Best Golf Nets Tested | Golf Monthly

I've been looking at some of the best golf practice notes to show you what options are out there for your home practice

I've looked at five different models across sort of five different price points to give you an idea of what you can get for your money

Now if you do like the look of anything you see within this video, I've put some handy links in the description below to get you the best prices for your region

So without further ado, let's get stuck in and start looking at the first net

so I want to start with the Forb ProFlex pop-up driving net or cage or you might have seen it as

the Forza net depending on where you are in the world it seems to be named differently which

is a little bit strange to start now I've seen this online for around the 280 pound mark

or around 400 dollars in the US so this is one of the pricier models that I've looked at and

compared the other stuff too. It is however very very good. Now starting with the assembly putting

up I found very easy but there is a caveat to that. I've been using this on and off most of

the winter so I've done it a few times. I've been taking it up and down all winter so I'm having to

take myself back to kind of the first time I put it up and from memory I did find it a little bit

fiddly. There's quite a few poles you need to put together and work out where they go. There's

I think there's six columns you need to use. And working out where they go and what they fit into is a little bit tricky to start with

But as I said, having done it a few times, it is really straightforward to get stuck into

And once it's up, it's absolutely excellent. What I love about this is the depth and the height of it

It feels very, very safe because you can get very much up close and personal to the net

So you don't have to go a long way back because there's so much depth before you get to the back wall

So it allows you to hit some more lofted clubs, not fearing you're going to go over it. and it will catch the shankiest of all shanks

Basically, so long as you're not hitting the ball backwards, this net will catch the ball, so it is incredibly safe

And because of that, I'm actually naming this one my best for safety out of everything that I've tried

One negative I would say, however, if you do live in a windy area

you are going to need to take this down. This isn't a net you'd want to leave up. There's quite a lot of surface area that the wind picks

and I've been caught by this. I've had to sort of rescue the net in the morning

from quite precarious positions in the garden because the wind's gotten up overnight

It does come with pegs to secure it into place, but I found those were a little bit lightweight

for the size of the structure. So you're either going to need to take it down or you're going to want to invest

in some slightly better, more heavy duty pegs. So the second net I want to talk to you about is called the Galileo the Gagalilio the Gallo Again it named a few different things and there a common theme developing here

I think a lot of these nets are created at kind of a central manufacturer

and then handed around amongst different distributors who name them slightly different things

depending on maybe the region that they're being sold in. Now this one comes in at around the £70 or $80 mark

It's a nice simple product that's actually a bit like a camping tent you may have put up before

and it goes up in much the same way. Now, speaking of the setup, it is a little bit fiddly

You've kind of got two long poles that break down into smaller pieces

You have to fit them together and then you've got to slot them through a gap, crisscross them at the top

There's only two pieces, but the actual process of it is a little bit fiddly and I found it a bit frustrating at times

I'm not good with fiddly things. But once you've done that, it pretty much pops into place

The tension created there pops it into the shape it needs to be and then all you've got to do is hang up the target or the protective screen that creates a nice double skin

You're more or less good to go there. So I guess once you're over the slight frustration of getting those poles up

it is a pretty straightforward setup. There's a couple of things I don't love here, and they're probably from a safety point of view

There's no sides on this net, so if you're prone to a wonky one or a dreaded shank

I wouldn't necessarily be setting this one up facing the car in case one slips by

There's also, I wouldn't necessarily be that comfortable hitting wedges because where the crisscross at the top, those poles cross over, it's quite firm

There's not much room between the skin of the net and those poles. If you lofted one into that cross section, I'd be a little bit concerned about that ricocheting where it might go

For me, if you're hitting anything that's not likely to hit the double skin, the protective target screen

you might be better with some less than firm, less than real golf balls, maybe airflow balls

or some softer balls that are available. Now, taking it down is much easier than many others

It's literally just slide those poles back out, fold up the net cloth, and you're good to go. So

simple, but pretty effective. Some safety issues maybe that you want to think about when you're

laying it out. But for me, I would say that's my best value option. okay number three the third net I'm looking at is the sim space deluxe practice net comes in at

around the 300 pound mark or 400 dollars I've seen it in the US and I have to say putting this up for

the first time is a bit of a nightmare and truth be told it's definitely a two-person job although

it does say that in the instructions it not trying to pull the wool over your eyes there it does recommend having a couple of people to do it but that something to bear in mind and I had to get my wife involved as you can see here to help with the setup Staying on the setup there a few different angles and poles that

bend at different angles that you can go a little bit wrong with when you're setting up and as you

probably see here, I did that quite a few times, so I found that initial setup a little bit

frustrating. Once you've done it once however, it's an absolute doddle, you can see where

everything's supposed to have gone and hindsight as we know is a wonderful thing and the end result

is a very very sturdy product. It's got some great side protection and the net to me felt the

strongest and probably the most durable of anything of the selection that I tried so that was a real

plus point. I feel a lot more confident leaving this one out in the wind too due to the nice

wide base area and it's got some real weight to it this one. This felt really sturdy so in terms

of leaving it out for the night in a bit of a high wind I would be a bit more comfortable

doing so than some of the others that I've tested here and I'll probably name this my most sturdy

and stable option. Next up we have the Spornia SPG7 and this one comes in I've seen it around

£300 in Great Britain or around $300 in the US and if it's ease of setup you are looking for

then look no further than the Spornia. Basically you just get it out of the box, pull it out of the

bag and it springs into life. All you've got to do there is add a couple of supports to the side

and one optional one across the top and Bob's your uncle, you're good to go. It's as simple as that

literally just does it itself. And one thing you can feel throughout this net is it's serious

quality. The build quality is exceptional. You can feel the materials are well put together and it's

a really strong net. Now I'm also naming this one my best for features because it's absolutely

packed with them. We've got roof protection, we've got side protection, we've even got the

base angled back at you so the balls roll back to your feet for the lazy golfers amongst you like

me. There's a good target in there as well to focus your eye and focus your practice a little

bit more and as I said it just feels really well made and very very sturdy. Now putting it away is

probably pretty easy for a normal human being. The instructions are there for you, but I found it

really tricky and I find these things tricky. So I'm probably a good person to be testing this stuff

out. And once again, I had to call my wife in to sort it out. But once she did that, it was pretty

self-explanatory. I say self-explanatory, she explained it to me and I worked it out afterwards

And I would say up and down, this is a really easy net to use. The final net I want to show you is the Longridge Quad Now I seen this anywhere between and online It very similar to the Spornia in terms of the setup It one of those nets you just pull out of the bag and it sort of tension folded and it just springs into life and it does almost all of the work for you

You then just have to add four poles. There's a couple of different lengths. You just add them

into a couple of support slots and the net takes shape. Then all you've got to do is hang the target

on the back net and you're up and running. A couple of things I really enjoyed about this net. I really

enjoyed the depth of the net. Again, there's a little bit of deep, kind of more of a cage feel

to it rather than some of the nets you feel you're just hitting into a flat screen. There's a bit of

depth to it. Although the height of the net prohibits you from getting too close to really

take advantage of that depth because you would catch the top of the net on the follow through

if you got close enough to take advantage. However, there is a fixed side net to allow

you to go a little bit further back. Now it was fixed in place and I don't know whether

I just got lucky and ordered a right-handed one. I can't quite remember there, but this was on the right-hand side. So I'm guessing you could probably order a left-handed one

as well where that net is fixed on the other side to catch the shanks. Now there's a couple of things

I didn't necessarily love. On that fixed side netting it seemed very easy if you hit a low

shank for the ball to kind of slide under that little gap. It wasn't very tight to the floor

and wasn't very robust so while it's there I wasn't sure necessarily about how effective it

would be. And the noise because the net, the protective bit or the target area in the net

only clipped on at the top two areas. It wasn't tensioned at the bottom. There was quite a big

impact noise when the ball hit, so quite a noticeable threat. I've got neighbors who live

a little close by, as you'll see in this video, and I would imagine that would be a little bit

distracting and annoying for them if I was out there all summer popping balls into this net at

that kind of noise. Overall, for the price, the ease of putting it up, how sturdy it was

and I really like the shape of it, I think this is a really good, brilliant value option

So I hope that's given you a good idea of what's out there and what's available in the home practice golf net space

and what sort of prices you might expect to pay. Now if you were to push me and price wasn't an object, I think I would probably end up purchasing the Spornia net

As I said, I found it extremely well made. It was packed with features. I really liked that the ball would just keep rolling straight back to my feet because I'm lazy like that

But overall, it just felt like a very good safe option and that's important to me when selecting a home practice net

What did you think? Is there anything you like the look of? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time