommodate the package.
Use the outside dimensions, not the product name
A product called “10 x 8” does not necessarily occupy exactly 10 by 8 feet. Frame depth, fittings, flare, padding, and screen attachment can all make the installed footprint larger than the name suggests.
Carl's Place explicitly tells buyers to work from the actual outer dimensions and to leave buffer space around the enclosure. GoSports' "10 x 8" enclosure is itself 10 feet 7 inches wide once assembled. Put those outside measurements on the floor plan before you order.
Rear clearance is not interchangeable between brands
Carl's Place gives its DIY kit a recommended rear gap and a smaller minimum set by the rear fittings. GoSports uses different screen and net arrangements depending on the product, so there is no reason to copy a Carl's Place wall gap into a GoSports installation.
Follow the manual for the exact enclosure you buy. Rear clearance affects screen movement, rebound, and whether the frame can physically be assembled in the room.
Compare the complete purchase, not just the enclosure price
Neither brand name tells you everything that is in the box. Check whether pipe, padding, side protection, screen, projector mount, mat, launch monitor, or other accessories are included. Both brands sell replacement parts, so check which pieces can be bought separately later.
GoSports lists its 10-by-8 enclosure at $999.99, with no launch monitor or projector included.