Carl’s Place Drops a 3D Sim Builder Tool and a $20K Giveaway
You know that feeling when you’re staring at a blank garage wall, tape measure in one hand, phone in the other, trying to figure out if a 10-foot-wide enclosure will fit between your water heater and your workbench?
Carl’s Place just made that whole process a lot less annoying.
The Milton, Wisconsin-based company that’s been building custom enclosures since before “home golf simulator” was a thing people said in normal conversation launched a 3D Build Your Own Golf Simulator tool this week. And to celebrate their 20th year in business, they’re giving away a complete custom simulator setup worth up to $20,000 to one lucky person who uses it.
The Tool That Should Have Existed Years Ago
Here’s the problem Carl’s Place is trying to solve: building a home simulator is exciting until you actually have to figure out what fits where. The enclosure, the screen, the projector mount, the mat — they all need to work together, and they all need to fit your specific room. Most people end up guessing, buying stuff that doesn’t work, or spending hours on forums trying to find someone with the same ceiling height.
The new tool handles that. You punch in your room dimensions, and it walks you through every decision — enclosure size, screen type, projector placement, mat choice — with an interactive 3D visualizer that updates in real time as you make changes. You can see exactly how your setup will look before you spend a dime.
Pricing updates as you go too. No more adding everything to your cart and getting sticker shock. You see the number climb (or drop) with every decision.
Once you’re done, the tool spits out a complete build summary with a 3D visualization. You can save it, share it, or add it straight to your cart. If you still have questions, there’s a human designer on the other end.
Carl Markestad, founder and CEO of Carl’s Place, put it simply: “Building a home golf simulator should be exciting, not overwhelming.”
He’s right. The overwhelming part is what stops people from pulling the trigger. They get stuck on “but what if the projector doesn’t line up with the screen?” and then they’re back on YouTube watching someone else’s build video instead of hitting balls in their own garage.
The $20,000 Hook
The giveaway is smart. From August 1 through August 31, anyone who uses the builder tool to design a simulator and submits their build link with a short explanation of why they want one is entered to win a custom setup worth up to $20,000.
The fine print: they’re looking for entries with a suitable residential installation location, readiness to move forward, and willingness to let them film the installation. So they want real people with real spaces who are actually going to build this thing. That makes sense — Carl’s Place is a DIY company at heart, and there’s nothing more authentic than showing someone’s actual garage build.
You enter at carlofet.com/win. Yes, that URL is a play on “Carl of it.” I appreciate the commitment to the bit.
Why This Matters
Carl’s Place turning 20 is a big deal in the sim world. They were one of the first companies to figure out that the DIY market was real — that normal people would build their own simulators if someone made the parts easy to buy and the instructions easy to follow. Before Carl’s Place, if you wanted a simulator enclosure, you were either buying a $10,000 pre-built package from a commercial supplier or rigging something with PVC pipe and a bedsheet.
They’ve been the default recommendation for DIY enclosures on every forum, every Reddit thread, and every buying guide for the better part of a decade. The fact that they’re still innovating on the buying experience instead of coasting on their reputation says something about the company.
The 3D builder tool isn’t revolutionary technology. IKEA has had similar room planners for years. But nobody in the golf simulator space has done it at this level of detail. The closest competitor is maybe the DIY enclosure calculators on some retailer sites, but those are usually just measuring tools with a price estimate. Carl’s Place built a full visualizer that shows you what your actual room will look like.
This is the kind of thing that makes more people build simulators. Not because the tool is cool (it is), but because it removes the uncertainty that stops people from buying. When you can see your setup rendered in your actual room dimensions, the decision to hit “buy” gets a lot easier.
The Catch
The tool is designed for Carl’s Place products, obviously. You’re not going to use it to spec out a competing brand’s enclosure and then buy it somewhere else. But if you’re in the market for a DIY enclosure — and let’s be honest, if you’re building a home simulator, Carl’s Place is probably already on your list — the tool makes the decision process genuinely easier.
The giveaway runs through August 31. Entries are still open. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about building a sim, this is about as low-friction as it gets. Design your setup, write a few sentences about why you want it, and maybe you get a $20,000 simulator for free.
That’s a better deal than you’ll get anywhere else this month.
Enter the giveaway at carlofet.com/win
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