Quick Answer: Size your golf simulator screen by width, not diagonal — Carl’s Place recommends never going narrower than 100 inches wide for a standard bay, matched to your enclosure or net’s inside width. Once you have a width, projector mounting distance follows one formula: throw distance = throw ratio x screen width. A short-throw projector like the BenQ TK710STi (0.69-0.83 ratio) needs about 69-83 inches of distance for a 100-inch-wide screen, while the ultra-short-throw ViewSonic LS711HD (0.49 ratio) needs only about 49 inches. Shop golf impact screens on Amazon.
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Most people sizing a golf simulator screen for the first time make the same mistake: they think in TV terms. A 100-inch home theater screen is measured corner to corner, diagonally. A 100-inch golf simulator screen is measured side to side — because the fabric isn’t just displaying a picture, it’s also the backstop that has to physically catch every mis-hit. Get the two confused and you can end up buying a screen that looks “big enough” on paper but is actually narrower than your hitting area, with the course graphics cropped or stray shots flying past the edge. This guide walks through the width-first formula golfers actually use, then how to translate that width into a projector mounting distance.
Screen-sizing math, by the numbers
- Per Carl’s Place’s own enclosure-sizing guidance, most customers should not go smaller than 100 inches wide by 96 inches high for a standard bay — narrower setups raise the odds a mis-hit clears the edge of the screen entirely.
- Per BenQ’s official projector-mounting guidance, the standard formula is throw distance = throw ratio x screen width — a short-throw ratio of 0.5 to 0.89 covers most home bays, while anything tighter than that needs an ultra-short-throw unit.
- Carl’s Place also recommends standing at least 10-12 feet back from the screen, and leaving 12-16 inches of clearance behind the screen itself for mounting hardware per BenQ’s guidance — two separate distances that both factor into total room depth.
The width-first formula
- Measure your enclosure or net’s inside width. This is the number that matters, not a diagonal spec. If you haven’t settled on an enclosure yet, Carl’s Place’s 100-inch-wide floor is the baseline to design around.
- Buy a screen within a few inches of that width. Running the screen edge-to-edge (or very close to it) with the enclosure keeps mis-hits on the fabric instead of past it.
- Multiply your projector’s throw ratio by that width to get mounting distance. This is the only step that changes the formula — a smaller throw ratio needs less room between the projector and the screen.
| Screen width | BenQ TK710STi (0.69-0.83) | ViewSonic LS711HD (0.49) | Typical bay fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 in (Carl's Place minimum) | ~69-83 in | ~49 in | Tight garage bay |
| 112 in | ~77-93 in | ~55 in | Standard single-car garage |
| 120 in | ~83-100 in | ~59 in | Larger garage / basement |
| 144 in | ~99-120 in | ~71 in | Dedicated simulator room |
Throw distances are rounded estimates from the throw-ratio formula above; confirm against your specific projector’s spec sheet before mounting, since zoom range can shift the usable distance window slightly.
Why diagonal TV thinking causes real problems here
A home-theater buyer picks a 100-inch diagonal screen and the whole rectangle is picture — there’s no functional downside to the screen being “too big” for the room, short of not fitting on the wall. A golf simulator screen does double duty: it’s the projection surface and the thing standing between a mis-hit golf ball and your garage wall. If you size it like a TV and end up narrower than your actual swing path and dispersion, a shot that doesn’t go dead straight can clear the edge of the fabric — which is exactly the kind of gap Carl’s Place’s 100-inch-wide floor is designed to prevent. This is also why screen width should be sized to your enclosure or impact screen choice first, and your projector second — the screen’s physical footprint is the fixed constraint; the projector just has to be able to fill it from whatever distance your room allows.
BenQ TK710STi
- 0.69-0.83 throw ratio with 1.2x zoom — per the formula above, fills a 100-inch-wide screen from roughly 69-83 inches back.
- 3,200 ANSI lumens keeps the image bright even in a semi-lit garage bay.
- See our full golf simulator projector roundup for how it compares to the rest of the lineup.
If your bay is too shallow for a short-throw projector
Not every garage has 7+ feet of depth to spare. If your available throw distance is shorter than a standard short-throw projector needs even at its minimum zoom, don’t shrink the screen below Carl’s Place’s 100-inch-wide floor to compensate — swap to an ultra-short-throw projector instead. The ViewSonic LS711HD’s 0.49 throw ratio fills that same 100-inch-wide screen from only about 49 inches back, roughly 20-30 inches shallower than the TK710STi needs, which solves a depth problem without touching screen width or mis-hit coverage.
ViewSonic LS711HD
- 0.49 throw ratio — fills a 100-inch-wide screen from about 49 inches back, the shortest mounting distance of any projector this site recommends.
- Built-in Golf Mode picture preset, useful if your bay can't be fully darkened.
- Full review and pricing history in our best golf simulator projector guide.
Don’t forget depth behind and in front of the screen
Screen width solves the side-to-side fit, but total room depth needs two more numbers most calculators skip. Per BenQ’s mounting guidance, leave 12-16 inches of clearance behind the screen itself for mounting hardware and airflow — this isn’t throw distance, it’s space on the far side of the fabric. And per Carl’s Place, keep at least 10-12 feet between the golfer and the screen for safety margin on both the swing and the screen’s fabric. Add those two numbers to your projector’s throw distance and you have the real minimum room depth, not just the projector-to-screen gap. For the full room-planning picture — ceiling height, side clearance, ball flight — see our golf simulator room size guide.
The bottom line
Size the screen by width against your enclosure (100 inches wide at a minimum, per Carl’s Place), then solve for projector distance with throw distance = throw ratio x screen width — about 69-83 inches for the BenQ TK710STi or about 49 inches for the ultra-short-throw ViewSonic LS711HD on a 100-inch-wide screen. Add 12-16 inches of clearance behind the screen and 10-12 feet of golfer standing distance in front of it to get your real minimum room depth. Start with our best golf simulator projector roundup to pick the unit, then confirm the fit against our golf simulator room size guide before you buy anything.