We Tried It: SYNLawn GreenMaker Putting Green

There may be a number of cool gear within the golf tools world that doesn’t at all times match neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You continue to need to know the way it performs. In our We Tried It sequence, we put gear to the check and allow you to know if it really works as marketed.

What We Tried

SYNLawn Dave Pelz GreenMaker Putting Green

Who Tried It?

Dave Wolfe – The ever-curious MyGolfSpy author and putter fanatic. In terms of golf merchandise, I consider impulse management is one thing to be managed.

Including a SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced to My Yard

All of us have our golf bucket lists. Possibly you need to play Pebble Seaside, break 80 and even obtain these objectives concurrently. These two issues are on my record as nicely. Moreover, I’ve longed to construct a placing inexperienced in my yard.

Some impediments have been time associated; some have been fiscal. It’s powerful to dip into the household coffers when your daughter wants braces. For some motive, I’m the one one within the household who views straight putts equally as vital as straight enamel.

Reality be informed, the method of constructing a inexperienced was additionally fairly intimidating. Spend a couple of minutes on YouTube looking DIY placing greens and you’ll agree. Nearly instantly, I noticed I lacked the required depth of data about street base compaction and carpet seam building. On no account was I comfy spending the cash on supplies, solely to have my incomplete building expertise doom the challenge.

SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Greens

Clearly, an all-in-one placing inexperienced package appeared the logical alternative. That’s the place the SYNLawn GreenMaker inexperienced entered the image.

SYNLawn and I had an odd introduction.

This challenge started with an promoting e-mail that SYNLawn Golf despatched out for Father’s Day. I don’t consider I had heard of SYNLawn previous to that. That is an odd revelation since SYNLawn is the golf department of Astroturf, the OG of artificial turf corporations. Astroturf was a reputation I knew.

Curiosity piqued, I clicked the promoting e-mail (questionable alternative, I do know, I do know) to see if SYNLawn had a yard placing inexperienced resolution. They did and there was one other well-known identify related to the inexperienced: Dave Pelz.

Dave Pelz and SYNLawn Partnership

Now that’s a pair of big-name gamers. Appeared like a pure pairing for a profitable placing inexperienced collaboration. I needed to test it out.

What I discovered on the SYNLawn web site was a complete bunch of cool customized placing inexperienced builds. Comply with this LINK to see them. A few of these customized placing inexperienced builds are spectacular. I like the way in which the greens might be custom-made to suit numerous areas.

For many people, this sort of set up is past our finances. Fortunately, SYNLawn had choices.

After a easy tool-free meeting, you’re able to take pleasure in your very personal placing inexperienced within the privateness of your house or workplace. SYNLawn web site

The GreenMaker gave the impression to be the proper DIY placing inexperienced system. Modular base, single piece of turf, and “easy tool-free meeting”? Sure, please. The nylon artificial bentgrass turf can survive the recent summers and the delicate, dry winters right here in Northern California. Some fast measuring revealed that the 18×12-foot inexperienced would match properly alongside my again fence.

Lastly, the yard placing inexperienced was going to occur.

Constructing the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced: Time Lapse

The video above exhibits the entire SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced set up course of from prep to putts. Begin to end in solely 5 minutes! . Clearly, that video is sped up a contact. In actuality, the set up took just a few hours, unfold over just a few days, with 90 p.c of that point being spent getting ready the bottom for the inexperienced.

Right here is the way it all went down.

Constructing the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced: Getting ready the Space

As I discussed, I knew precisely the place I needed the inexperienced. My spouse and I measured the perimeter, marking the corners with flags. Utilizing a string and a degree, it regarded like there have been about 4 inches of slope that I would wish to account for to be able to make the placing inexperienced degree.

Not an issue, as I had some bricks from one other challenge that I might use to construct the brief wall that may maintain again the leveling sand. The 18×12-foot space and a depth of round 4 inches calculated out to about 4 cubic yards of leveling sand. That appeared like so much however not outlandish for a inexperienced this dimension. Gotta belief the calculator, proper?

Leveling the bottom was my important level of order. I ran degree strings from nook to nook. These strings turned the information for the way a lot sand so as to add. After an extended afternoon of wheeling, tamping and screeding with a board, I had the extent base. It was time to open up the GreenMaker field.

Constructing the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced: Assembling the Base

The GreenMaker base meeting was certainly tool-free. The froth base panels are manufactured from Berrasof, a proprietary foam compound produced by SYNLawn. The Berrasof is agency like packaging foam however extra versatile and positively stronger. As I point out within the video, the tiles are all numbered and SYNLawn supplies you with an easy-to-follow tiling plan. Initially, I deviated from stated plan, pondering that I’d construct the perimeters first like I do with jigsaw puzzles.

After getting caught—and rereading the instructions—I realized the tiles are supposed to be assembled in a single course. That’s the way in which the grooves are angled. As soon as I obtained out of my very own means, meeting was easy. The tongue and groove sections of the froth tiles match collectively snuggly. Small pins then safe the attachment websites. Together with my false begin, the entire course of was easy and took about half-hour.

At this level, I rolled just a few balls throughout the bottom to test the slopes. A number of areas have been too steep however a fast carry of the bottom and some shovels of sand corrected that shortly.

Constructing the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced: Rolling Out the Turf

Though the close to 200-pound roll of turf was a beast to hold to the work web site, it was a breeze to put in. As I discussed, by no means was I concerned about seaming collectively a number of sections of turf. Professionals could make carpet seams vanish however I’m no skilled. I had visions of a giant ridge down the middle of the inexperienced.

Fortunately, the GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced turf is all one huge piece, fringe included. All you want do to put in it’s to begin at one finish after which roll it throughout the froth base tiles. Be sure to line up the holes within the turf with these within the base, drop within the cups and you’re able to roll balls.

The turf is loopy uniform as you possibly can see within the photograph above. Possibly I ought to have anticipated this because it’s synthetic however the uniform nature of the turf and the encompassing fringe made an impression on me. “Stout” would in all probability be the opposite descriptive time period that shortly got here to thoughts. This turf ought to final some time.

As marketed, the balls roll true. Not loopy quick and that’s nice by me. The pace is near the greens I play on. Have been it too quick or too sluggish, its worth as a apply instrument would lower considerably.

I can’t overstate how straightforward constructing the GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced would have been on a concrete slab. Assemble the froth tiles, roll out the turf and you’re performed. Underneath an hour whole for positive. SYNLawn has dialed of their design.

Constructing the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced: Getting ready the Space, Once more

It could be nice if the story ended within the paragraph above. Sadly, it has one other chapter. Whereas the SYNLawn facet of the construct story was extraordinarily straightforward, my yard didn’t share that straightforward directive.

You see, when transferring the mulch within the authentic set up space, I uncovered a beforehand unknown sewer cleanout. For some motive, it appeared a poor concept to place the placing inexperienced on high of this cleanout so we needed to slide the inexperienced up the hill about 4 toes to take a seat above it.

Sadly, this modified our slope from about 4 inches to almost a foot. As such, my preliminary sand retention system was not going to work.

As proven within the time lapse, I used to be in a position to get the inexperienced degree with the brief wall however I knew rebuilding the bottom was a necessity. For those who have been to look from the fence facet, you’d see the inexperienced resting on sand that was above the preliminary brick peak. Clearly, this was not going to work in the long run.

And, so, I realized learn how to construct a retaining wall. Thanks, YouTube. This turned out to be an endeavor. The GreenMaker base and turf solely took an hour to construct however the wall took about 12. Hardpan and roots have been all over the place, naturally, and even shopping for the hundred or so wall blocks took three journeys to Residence Depot. At the least it was solely about 103F right here in Sacramento these days. Massive props to these of you who do this sort of work for a dwelling.

Finally, my wall was constructed, degree and in a position to comprise the sand and rock wanted to degree the inexperienced. As soon as I slid the bottom again on the sand and rolled out the turf, the GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced turned a everlasting fixture of my yard.

SYNLawn’s Placing Inexperienced Choices

For this challenge, I put in the biggest of the GreenMaker greens. However there are different options. This 12×18-foot inexperienced can also be the costliest at $5,299. The GreenMaker additionally comes 10×16 ($3,399), 8×14 ($2,599), and 6×12 ($1,599).

You’ll be able to go even cheaper if you happen to forego the modular base system. SYNLawn has 5 different small greens, priced from $169.99 to $679.99. The inexperienced proven within the photograph above is the 6’x8′ green with fringe. Although smaller than the inexperienced I put in, the turf is of the identical top quality. Set up was a breeze, requiring just a few books to take the curl out of the unrolled turf.

If you wish to go within the different course, SYNLawn contractors can construct you a tremendous one-of-a-kind placing inexperienced. They do company installations, too, in case you have a rooftop that wants a little bit of golf motion.

Last Ideas: SYNLawn Greenkeeper Placing Inexperienced

What’s my total tackle the GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced expertise? Actually, it requires a little bit of compartmentalization, separating the bottom work from the placing inexperienced constructing.

So far as the bottom preparation work, it was much more than I anticipated. That shock cleanout turned a easy landscaping job into an enormous one and mandated about $500 in extra supplies. I’d say I’ve about 85-percent confidence in my wall construct. I’ll really feel higher as soon as it survives a storm or two. Ought to my wall fail, I’ll possible throw within the DIY towel and discuss to a contractor about choices.

On the different finish of the spectrum, the SYNLawn GreenMaker Placing Inexperienced System is nails. It’s so straightforward to assemble. Essentially the most tough half was discovering one other individual assist me carry the turf and tiles to the construct location.

For those who construct the GreenMaker on a degree patio or concrete slab, I’ve little doubt which you can be rolling balls in beneath an hour. Simply preserve an eye fixed out for these hidden cleanouts.

See all SYNLawn’s construct choices at: synlawngolf.com

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