- 3 minutes ago
Joe Ferguson tests 5 of the latest golf nets in his garden and gives pros and cons of each to help you pick the right model for you
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00:00I've been looking at some of the best golf practice notes to show you what options are
00:04out there for your home practice. I've looked at five different models across sort of five
00:09different price points to give you an idea of what you can get for your money. Now if you do
00:14like the
00:15look of anything you see within this video I've put some handy links in the description below to
00:19get you the best prices for your region so without further ado let's get stuck in and start looking
00:24at the first net. So I want to start with the Forb ProFlex pop-up driving net or cage or
00:34you might
00:34have seen it as the Forza net depending on where you are in the world it seems to be named
00:38differently
00:38which is a little bit strange to start. Now I've seen this online for around the 280 pound mark
00:44or around 400 dollars in the US so this is one of the pricier models that I've looked at and
00:49compared
00:50the other stuff too it is however very very good. Now starting with the assembly putting it up I
00:55found very easy but there is a caveat to that I've been using this on and off most of the
01:00winter so
01:01I've done it a few times I've been taking it up and down all winter so I'm having to take
01:05myself back to
01:06kind of the first time I put it up and from memory I did find it a little bit fiddly
01:10there's quite a few
01:11poles you need to put together and work out where they go there's I think there's six columns you need
01:17to use working out where they go and what they fit into is a little bit tricky to start with
01:21but as I
01:22said having done it a few times it is really straightforward to get stuck into and once it's
01:27up it's absolutely excellent what I love about this is the depth and the height of it it feels very
01:33very
01:33safe because you can get very much up close and personal to the net so you don't have to go
01:37a long
01:37way back because there's so much depth before you get to the back wall so it allows you to hit
01:42some more
01:42lofted clubs not fearing you're going to go over it and it will catch the shankiest of all shanks
01:48basically so long as you're not hitting the ball backwards this net will catch the ball so it is
01:52incredibly safe and because of that I'm actually naming this one my best for safety out of everything
01:58that I've tried one negative would say however if you do live in a windy area you are going to
02:04need
02:04to take this down this isn't a net you'd want to leave up there's quite a lot of surface area
02:08that the wind
02:08picks and I've been caught by this I've had to sort of rescue the net in the morning from quite
02:13precarious positions in the garden because the wind has gotten up overnight it does come with pegs to
02:18secure it into place but I found those were a little bit lightweight for the size of the structure so
02:23you're either going to need to take it down or you're going to want to invest in some slightly better
02:27more heavy duty pegs
02:32so the second that I want to talk to you about is called the Galileo the gagalilio the gallo
02:37again it's named a few different things there's a common theme developing here I think
02:42a lot of these nets are created at kind of a central manufacturer and then handed around amongst
02:47different distributors who name them slightly different things depending on maybe the region
02:52that they're being sold in now this one comes in around 70 pounds or 80 dollar mark it's a nice
02:57simple product it's actually a bit like a camping tent you may have put up before and it goes up
03:01in much
03:02the same way now speaking of the setup it is a little bit fiddly you've kind of got two long
03:08poles
03:08that break down into smaller pieces you have to fit them together and then you've got to slot them
03:12through a gap crisscross them at the top there's only two pieces but the actual process of it is a
03:18little bit fiddly and I found it a bit frustrating at times I'm not good with fiddly things but once
03:22you've done that it pretty much pops into place the tension created there pops it into the shape it needs
03:28to
03:28be and then all you've got to do is hang up the target or the protective screen that creates a
03:33nice double skin you're more or less good to go there so I guess once you're over the slight
03:38frustration getting those poles up it is a pretty straightforward setup there's a couple of things
03:42I don't love here and they're probably from a safety point of view there's no sides on this
03:46net so if you're prone to a wonky one or a dreaded shank I wouldn't necessarily be setting this one
03:51up
03:51facing the car in case one slips by there's also I wouldn't necessarily be that comfortable
03:57hitting wedges because where the crisscross at the top those poles cross over it's quite firm
04:03there's not much room between the skin of the net and those poles so if you lofted one into that
04:08cross section I'd be a little bit concerned about that ricocheting where it might go so for me if
04:15you're hitting anything that's not likely to hit the double skin the protective target screen you might
04:20be better with some less than firm less than real golf balls maybe airflow balls or some softer balls
04:26that are available now taking it down is much easier than many others it's literally just slide
04:31those poles back out fold up the net cloth and you're good to go so simple but pretty effective
04:38some safety issues maybe that you want to think about when you're laying it out but for me I would
04:42say that's my best value option okay number three the third net I'm looking at is the sim space deluxe
04:52practice net comes in at around the 300 pound mark or 400 dollars I've seen it in the us and
04:58I have
04:58to say putting this up for the first time is a bit of a nightmare and truth be told it's
05:03definitely
05:03a two-person job although it does say that in the instructions it's not trying to pull the wool over
05:08your eyes there it does recommend having a couple of people to do it but that's something to bear in
05:12mind and I had to get my wife involved as you can see here to help with the setup staying
05:17on the
05:18setup there's a few different angles and poles that bend at different angles that you can go a
05:22little bit wrong with when you're setting up and as you'll probably see here I did that quite a few
05:27times so I found that initial setup a little bit frustrating once you've done it once however it's
05:31an absolute doddle you can see where everything's supposed to have gone and hindsight as we know is
05:37a wonderful thing and the end result is a very very sturdy product it's got some great side protection
05:43and the net to me felt the strongest and probably the most durable of anything of the selection that
05:48I tried so that was a real plus point I'd feel a lot more confident leaving this one out in
05:53the wind
05:54too due to the nice wide base area and it's got some real weight to it this one this felt
05:59really sturdy
06:00so in terms of leaving it out for the night in a bit of a high wind I would be
06:04a bit more comfortable
06:05doing so than some of the others that I've tested here and I'll probably name this my most sturdy and
06:11stable option
06:16next up we have the Spornia SPG7 and this one comes in I've seen it around 300 pounds in
06:22Great Britain or around 300 dollars in the US and if it's ease of setup you are looking for
06:27then look no further than the Spornia basically you just get it out of the box pull it out the
06:33bag
06:33and it springs into life all you've got to do there is add a couple of supports to the side
06:38and one optional one across the top and Bob's your uncle you're good to go it's as simple as that
06:43literally just does it itself and one thing you can feel throughout this net is it's serious
06:48quality the build quality is exceptional you can feel the materials are well put together and it's
06:53a really strong net now I'm also naming this one my best for features because it's absolutely packed
06:59with them we've got roof protection we've got side protection we've even got the base angled back
07:04at you so the balls roll back to your feet for the lazy golfers amongst you like me there's a
07:09good
07:09target in there as well to focus your eye and focus your practice a little bit more and as I
07:14said it
07:14just feels really well made and very very sturdy now putting it away is probably pretty easy for a
07:20normal human being the instructions are there for you but I found it really tricky and I find these
07:24things tricky so I'm probably a good person to be testing this stuff out and once again I had to
07:28call
07:28my wife in to sort it out but once she did that it was pretty self-explanatory I say self
07:34-explanatory
07:34she explained it to me and I worked it out afterwards and I would say up and down this is
07:39a really easy
07:39net to use the final net I want to show you is the long ridge quad now I've seen this
07:48anywhere between
07:4990 pounds and 150 pounds online it's very similar to the Spornia in terms of the setup it's one of
07:55those
07:55nets you just pull out of the bag that's sort of tension folded and it just springs into life and
08:01it does almost all of the work for you you then just have to add four poles there's a couple
08:05of
08:05different lengths you just add them into a couple of support slots and the net takes shape then all
08:11you've got to do is hang the target on the back net and you're up and running a couple of
08:16things I
08:16really enjoyed about this net I really enjoyed the depth of the net again there's a little bit of
08:20deep kind of more of a cage feel to it rather than some of the nets you feel you're just
08:25hitting into a flat screen there's a bit of depth to it although the height of the net prohibits
08:31you from getting too close to really take advantage of that depth because you would catch the top of
08:37the net on the follow-through if you got close enough to take advantage however there is a fixed
08:41side net to allow you to go a little bit further back now it was fixed in place and I
08:45don't know
08:46whether I just got lucky and ordered a right-handed one I can't quite remember there but this was on
08:50the
08:50right-hand side so I'm guessing you could probably order a left-handed one as well where that net is
08:55fixed on the other side to catch the shanks now there's a couple of things I didn't necessarily
09:00love on that fixed side netting it seemed very easy if you hit a low shank for the ball to
09:05kind of slide
09:06under that little gap there wasn't it wasn't very tight to the floor and wasn't very robust so
09:11while it's there I wasn't sure of necessarily about how effective it would be
09:15and the noise because the net the protective bit or the target area in the net only clipped
09:21on at the top two areas it wasn't tensioned at the bottom there was quite a big impact noise when
09:26the ball hits and quite a noticeable third and I've got neighbours who live a little close by as you'll
09:30see in this video and I would imagine that would be a little bit distracting and annoying for them if
09:35I
09:35was out there all summer popping balls into this net at that kind of noise but overall for the price
09:41the ease of putting up how sturdy it was and I really like the shape of it I think this
09:45is a
09:46really good brilliant value option
09:51so I hope that's given you a good idea of what's out there and what's available in the home practice
09:55golf net space and what sort of prices you might expect to pay now if you were to push me
10:01and price
10:01wasn't an object I think I would probably end up purchasing the Spornia net as I said I found it
10:07extremely well made it was packed with features I really like that the ball would just keep rolling
10:11straight back to my feet because I'm lazy like that but overall it just felt like a very good
10:16safe option and that's important to me when selecting a home practice net what did you think
10:20is there anything you like the look of let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time
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