Beyond adding a new way to generate revenue during the winter months, course owner Terry Buzbee renovated the clubhouse and bar area at the 9-hole Wandering Creek GC in Marshalltown, Iowa to make his hometown a more attractive place for young adults and new families. “I started this whole deal by thinking, ‘How do I make Marshalltown a place my kids would want to live?’” Buzbee said.
Wandering Creek Golf Club in Marshalltown, Iowa added a pair of simulators when it recently renovated its clubhouse and bar area, the Marshalltown Times Republican reported. And it’s not just an additional revenue stream for the golf course to help better make use of the winter months, which makes outdoor golf unplayable in the state of Iowa.
It’s something course owner Terry Buzbee hopes will give golf a boost and help an initiative he’s been spearheading to make Marshalltown a more attractive place for young adults and new families, the Times Republican reported.
“I’ve been here for a long time, and young people say ‘Marshalltown doesn’t have enough to do,’” Buzbee said. “I’m saying we’re trying to knock that in the head.”
The idea came after discussions with Clubhouse Director Katie Lynch in September, and it wasn’t long before a plan was put into action to develop the clubhouse and add two rooms with virtual golf capabilities, the Times Republican reported. The construction of the new wing was done in less than two months, and the rooms were opened for business on December 15.
The clubhouse now holds this new area with high-tech simulation software projected onto big screens, where avid golfers and newcomers alike will have the opportunity to hit golf balls in the winter months on more than 100 courses around the world, Buzbee told the Times Republican. There is a removable wall in between the rooms, so parties can rent out both and occupy them at the same time. Due to COVID-19, masks are required in the common areas of the clubhouse.
The screens use Full Swing Pro Series software and two full-course simulators in the Full Swing simulator and e6’s golf simulator, the Times Republican reported. Lynch said it’s the same technology that NBC’s Golf Channel uses for its simulators and on-air teaching programs.
“On the Full Swing software we have at least 15 [courses],” Lynch said. “And on the e6 software there are 86. We get at least one if not two new courses through the Full Swing software per month.”
The game picks up swing movement and speed, calculates how far the drive would go, and then provides the user with immediate feedback on their swing, the Times Republican reported. The software also provides users the option to fly over holes on courses before deciding if they’d like to play that course, which Buzbee said is a beautiful tool and adds another dimension to the experience.
But golf games aren’t the only option available to customers who rent one or both of the rooms (at a $35/hour rate), the Times Republican reported. There’s soccer, bocce ball, carnival games, football, basketball and more in a list of apps offered by the software. In one game, participants can test their soccer skills by attempting penalty kicks against an AI goalkeeper at three different levels of difficulty.
Buzbee said he’s hoping to have the Marshalltown boys’ and girls’ golf teams—coached by his son-in-law—working in the simulators during the winter to help keep their games sharp ahead of their respective seasons, the Times Republican reported.
The golf simulators at Wandering Creek have the potential to change the game for the nine-hole course, the Times Republican reported, and Buzbee is aiming high.
“It’s this whole scenario of ‘Marshalltown More Than Ever,’” Buzbee said. “I started this whole deal by thinking, ‘How do I make Marshalltown a place my kids would want to live?’”
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