Building or buying your own indoor or outdoor golf putting green provides an extremely
convenient place to work on your short game during your spare minutes - or indeed, whenever
you happen to feel like it! Imagine being at home and stepping into your backyard to practice
your putts and chips, or having an indoor putting green at the office and conducting business
meetings or having lunch while improving your stroke. Owning a putting green is both one of the
best ways to bring the great game of golf into your everyday life and one of the best ways to
lower your score and improve your handicap.
Once you decide that you want a home or business putting green, there are a dizzying number of
options available to you. The good news is that no matter which options you choose, you'll end
up with a quality putting green that should serve you well for many years.
Your first choice is to determine whether you want a professional service to build and
install your putting green, or whether you want to put in the time and effort to do it
yourself. If you choose the professional route, you're guaranteed a smooth ride and a
polished putting green. However, the downside is the relatively high cost. On the other
hand, if you choose the do-it-yourself option, you can save yourself some money at the
cost of more of your own time and labor. Either way, as long as you're careful throughout
the process you will still end up with a finished product you can be proud of. Don't forget
that many of the professional services are happy to sell you the raw materials you'll need,
as well as provide instruction and advice.
The remaining options are too numerous to go into in too much detail. The single biggest
choice you'll have (once you've decided whether to build your own putting green or have a
professional do it) is whether to surface your green using real grass or synthetic grass.
There are upsides and downsides to both options. If you select real grass you will have a
true-to-life putting experience, but be prepared for a large initial outlay of time and
effort, and then further time and effort for upkeep over the life of the installation.
Real grass is not for the faint of heart, but the reward is a top quality putting green.
If you choose synthetic grass, whether sand-filled polypropylene or nylon, the initial
outlay of time and effort will be greatly reduced along with the demands of upkeep and
maintenance. The downside is that as good as turf gets, it will never behave exactly
like real grass.
Beyond these two basic choices there are many additional options: sand or rubber fill,
Bermuda or bent grass, topfill with sand or sifted dirt, and so on. A consultation with
a professional is recommended to help you narrow your decisions. However, no matter which
choices you make, a personal putting green is a wonderful investment in your game, and an
excellent addition to your lifestyle. 
