Will It Fit? Retractable Golf Simulator Room Calculator
A retractable screen either fits the room you have or it does not, and the only way to find out is to measure. This page does the arithmetic for you using the real dimensions of the Fairway system rather than generic golf simulator advice. Put in six measurements and it returns a size, a deployed footprint, and, when something does not work, the exact measurement causing the problem and what you could change about it.
There is a commercial reason to take this seriously. The Fairway 12 is a stocked size and ships in 5 to 10 business days. The Fairway 8, Fairway 10 and Fairway 14 are made to order, take 8 to 10 weeks to build, and are final sale. A made to order screen that does not fit your room cannot be returned. Measure twice, run the numbers here, then send them to us and we will check them by hand for free before you spend anything.
Before you measure
Use a steel tape, not a laser bounced off a curtain, and write the numbers down in feet and inches. Three measurements do almost all of the work: the usable wall width, the height to the lowest thing hanging over the hitting area, and the depth of the room from that wall. Measure the wall in at least three places, at floor level, at roughly seven feet, and at the height where the housing will actually mount. Rooms are rarely square. Use the smallest number you get, never the average.
Room fit calculator
Sizing reference tables
Nothing in the calculator is hidden. These are the same thresholds it applies, published so the page is useful with a tape measure, a printout, and no JavaScript at all.
1. Wall width required by size
| Model | Nominal screen | Wall width needed | Price | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairway 8 | 8 ft | About 8 ft 4 in (approximate) | $2,399 | Made to order, 8 to 10 weeks, final sale |
| Fairway 10 | 10 ft | About 10 ft 4 in (approximate) | $2,649 | Made to order, 8 to 10 weeks, final sale |
| Fairway 12 | 12 ft | 12 ft 4 in, measured at 148 1/16 in outside bracket to outside bracket | $2,899 | Ships in 5 to 10 business days |
| Fairway 14 | 14 ft | About 14 ft 4 in (approximate) | $3,149 | Made to order, 8 to 10 weeks, final sale |
| Custom width | Quoted | Send the wall measurement | Quoted | Quoted |
Only the Fairway 12 figure is documented from a real measured assembly. The other three apply the same roughly 4 in allowance beyond nominal and are approximate. Confirm your exact requirement with us before ordering, especially on a made to order width that cannot be returned.
2. Clear height above the hitting area
| Height to lowest obstruction | What you can realistically do |
|---|---|
| 9 ft or more | Full swing clearance for most golfers, driver included. |
| 8 ft 6 in to 9 ft | Workable for many players. Expect to shorten the backswing with driver. |
| 8 ft to 8 ft 6 in | Tight. Driver is unlikely. Most players stay with irons. |
| Under 8 ft | Irons and wedges only. Still a useful short game and gapping room, not a full swing bay. |
Height adjustment guideline used by the calculator: add 2 in to every band for a golfer 6 ft 1 in to 6 ft 3 in, add 4 in for a golfer over 6 ft 3 in, subtract 2 in for a golfer under 5 ft 8 in. This is a rule of thumb, not a measured specification. Swing plane and club length vary more than height does.
3. Room depth from the screen wall
| Total depth | Result |
|---|---|
| 15 ft or more | Comfortable with room to spare behind the hitting position. |
| 13 ft to 15 ft | The target range. Bay projects about 9 ft, leaving 4 to 6 ft behind it. |
| 12 ft to 13 ft | Workable. Tight behind you, and you will notice it on a long club. |
| Under 12 ft | Not enough. The deployed bay alone projects about 9 ft from the wall. |
Basis: the motorized side screens run 100 1/2 in out from the wall on a Fairway 12, which puts the deployed bay at roughly 9 ft of projection before you add standing and swinging room.
4. Both handed play by size
| Model | Right and left handed players sharing the bay |
|---|---|
| Fairway 14 | Easy. Both stances have room and the mat can stay where it is. |
| Fairway 12 | Comfortable. Most households never move the mat. |
| Fairway 10 | Usable, with the mat shifted toward one side for the off stance. Estimated, confirm with us. |
| Fairway 8 | Works, but you will slide the mat between right handed and left handed swings. |
What each input means and why it matters
Wall width
A screen assembly is always wider than its screen. The housing, the end brackets and the fasteners all live outside the fabric, and they are what actually touches your wall. On a Fairway 12 the assembly measures 148 1/16 in from the outside of one bracket to the outside of the other. That is 12 ft 4 1/16 in. A 12 ft wall will not accept a 12 ft screen, and the gap is not close enough to force. Allow roughly 4 in beyond the nominal size on every model in the line.
Measure the clear, flat, usable wall, not the room. Baseboard, door and window casing, electrical panels, hose bibs, water heater platforms, shelving standards and pegboard all count against you. If a panel or a valve cannot move, it defines the wall. If something can move cheaply, note what the wall would measure without it, because that number may put you into the next size up and the next size up is generally the better simulator.
Height to the lowest obstruction
This is the input people get wrong most often, because they measure the ceiling. The ceiling is irrelevant if a light fixture, a duct run, a sprinkler head, an exposed beam, a ceiling fan or a garage door rail hangs below it. Golf clubs find the lowest thing in the room. Stand where you would actually hit, look straight up, and measure to whatever is lowest within a rough six foot circle around that spot.
Nine feet of clear height is comfortable for most golfers. Eight feet six inches is workable for many, with a shorter backswing on driver. Below eight feet you are looking at an irons and wedges room, which is a perfectly legitimate way to use a simulator and a very common one, but it is not the same product experience and you should decide that on purpose rather than discover it after delivery.
Room depth
The deployed bay is not flat against the wall. Two motorized side screens swing out to form the enclosure, and on a Fairway 12 they run 100 1/2 in from the wall. Call the projection about nine feet. Everything you do as a golfer happens behind that. You need room to stand, to take a full backswing without touching a wall, and to step back from the mat without turning sideways. Add four to six feet behind the bay. Thirteen to fifteen feet of total depth is comfortable. Twelve feet works and you will feel it.
Golfer height
Height changes the arc. A six foot four player with a forty six inch driver sweeps a noticeably taller path than a five foot six player with a stock shaft, and in a low room that difference is the whole decision. The calculator nudges the ceiling bands by a couple of inches in each direction based on the tallest person who will use the room regularly. Treat that adjustment as a guideline. If you are close to a threshold, the honest answer is to swing a club in the space with the ceiling marked before you buy anything.
Handedness
If one right handed player uses the bay and never anyone else, usable width matters less. The moment a right hander and a left hander share the room, or one player practices from both sides, the mat has to serve two stances that sit on opposite sides of the target line. Width buys you the ability to leave the mat alone. On a Fairway 12 most households never move it. On a Fairway 8 you will be sliding the mat between swings, which is workable but tiresome over a winter.
Garage door track
In a garage the track is usually the lowest thing in the room, and it usually sits well below the ceiling. If the underside of the track is lower than the clear height you need, the track is your binding constraint, not your ceiling, and raising your expectations about the ceiling will not help. This matters because a track is a solvable problem in a way that a concrete slab ceiling is not.
Ceiling structure
The brackets are 3 in by 5 in and they carry a motorized assembly. They must land in studs or joists, or in rated heavy duty toggles sized for the load. Never drywall alone. Brackets are not included with the screen, so you can buy exactly what your framing needs. Dimensional joists are predictable and easy to hit. Engineered trusses are not: they are designed as a system, and you should never notch, cut or drill through a truss member to make a bracket work. Mount to solid chord material and ask a builder if there is any doubt. If you do not know what is up there, find out with a stud finder before you order, not after.
When the garage door track is the problem
If the calculator flags the track as your binding constraint, there are three normal fixes and all of them are handled by a garage door company, not by us.
- Relocate the bay. Put the screen on a wall the track does not cross. This is free and it is the first thing to check.
- Side mount jackshaft opener. Moves the motor off the ceiling and onto the wall beside the door, which clears the opener rail out of the swing path.
- High lift conversion. Raises the horizontal track section so the door stores higher and the rails sit further out of the way. This needs the headroom to exist above the door, so it is not available in every garage.
What is in the box, and what is not
Every price includes two motorized 8 ft side screens and an RF remote. The rear screen is 3 ply. The main housing is 7 in by 7 in and the side housings are 4 in by 4 in. Screens are available up to 11 ft. The system runs on standard 110V. Freight is free to the lower 48 only. The warranty is 2 years on screens only, running from the date of purchase, and it is not transferable. There is no installation service, and brackets are not included.
Final sale, said plainly
The Fairway 12 is a stocked size and ships in 5 to 10 business days. The Fairway 8, Fairway 10 and Fairway 14 are built for your order over 8 to 10 weeks and they are final sale. If one of those arrives and your wall is two inches short, that is not a return, it is a loss. This calculator exists so that does not happen to you. If any number you entered was a guess, treat the result as a guess.
Send us your dimensions and we will check them by hand, free
Give us the wall width, the height to the lowest obstruction, the room depth, and a photo of the wall and the ceiling. We will tell you which size to buy, whether we think the room is worth doing, and when the honest answer is that it is not. No pressure and no cost.
Call or text 817-458-8556
Email admin@summitvantagellc.com