Club Hitting Simulators: Looking for feedback

[Myherobobhope]

My club is in the middle of a remodel, and we have the space but not yet the money for 2 simulator bays... Being the golf junkie I am, I think dropping 50k of someone else's money on the simulators is a great idea. I'm curious as to other people's experience with them.

How much do you pay for a simulator per hour?

Do you have any sort of league night?

How often is it in use?

Has it added value to your club?

[Dancin]

Probably too expensive but if your club can afford the systems with the overhead sensors, those are dramatically better than putting a trackman or foresight on the ground. If you're going with a ground box based system like Trackman etc.., they still have issues picking up the spin correctly on half swings, chipping etc.. although if you spring for Trackman your pro can use it for fittings.

[jvincent]

Go for a GCHawk. It mounts on the ceiling so no messing around for righties and lefties. It's also super accurate (measures all the ball parameters) and if you have dots on the clubs it also measures club head parameters and could be used for fitting.

The Golftowns in Canada upgraded to these last fall and have been renting them for winter practice at @25/hour.

[Myherobobhope]

Sadly, I'm not in charge of the equipment selection... apparently that has all been done... We have a set number and know what we are buying (Apparently)... I just need to figure out how to convince the board to fund it... basically, it's currently the last priority in our "reach" funding for stuff done at the club. My old argument of the fact it's the one thing that will generate NEW revenue for the club was too little too late... Now I'm basically trying to create a pre-buy package for people who are going to use it to "invest" in it ahead of time and get it done.

 

I'm a junior member and relatively new... I have little say in the actual day to day stuff, but can at least annoy the members of the board. The more information I have on cost and use of the equipment, the better off I am.

[Dancin]

If it isn't accurate on all shots, I doubt it will get a lot of play once the novelty wears off especially if it is an extra charge on top of the normal membership. I did a trackman winter league this year thinking it must have gotten a lot better since I last tried a simulator 15 years ago and I wasn't that impressed. Granted it's pretty accurate on full shots, but everything else is still way off.

[raynorfan1]

If it's useful to you, I looked back at our reservation system and we had 80 hours of sim time booked across two bays last week for revenue of ~$5,000.

Looking at the calendar, it's probably not likely to do a lot more hours than we did - basically every day from 4:00pm to 7:00pm plus all day on the weekends. We're also probably at close to peak simulator time right now as we close the winter out and people are getting ready for the season.

But regardless, I think we're conservatively on a two-year payback cycle.

[Myherobobhope]

Thanks guys... I think we are buying a gc quad and our pro and our assistant both have experience running simulators... just need to explain the potential to a conservative board.

 

its a camera based system, so will handle partial shots, I believe.

[jvincent]

If they are already willing to buy a GCQuad see if you can push them to go for the Hawk. The Quad will need to be moved from side to side to accommodate left handed golfers but the Hawk does not. I don't know what the price differential is, but it may not be that bad.

[Myherobobhope]

Thanks. I’ll see what I can do.

[Petethreeput]

When I was on our board I fought the same fight. Fortunately I had the GM on my side and our club bought a GC2 for the “added value” and it is free to use for members. It’s usually booked all winter.

the value was in the club sales. The pro shop was able to carry fewer sets since almost all clubs were special ordered. Because it could be taken to the range, or club sales increased over 100% in the first year. Since then club sales are up almost 300% since.

the new board is trying to figure out where to put a second one bc our only one is in constant use.

i think it’s a double win if you charge for its usage.

[Myherobobhope]

Yeah, I have it at $25 an hour for practice use and $25 for a foursome to play 18...

im trying to convince them to presell unlimited use for $500 to basically pay for the system upfront. We shall see.