We moved into our current house back in 2005, 18 years ago. One of our neighbors, who turned out to be a former mini-tour player, saw me pull my clubs out of the moving van and we got to talking about golf. Within minutes, he was bringing over his old net. It was eight feet tall, constructed of about two hundred yards of plastic pipe and enough netting to cut the dolphin population in half. It stood for approximately 90 seconds before collapsing in on itself like a supernova. The remains of it live under our deck to this very day. In the intervening 18 years, I’ve never attempted to put up another net, nor have I wanted to.

Fast forward 18 years, and I’d convinced myself to get a launch monitor. My daughter’s playing high school golf, and she needs to practice. I’m really being selfless here. Anyhow, since our 90s colonial house consists of small box rooms with low ceilings, there was no way I’d be setting up a permanent simulator room. The only enclosed space with enough ceiling height for a golf swing is our garage. And my approval ratings with Mrs. Looper would plummet if she weren’t able to park in the garage, so I needed a net that I can set up and break down quickly.

Enter the Spornia SPG-7 practice net. As with most potential purchases over $100, I read everything I could and watched every YouTube video I could find. I tend to obsess about things. But all the reviews were glowing, so I pulled the trigger. And frankly, they’re all correct. The fact that the SPG-7 is constantly on backorder is a testament to the fact that it really lives up to the hype. Mine finally arrived after a couple of weeks on backorder, and not a moment too soon (canvas drop cloths are not an acceptable substitute for a proper net – I learned this the hard way).

Unfolded, the net is basically half of a tent with a seven foot rectangular opening (hence the 7 in the SPG-7 name), but it folds down into a four-foot diameter circle that slides neatly into its carry bag. How it does this is the result of brilliant engineering mixed with a small bit of alchemy. If you’ve ever suffered through those flimsy children’s play tents that are supposed to fold in on themselves into a small package for easy storage, you know that you can’t fold those things up without a healthy dose of luck, copious swearing, and some human sacrifice mixed in. The Spornia, on the other hand, folds quickly and neatly with easy to follow directions. Spornia’s founder, it turns out, got his start in making pop-up tents. My Golf Spy does a nice job with the company backstory, so I’ll leave it to them.

When you pull the net out for the first time, it springs out of its circular storage form and into a fairly large, flat rectangle with a quickness that still catches me off guard if I’m not paying attention. And while probability tells us that it should open up right-side up 50% of the time, it opens upside-down 99% of the time. A small quibble. Two quick-breakdown support rods hold up the sides of the net, and another long, flexible quick-breakdown rod provides structure for the all-important canopy. I mean I never sky a driver when I’m trying to kill one, but you might. After setting this up about five or six times, I was able to put the net up in under three minutes. Breaking it down, folding it up, and putting it into the bag takes about the same amount of time.

The easy set up and breakdown are wonderful, but if the net itself is a piece of garbage, then all the convenience in the world can’t save this. As a hitting net, it does the job beautifully. I’ve pounded untold drivers, drilled long irons, and skulled wedges into it. The ball just drops straight down every time, then rolls down to the edge of the net where it usually stops dead. I’ve never been worried about a ball slingshotting back at me. The canopy really does protect your ceilings from skyed tee shots or a mega-flop gone wrong. The side netting corrals all but the worst hosel rockets. My daughter and I both proved this out doing the how-close-can-you-get-to-the-hosel drill. If we hit the garage wall, it’s no big deal. If you’re using this in a room with a wall you care about, you can get a side extension for $29.99. The net also comes with a nice pitching target that I’ll probably never use. It’s too high off the ground for me; I like to practice pitching into an old aluminum wash tub that makes a really loud sound when you hoop one.

Spornia has a five foot version for really small spaces. I feel like you’d need to be hitting right from the edge of the net’s base to ensure you hit it, but it is $100 less. So there’s that. The eight foot version is an extra $210. I could see the extra size coming in handy if you have a radar-based launch monitor and a couple extra feet of ball flight will improve the accuracy of your reads. Or maybe you’re the kind of person that always needs to buy the top of the line model. Who am I to judge you?

If the Spornia SPG-7 net were playing a match against its closest portable net competitor, it would close the match out after 16 with a 3&2 win.

By Mike Eovino