Turf for a home golf simulator: what people actually buy

Who this is for

You have a slab in a garage or basement, a hitting mat picked or owned, and bare concrete between it and the screen. You want the ball to stop bouncing back, the mat flush instead of proud, and maybe something to putt on. Budget runs from a couple hundred dollars of big-box turf to a few thousand for a floor system. The mat itself is its own guide.

Turf is a floor, not a mat

The mat takes the club; the turf takes the ball and your feet. The threads sort turf into four layers, and pile height is the sort key: 3/8 in putts, 1/2 in lands, 1 in looks like a fairway, 15 mm is the Amazon roll class, and 1.75 in is landscape turf no sim source uses.

Landing turf

Between mat and screen, 1/2 to 1 in pile, to stop the bounce and look like grass. From $1.98 per sq ft at Home Depot (unverified, below) to about $10.70 for an enclosure-matched pad. Trade-off: not a putting speed, and big-box rolls are 6 ft wide, so a wider bay gets a seam.

Putting turf

Texturized nylon, 3/8 to 1/2 in, on a 15 ft roll, published stimp 9 to 13. Resellers charge $3.99 to about $12 per sq ft; dealer remnants run $1.50 to $2. Trade-off: full shots wear the strike zone, so you still inset a mat or strip.

Underlay

What sits between slab and turf: EVA gym tiles, rubber stall mats or rolls, rigid foam capped with plywood, or a 2x4 and plywood platform. GolfingSim (April 2026) puts foam at about $1.50 per sq ft and rubber at $3.50. The trade-off is bounce and firmness against cost and weight.

Tiles

Foam tiles are the base, not the surface: Carl's 1.25 in, Rain or Shine's 3/4 in, SimTurf's 5/8 and 1 in. Turf-topped tiles barely appear. All-in-one panel floors (SIGPRO, Pro Putt bases) bundle base, turf and strip at $11 to $34 per sq ft.

The products people actually buy

The list below is the reference bag for this category: every product that kept coming up across the threads, reviews and videos we read, grouped by sub-shape, with the list price and the date it was read, the maker's specs, and one thread worth reading before you buy. Open any item for the pros, cons and known issues people report.

Every product below has at least five independent sources; two marked thin clear five mostly on reseller listings.

Putting turf

SYNLawn Precision Putt. 3/8 in nylon, 15 ft roll, stimp 10 to 12.5; $1,810 for 15 by 10 ft at Indoor Golf Outlet on October 19, 2026. The forum's cheaper route is dealer remnants at $1.50 to $2 per sq ft (February 2023); dealer prices vary. SYNLawn golf turf.

GrassTex Money Putt. One nylon putting turf sold under four names (below): $4.55 per sq ft plus $299 freight at Shop Indoor Golf on October 19, 2026; $640 per 15 by 5 there and at Rain or Shine; $1,040 as STI NP45 at Indoor Golf Outlet. Resellers disagree on pile and weight, so read the Greatmats spec sheet. Known issue: full shots wear the strike zone. Money Putt at Shop Indoor Golf.

Pro Putt Systems TourPutt. Bulk nylon, 0.5 in, 15 ft rolls, stimp 11 ft 3 in plus; $5.37 per sq ft on October 19, 2026, 150 sq ft minimum, freight extra. Its base panels ($11 to $34 per sq ft plus freight) set the mat flush by design. Known issue: pile and face weight are not on the bulk page. Pro Putt bulk turf.

STI NP50 and NP55. Texturized nylon with a heavy rubber back, same Dalton, Georgia mill family as Money Putt; PL306 adds a 5 mm foam back for bare concrete. From $1,125 per 15 by 5 at Indoor Golf Outlet on October 19, 2026. Known issue: several names for one product confuse price comparison. No STI page found; NP50 at Indoor Golf Outlet.

Petgrow and Petgrow Pro. The sub-$100 Amazon putting strip: about $70 for 3 by 10 ft in a spring 2020 forum purchase; no current price read. About 1/4 in pile, near 12 stimp per a forum reviewer. Known issue: seams on a full floor, creasing from shipping. No maker page or confirmed ASIN; the link is the forum review.

Big Moss for Carl's DIY (thin). Pre-cut and hemmed to Carl's enclosure sizes, 3/8 in pile, 13 stimp down grain, with cups and break pads; $2,040 for the 10 ft wide size at Indoor Golf Outlet on October 19, 2026. Known issue: pile and backing not published on Carl's page. Big Moss turf at Carl's Place.

Landing turf

TrafficMaster at Home Depot. Putting Green, 6 ft wide, cut to length; also 12 ft Fescue and 6 ft Grizzly Grass. The $1.98 per sq ft price is unverified: Home Depot blocks bots, so it is the search snippet of the live listing on October 19, 2026. A forum DIY stimp test read 10. Known issue: store and online SKUs differ in price, and 6 ft width means a seam. TrafficMaster Putting Green.

GoSports Elite 15 mm. The parcel-shipped landing strip: $249.99 for 15 by 6 ft, $199.99 for 12 by 6, on playgosports.com October 19, 2026. Every piece is 6 ft deep, a strip rather than a floor, no published stimp. Known issue: its sources are affiliate roundups; the one forum mention swapped GoSports for a cheaper brand. GoSports Elite turf.

SIG landing pad (thin). 1/2 in nylon sized to SIG enclosures: the SIG10 pad, 10 ft 6 in by 8 ft, was $899.99 on October 19, 2026; custom cuts are $4.55 per sq ft plus $299 freight, 3 to 5 weeks, non-returnable. Known issue: SIG lists Money Putt pile at 1/2 in where Greatmats and Rain or Shine list 3/8. SIG10 landing pad.

Underlay

Interlocking EVA foam tiles. The default DIY base, in 15 sources: BalanceFrom, Meister, ProsourceFit, 1/2 to 1.5 in. Meister 1.5 in ran about $569 per 144 sq ft (forum, March 2023); Rain or Shine's 3/4 in tile was $29 on October 19, 2026. Known issue: tile edges telegraph through thin turf; one build capped them with 3/8 in plywood. No maker page for a generic tile; BalanceFrom 1 in on Amazon, price not read.

Rubber base. 4 by 6 ft stall mats (3/4 in, about 100 lb each) or 3/8 to 1/2 in rubber rolls, about $3.50 per sq ft per GolfingSim (April 2026). Dead, stable under a hitting mat where foam is not, and it survives a car. Known issues: weight, smell when fresh, and stacking two to meet a 1.5 in Fiberbuilt doubles the weight. No single maker page; Rubber Flooring Inc is a category site.

Rigid foam capped with plywood. FOAMULAR 150 or generic XPS and EPS, 1 to 1.5 in, under 3/8 in plywood or 1/2 in OSB: the Triple Bogey Golf and Rogue Engineer method. Under $300 of 1.5 in foam covered about 220 sq ft (forum, October 2022). Known issue: never uncapped under the hitting zone, since club impact flakes it, and the thread that proposed it never reported a final build. Owens Corning FOAMULAR 150.

Tiles and floor systems

Carl's Place Golf Room Floor Tile System. 1.25 in interlocking foam tiles, 40.25 in square, with tapered edges and corners; $229.95 per 5-pack (about 56 sq ft), edges $109.95 per 6, on October 19, 2026. 1.25 in puts most hitting mats flush without stacking. Known issue: foam type and density are not published. Carl's floor tiles.

SIGPRO Golf Simulator Flooring. The whole floor in one box: 2 in panels, 3/8 in putting turf at stimp 9 to 10, a replaceable hitting strip, 2.375 in tall; $3,919.99 in the SIG10 size, $3,359.99 to $4,399.99 across sizes, October 19, 2026. Known issues: a 2.375 in floor needs an edge transition; one of ten reviews is one-star, content not read. SIGPRO flooring.

Watch list

Four products came up fewer than five times: Turf Factory Direct Putting Elite (7/16 in nylon, $3.99 per sq ft on October 19, 2026; the cheapest nylon the forum has pointed people to), Rain or Shine's landing pads ($349 to $780), BirdieBall's portable green ($810 base), and Costco's PreGra, which no sim builder in our sources uses: 1.75 in landscape pile that requires infill is not a sim surface.

What the forum argues about

Foam under the turf. Half the forum lays EVA gym tiles and calls it settled; the March 2026 Garage Sim Build thread has one builder on five years of 1 in puzzle mats. The other half says foam is spongy and raises the bounce; a reply in the August 2020 DIY Turf Setup thread found balls bounced twice as high over gym tiles and went back to concrete. GolfingSim's line (April 2026): never foam under the hitting mat itself; put the mat on rubber or plywood.

One turf, four names. GrassTex Money Putt is sold as TIGS Money Putt, RoS Money Putt, STI NP45 and Money Putt; in October 2021 GungHo Golf confirmed on the forum that NP45 and Money Putt come off the same Dalton, Georgia line. The same 15 by 5 roll was $640 at two resellers and $1,040 at a third on October 19, 2026, and their spec sheets disagree on pile, weight and stimp.

Stimp. Sim putting turf publishes 9 to 13; a forum member's hand test put TrafficMaster Putting Green at 10, Grizzly Grass at 11, cheap Garland grass at 9. The Turf Recommendations rule: if the mat covers the strike zone and you will not putt, any turf is fine; if you will putt, pay $4 or more per foot for nylon. Several builders who started on Home Depot turf later bought nylon.

Infill. Sim putting turf is sold with none (Money Putt, Pro Putt, SYNLawn indoors); sand brushed in speeds it up, a dial not a requirement in the November 2018 large-turf thread. Greatmats' Perfect Putt and Costco's PreGra require infill, which is why sim builders skip them.

Static. Perfectly Green's August 2023 note: static is normal on new synthetic grass, worst in the first months, unusual after six; a wetting agent or diluted fabric softener treats it. Not a defect.

How much to buy for a 10 by 15 ft bay, and what goes under it

Rolls are 15 ft wide. Every nylon putting turf here ships on a 15 ft roll, so a 10 by 15 ft bay is one seamless 15 by 10 piece: buy 10 running feet and lay it sideways. On October 19, 2026 that was about $683 plus $299 freight for Money Putt at Shop Indoor Golf or $980 at Rain or Shine, about $599 plus shipping for TFD Putting Elite, $805.50 plus freight for Pro Putt bulk, and $1,810 for SYNLawn. Home Depot's 6 ft rolls need two 6 by 15 strips (180 sq ft, about $356 unverified) with one seam. Add 5 to 10 percent and plan the cutout before ordering; GSA says 12 by 48 in is typical.

Under it on concrete, five answers that do not agree. Bare slab: cheap, loud, bouncy. EVA tiles: 38 two-foot tiles. Carl's tiles: about 14 (three 5-packs, about $690). Rubber: seven 4 by 6 stall mats, about 700 lb. Rigid foam: five 4 by 8 sheets capped with five sheets of 3/8 in plywood. A 2x4 and 3/4 in plywood platform is the Carl's and GSA answer when the slab is uneven; Carl's adds a vapor barrier in basements and garages. One garage builder's reminder: the screen, not the floor, is the main source of bounce.

Stack math: a Fiberbuilt 4 by 7 is 1.5 in, a SIG Softy 2 to 2.375 in, a Country Club Elite about 3/4 in; SimTurf's 5/8 in tile plus 3/8 in turf equals 1 in. The forum rule: you can add a thicker strip later; you can never make the floor thinner. Acclimate the roll, trim with a utility knife, tape seams on lighter turf; heavy nylon lies flat unglued.

The costs nobody prints

Freight: $200 to $300 per roll on the forum, $299 flat at Shop Indoor Golf, $300 at Rain or Shine. Workarounds are Home Depot's free ship-to-store, local dealer remnants, and stall mats bought locally.

The base: about $569 of Meister tiles (2023) or about $690 of Carl's, plus a plywood cap no source priced.

The second purchase: several builders went Home Depot turf to nylon; the Sim Weekly garage (July 2025) went Home Depot to BirdieBall.

The strike zone: full shots off putting turf wear it; a strip inset now is cheaper than replacing a seamless 15 by 10 later.

Software: our research notes record one ProTee VX owner who had to match the sim's green speed to the floor.

If the bay has to fold away

If the car comes back, the floor is the part of the sim that does not fold. Driveway turf makers (CBA Sports 2026, Turf Kingz December 2024) say occasional parking is fine, drive straight on, never turn the wheels on turf, and daily parking flattens fibers and compacts the pile. None of that is sim putting turf, and no source tested a car on foam-backed putting turf.

The March 2021 Ideas on garage flooring thread shows what garages do: rubber rolls in the tire path, glued carpet tiles a car parks on, turf rolled up and hoisted to the ceiling, tarps, Swisstrax. The Hook Up's video stows the whole sim into the ceiling; BirdieBall sells a green you lift out. The layout: hard floor where the tires go, turf only in the lane, nothing foam-backed under a tire.

A fold-flat enclosure such as StowGolf is the enclosure half of that layout: 10 ft wide, 5 ft deep, 7 ft 6 in to the screen top, freestanding, folds flat against the wall, so it stays in the bay while the car parks on the hard floor; list $2,495, the first 25 at $2,295, a $100 refundable reservation holds a slot. The floor under it is still yours to solve. Disclosure: Brett Martin runs Teed and builds StowGolf.

Sources

All read October 19, 2026. Forum threads first.

1. Turf Recommendations · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2023 · Money Putt, remnants, TrafficMaster; the putt-or-not rule.
2. What did you do about large turf in sim room? · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2018 · 15 ft rolls, seamless rooms, sand infill.
3. Foam board insulation under turf?? · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2022 to 2023 · rigid foam vs EVA; Meister pricing.
4. Flooring between Screen and Mat · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2019 to 2020 · the DIY stimp test; the screen as bounce source.
5. Turf between the stance mat and screen · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2018 · budget turf, STI PL306, the $600 remnant quote.
6. Turf Flooring · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2021 to 2022 · unglued turf over EVA, no spikes.
7. DIY Turf Setup? · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2020 · the Pro Putt quote; gym tiles doubling the bounce.
8. Garage Sim Build: Flooring build · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2026 · nine years on EPS, five on puzzle mats.
9. Ideas on garage flooring · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2021 · the car-still-parks thread.
10. Preparing for sim build flooring / turf options · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2024 · the GoSports swap.
11. flooring (not the hitting or stance mat) · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2016 to 2017 · STI through a rep; stall mats.
12. Are STI NP45 and Grass Tex Money Putt the same? · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2021 · same facility, per GungHo Golf.
13. Hitting full shots off of putting turf instead of a mat? · golfsimulatorforum.com · forum · 2018 · a real mat, cheaper putting turf.
14. Golf Simulator Flooring Guide · Carl's Place · brand · undated · subfloors, vapor barrier, trimming.
15. Rubber, turf, foam or hardwood for a sim room · GolfingSim · review · Apr 2026 · per sq ft costs; no foam under the mat.
16. DIY golf simulator: the ultimate home build · Rogue Engineer · review · Jul 2026 · turf over FOAMULAR 150.
17. Is this the coolest garage sim · Sim Weekly · review · Jul 2025 · Home Depot turf to BirdieBall.
18. Flooring DIY with foam board, EVA/rubber and turf · Triple Bogey Golf · video · undated · the XPS build-up.
19. Garage golf simulator without sacrificing parking · The Hook Up · video · undated · a sim that stows into the ceiling.
20. Can you drive on artificial turf? · Turf Kingz · review · Dec 2024 · never turn the wheels on turf.
21. Static electricity and artificial grass · Perfectly Green · review · Aug 2023 · first-six-months static.

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Every product above is also in the reference bag so you can add it to your own setup with one click. If you have built a sim and want it on Teed, add yours.