When Heritage Oaks Golf Club finished the 2021 rebuild of its clubhouse in Northbrook, Illinois, PGA of America Director of Instruction Michael Wenzel saw an opportunity – and two Full Swing Pro 2.0 simulators were installed right off the club’s bar. Wenzel was charged with supervising simulator play, and he decided to create a community starting with competitive leagues.
“We only have two simulators, but we were able to build a cool nine-hole league format that works for almost everyone,” says Wenzel, who has been recognized by Golf Digest as a Top 40 Under 40 Teacher and by the Golf Range Association of America as a Top 100 Growth of the Game Professional. “We started with 60 people, and it has grown from there.”
The format is two-person best ball, nine holes, played whenever participants can get in during the week: no assigned tee times, no mandatory Thursday nights. You just have to complete your round before the weekly deadline, which – for a league full of traveling business associates and parents managing kids’ sports schedules – turned out to be the whole point.
“A lot of people just can’t always work out the schedule,” Wenzel says. “Life gets in the way.”
The league grew big enough that Wenzel split it into two divisions – the American Golf League and the National Golf League – with division winners advancing to single-elimination playoffs. He tracks handicaps, caps scores at triple bogey, and posts standings every two weeks so members can see who else is playing.
“People find out their dentist or their doctor is playing, as well,” he says. “It creates conversations and bonds that extend into the green grass season.”
Small cash prizes are awarded to winners, but they’re secondary to the energetic bragging rights exercised at the season-ending parties.
Wenzel also works to make side contests like closest to pin, long putt and long drive accessible at every level. The long putt was the key addition.
“I figured that’s something anybody can win,” he says.
Long drive is open to men and women, with the ball required to stay in the fairway. Participants photograph their results and send them in as proof.
“It’s one feature that’s actually better than real life,” Wenzel notes of simulator play. “There’s no questioning the hole-in-one.”
During winter break a few years ago, Wenzel added a parent-child scramble (pictured, inset) – nine holes on simulated Pebble Beach, open for drop-in play across two weeks – to fill a programming void when clients said they struggled to find something active to do with family. Twenty-one two-player teams entered the first one, competing across age divisions with custom scorecards, a closest-to-pin contest and merchandise prizes.
That format now runs three times a year, during winter break, spring, and late summer into early fall. Each one builds on the last. The fall outdoor event feeds the winter simulator version. Participants from one show up at the next.
“They just want to be out at the club,” Wenzel says, “hanging out and having a good time.”
For Heritage Oaks, the benefit has come in the form of more food & beverage sales throughout the Chicago area’s often-rough winters. Wenzel’s clients keep swinging through the cold months and start the conventional golf season in better shape and better form.
“Instead of having to shake off the rust in April or May, they’re already feeling good about where they are,” explains Wenzel. “So, they progress even faster when they get outside. It’s a win for everybody.”
