Driving Range With Only Simulators

[khalespace]

Hey everyone, 

I am thinking about building a Golf Simulator in my garage and a business idea comes to me. Has anyone seen a driving range with golf simulators only? Is it a good business idea with a golf simulator driving range? If you are working on your swing and need accurate ball flight and spin numbers then I think a golf simulator with a good launch monitor can provide much better feedback than at the driving range. Besides, you have no issue with weather, wind or sun right in your face. Would you pay $10 to $15 an hour to use a golf simulator?

Thanks,

Edited September 16, 2020 by khalespace
grammar

[iacas]

Yes, there are a bunch of them.

And they generally cost a bit more than $10/hour.

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, khalespace said:

Hey everyone, 

I am thinking about building a Golf Simulator in my garage and a business idea comes to me. Has anyone seen a driving range with golf simulators only? Is it a good business idea with a golf simulator driving range? If you are working on your swing and need accurate ball flight and spin numbers then I think a golf simulator with a good launch monitor can provide much better feedback than at the driving range. Besides, you have no issue with weather, wind or sun right in your face. Would you pay $10 to $15 an hour to use a golf simulator?

Thanks,

 

I'm not sure where you are located. But there are two such places near where I live. The one I like is a place called "The Range", I know, clever, right? It's in Dublin, OH and it's pretty much what you describe. Although, it also has a bar, a workout area and an indoor putting area. 

Driving Range and Indoor Golf - The Range - Dublin, Ohio

 

 

[Darkfrog]

3 hours ago, khalespace said:

Has anyone seen a driving range with golf simulators only?

I think this is pretty common. $10-15/hour seems really low to be able to make back the initial investment on equipment, and eventually make money. Where I take my lessons, there are indoor practice bays, with cameras and launch monitors. You can use it as a simulated driving range, but they also have sim golf, so you could play a round if you wanted. I think it costs $50/hour. Seems expensive on the surface, but the startup cost and overhead for a setup like this is quite high - I think the launch monitors alone are around $25000, and then you need the computer/video hardware to run it all, and then consumable things like balls/high quality hitting surfaces/screen/nets, and that's not even taking into account rent, utilities, and operating staff.

Because I take lessons, I get one "free" hour of use of these practice areas in addition to each lesson. I put free in quotation marks, since it is obviously built into the cost of the lesson package.

[khalespace]

22 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

I think this is pretty common. $10-15/hour seems really low to be able to make back the initial investment on equipment, and eventually make money. Where I take my lessons, there are indoor practice bays, with cameras and launch monitors. You can use it as a simulated driving range, but they also have sim golf, so you could play a round if you wanted. I think it costs $50/hour. Seems expensive on the surface, but the startup cost and overhead for a setup like this is quite high - I think the launch monitors alone are around $25000, and then you need the computer/video hardware to run it all, and then consumable things like balls/high quality hitting surfaces/screen/nets, and that's not even taking into account rent, utilities, and operating staff.

Because I take lessons, I get one "free" hour of use of these practice areas in addition to each lesson. I put free in quotation marks, since it is obviously built into the cost of the lesson package.

Thank you for your information. I searched and surprisingly there is only 1 golf simulator range in my area. I live in Orange County, CA. I agree that $10 to $15 is too low. I will just focus on building my own golf simulator for now.

[nevets88]

I usually expect $50 an hour in NYC, at the minimum. Maybe $35 in areas away from city center. I think I paid that much for Flightscope in Toronto, probably more.

The PGA Superstores have a $150/year deal to use its indoor range at its stores which is a great deal. The simulators are probably outdated, they're not Trackman, but there's lots of space and you can video yourself. Dunno how that's going to work this year with COVID.

[bwdial]

This place opened near me recently.

Indoor Golf Studio

Prices are listed on the site.  I've never been.