Backyard golf putting green

[homeinmelbourne]

This fun project turned an unused corner of a yard into attractive putting green with built-in garden lighting.

• The project
• More golf project inspiration

The project

We built this backyard putting green from start to finish in just two days.

The back corner of the backyard was never used. It mostly grew weeds and was overgrown with tree branches. Then we decided to put in a putting green!

We spent a week researching, watching a lot of YouTube videos on how to create a backyard putting green, measuring and planning out the space and the shape of the green and ordering the supplies we needed. Then we did it all over one weekend.

Here's how we did it:

• Started by digging out all the soil and grass to get a level and clean soil surface
• Raked and levelled the ground
• Rented a compacter from Bunnings and compacted the soil
• Installed the corten steel edging for the area. The edging, purchased from a local steel fabricator, will naturally weather with a rusty look
• Wheelbarrowed in 3 tonnes of road base ordered from a local garden supplier. The two of us simultaneously shovelled each wheelbarrow load, raked and spread it. I think this was the most physically painful and tiring job of our whole house reno!
• Used the compactor to compact the road base. This involved four passes of the area and two hours of compacting to achieve a flat surface
• Spread Bastion River Sand from Bunnings over the road base and rolled it with a turf roller
• Cut the putting surface to shape and marked out the cup holes (the putting surface and green fringe came from a golf-green supplier)
• Dug the cup holes and concreted the cups in
• Cut the holes into the putting surface
• Cut the artificial grass fringe surface and tacked down the edges around the perimeter edging and the putting green surface using Tuff Turf Synthetic Turf Anchor Nails from Bunnings
• Top dressed the putting green with silica sand
• Ran the wiring and installed eight Holman 43mm Warm White Spotlights from Bunnings around the edging under the Pittosporum trees. 

The unused corner of the garden grew little grass and mostly weeds.

We dug out the soil and grass to level out the area.

We prepped and raked the soil surface ready for compacting.

We hired a Bunnings compactor to compact the soil and provide a flat, solid bed for the road base.

Installed the corten steel edging and filled in with road base.

Compacted the road base  – four passes over the whole area, two hours of compacting.

Spread sand across the whole surface to level out any bumps, low spots or divots.

Rolled the sand with a turf roller.

Cut the putting surface to shape and concreted the cups in.

Used a broom to brush silica sand into the turf pile.

Installed wired-in garden lights around the perimeter of the area.

The finished project.

We budgeted $1500. Here's a diagram of the dimensions.

More golf project inspiration

Bunnings Workshop member Fergus shared how to build a simple backyard mini-golf hole using recycled pallets.

Workshop member mfree shared a video guide to building a mini-golf course using plywood.

There are also plenty of great ideas in our Top 10 most popular outdoor projects.

Let us know if you need a hand with your project – we're here to help.

[Remarka6le]

I'll have to show my dad this @homeinmelbourne, he went the opposite route and bought one of those massive outdoor golf simulator packages and built a green around it to match, which is great for everything except puting (it auto does it when close enough 😑), I'm sure he'd love to have something like this in his backyard. Awesome job! 

Remarka6le

[RenoRach1]

Absolutely incredible!!!!!!  A very professional job.  Hope it's improved your golf handicap. 

[homeinmelbourne]

That sounds like an awesome golf simulator @Remarka6le!

Do you have any photos? Would love to see how much space one would require to have that setup.

[homeinmelbourne]

Thank you @RenoRach1 ! 😊

[robchin]

Well done @homeinmelbourne 

Great project. 

I would note that all Synthetic grasses may still get weeds in them and even moss if it's in a shady location. So keep an eye out for this and control as required. 

If it is a particularly sunny spot and you use it a lot in summer - you may want to consider putting a sprinkler on it every now and then to cool it down. 

[Remarka6le]

I do not @homeinmelbourne , but I'll grab one for you once they get back from Bali. They don't take up as much space as you'd think, but you need to think about the people playing and how often shanking a ball will occur 😂 (so heaps of netting), case in point I hit the ball off a tee at 180° and almost took a television out.... there's now a net there 😅