FEATURE
By Dave Donelson
Golf simulator studios lead the latest wave of amenities sweeping through the club world. More clubs are installing the technological wonders to meet demand for practice, instruction, and socialization. Underlying it all? The facilities add value to club membership while increasing club usage, particularly in the offseason.
The clubs are responding to growing demand for off-course golf experiences. The National Golf Foundation reported that American on-course golf participation reached 28 million players in 2024, and 17 million of them played off-course as well. Perhaps more telling is that the number of golfers who exclusively played off-course climbed to 19 million. In other words, more golfers played indoors than outdoors.
One of the most recent to climb on the simulator bandwagon is Sunningdale in Westchester. The club opened a three-bay simulator facility in late 2024, and head pro Chris Toulson reports it has been a big hit with members. Sunningdale members historically hung up their clubs for the winter, he says, but now “Friday afternoon and then all day Saturday and Sunday, it's pretty much packed.” Members reserve time using the same online tee time system they use during the regular season. “Ten years ago, simulators were not the norm. Today, though, a club has to have top notch amenities to compete.”
Long Island’s Meadow Brook was an early adopter of simulator play, building a three-bay facility in 2019. “We were one of the first to offer dual use in that you could raise the door and hit out like most buildings that you see,” says head pro Matt Dobyns. “Or you could lower the door, drop a screen that is the width of the room, and move back ten feet and use it like a simulator.”
The facility got a lot of member use from the beginning. “We’d have small groups of members who would come play the simulator as if they were playing a golf course,” Dobyns says. “Then there were some guys who will only hit with the doors open to hit balls out into the snow.”
The winter months continue to be a popular time for Meadow Brook members to take advantage of the facility. “We see more individual practice and guys who want to get some reps in before they go on a trip in mid-winter. The guy leaving for Florida on Friday might come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and hit balls so that when he plays on his trip, it’s not like he's relearning how to play golf.”
Off-season instruction in Meadow Brook’s hitting bays is also popular with members because it’s easier to make a change when you’re just practicing. “It’s the easiest time to make some sort of a major change,” Dobyns says. “You don’t have to worry about what a grip change is going to do to somebody’s handicap. It’s hard to commit to that change in the summer, especially when you’re seeing results that might be sort of mixed right out of the gate.”
Dobyns adds that training with a simulator has definite advantages. “If you see a ball on a screen, it’s telling you hit it a certain distance and a certain amount off the line, but it doesn’t really register as good or bad to most golfers.” When we watch the ball flight outdoors, he says, extraneous information and outside influences can cloud our conclusions. “On the simulator, you’re not judging those shots as harshly as you would if you were on a golf course, so it’s easier to make those big swing changes in the wintertime. Then when you come out in March, April, May, and see the ball fly, it’s gonna be easier to stick with it.”
Simulators have also proven to be a boon for parents introducing their kids to the game at the club because of the game modes available in Trackman, one of the top brands on the market.
The club has long studied what members are looking for and where they spend their time. When clubs like Ridgewood were built in the 1920s, golfers didn’t practice or even warm up before they hit the first tee. Ranges were a luxury, especially in neighborhoods where real estate was limited. In the last 20 years, though, Reasoner points out that members’ desire to practice has taken off, prompting expansion of ranges and short game areas where possible – and construction of simulator facilities when the technology came on the market.
Response was tremendous when Ridgewood opened its four-bay simulator-equipped building in 2022. “Rainy days are kind of our busiest days now,” Reasoner says. “And we have leagues for juniors and adults that run all winter long. All of that technology has helped our teaching program as well. And when I look back at our junior golfers, I wonder how far could they have gone if we had this back then? Some of them played high level collegiate golf. But this is a whole other animal when they can play year-round.”
Two of the bays are equipped for club fitting and instruction. The other two are in what Reasoner calls the community area. “That’s where you could come in and play matches and have people watch. And if there are parents and their children are taking lessons, they can sit back and socialize or observe.” The community area has seating for 20 as well as a bathroom.
Westchester’s Quaker Ridge made a major investment in simulator play in 2020 when a new two-story building was erected next to the first tee to house the golf shop as well as three simulator bays on the first floor and three more on the second, where there’s also a pool table, bar, and lounge seating. The three downstairs bays address the club’s lack of a range.
“When members and guest make a tee time,” head professional Mario Geurra says, “we book time before that for them in the bays, so each person gets time to warm up.” The bays also open onto the first fairway for off-season use.
And just like during the warmer months, there’s a social component to it, too. “It’s not just people working on their swing,” Guerra notes. “We have members who religiously book the same time on a weekend morning not dissimilar to the way that they have their set time with their foursome during the regular season. They bring in a breakfast sandwich and play nine to 18 holes every Saturday or Sunday morning.”
What’s next? Guerra doesn’t expect to change any hardware because the software is evolving with the times. “The user interfaces gets easier for the members to figure out on their own.” He’s considering adding additional TVs in the social area to increase the sports-bar vibe and improve the experience for spectators of simulator matches.
Reasoner expects AI to further infiltrate the simulator bays. For instruction, he’s already using Trackman for swing and ball-flight analysis and JC Video for motion analysis, but he recently adopted SWEE technology, an AI-powered swing analyzer that he uses to double-check his observations.
Dobyns installed a markerless 3D system last year. “It’s been really, really good. It measures the movement of the body, pretty much every joint in three dimensions without cumbersome markers or wires.”
Indoor golf isn’t for everyone, and some mourn the intrusion of technology into the game, but Reasoner points out that a human being still has to hit the golf ball. “At the end of the day, that still has to happen,” he says. “There’s a backswing and a through-swing, and there’s a ball in the middle.”