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 configurable route: several enclosure families, custom sizing on selected models, screen choices, and DIY kits you can order with or without a pipe framing kit. GoSports sells fixed sizes, with enclosures and cage-style systems built around a known footprint. For an awkward room, Carl's Place gives you more to work with. If a standard GoSports size fits, you can buy its frame and screen together, but still need to check swing clearance and equipment positions.
Carl's Place: sized to the room
Carl's Place sells DIY, Pro, and curved enclosure kits plus a Built-In Golf Room kit, with custom sizing down to the inch. Carl's Place enclosure comparison. That matters when a low ceiling, a narrow wall, a support column, garage hardware, or a doorway rules out a stock footprint.
With the DIY line you can source the EMT pipe yourself or buy the matched pipe kit. Compare the delivered pipe-kit price with local pipe and cutting costs. Pipes are a separate purchase unless you add the framing kit. Carl's Place DIY kit contents.
GoSports: the room fits the box
GoSports builds its enclosures and cage-style systems to published dimensions. The standard 10-by-8-foot simulator enclosure, for example, is 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 plus sufficient hitting distance. GoSports standard 10-by-8 enclosure.
That is the enclosure footprint, not the whole hitting bay. Allow for the golfer's swing, the launch monitor's placement, and the screen's movement as well. The fixed frame dimensions don't adapt to a column or a garage-door rail.
Outside dimensions go on the plan
A product called 10 x 8 won't necessarily take up 10 by 8 feet. Frame depth, fittings, flare, padding, and the way the screen attaches can all make the installed footprint bigger than the name.
Carl's Place tells buyers to work from the actual outer dimensions and leave buffer space around the enclosure. GoSports' 10 x 8 enclosure comes out 10 feet 7 inches wide once assembled. Those outside measurements are the ones to draw in before you order. Carl's Place outer-dimension and buffer guidance.
The GoSports product image labels a 5-foot enclosure body plus an additional 1-foot wall standoff built into the frame; use the full published 6-foot depth on your plan. GoSports full-depth diagram.
Rear gaps don't transfer between brands
Carl's Place gives its DIY kit a recommended rear gap and a smaller minimum set by the rear fittings. Carl's Place DIY clearance guidance. GoSports uses different screen and net arrangements from product to product, so a Carl's Place wall gap tells you nothing about a GoSports install.
The gap behind the screen affects how far it moves, how balls rebound, and whether the frame can even be assembled in the room. Take it from the manual for the enclosure you actually buy.
What's in the box
Neither brand's name tells you the contents. Look for pipe, padding, side protection, screen, projector mount, mat, launch monitor, and accessories on the list. Both sell replacement parts, so see which pieces you can buy separately later.
The GoSports US store lists the standard 10-by-8 enclosure at $999.99 as a one-time hardware purchase; it shows no sale reduction for that model. The frame and impact screen are included, but the launch monitor and projector are not. Confirm sales tax and any delivery charge at checkout. GoSports standard enclosure price and contents.
GoSports also sells a separate 10-by-8 enclosure with shank nets. Its price and specifications should not be substituted for those of the standard model above. GoSports enclosure range.