You can play Golf without spending a fortune

It’s not easy to find a tee in a virtual Golf center these days. Due to the enthusiasm we are currently seeing across Quebec, a player may have to wait a few days before being able to hit his white ball on a state-of-the-art screen.

It is important to understand that virtual golf and outdoor golf are quite different. First of all, the player who shows up at a virtual center rents his screen for an hour, where he will have time to play at least 18 holes even if he is a Sunday golfer.

And the cost? Between $30 and $70 for an hour’s rental. Of course, if he has partners, the bill will be bigger because they will need more time to do a full round.

“We needed an activity for the winter,” explains Pierre Tardif, whom we met at the Saison Golf center in Saint-Jérôme. It allows us to play fields that we couldn’t play in reality.

“We can play a different field every time.”

Thanks to current technology, a player can play on the majority of golf courses around the world, but also those in Quebec.

“It’s really real,” adds his partner Germain Traversy. We can play on a field in Italy, Switzerland or Spain without paying for the trip.

For $40 per person, the four residents of Saint-Lin meet weekly in Saint-Jérôme to have fun in a festive atmosphere.

“It’s really less expensive than outdoor golf,” explains Mr. Tardif. Last summer, we went to a course where we paid $97 per person for our round.”

At the same time, it allows them not to lose control in anticipation of their next outdoor season.

Mario Désormiers was a ski enthusiast before discovering virtual golf. He decided to swap his boards for his poles during the winter season.

“I used to ski, but since I started virtual golf, I stopped,” he says. A day in Mont-Tremblant costs close to $150, not including your travel and food.”

Avoid the pitfalls

Despite the growing popularity of this sport, an investor cannot rush headlong into such a project.

First of all, building a virtual field requires $50,000 for a screen that includes cameras and software. This amount can be multiplied by four, six or eight depending on the size of the room where the center is located.

And we don’t count the amounts necessary for the construction of a bar or an equipment store.

“I wanted to complete a loop for all golf needs, but not just for indoor golf which lasts five months a year,” says Pascal Garneau, of Golf 3R, which has four screens.

“You have to be creative to be profitable. You need additional sources of income for it to be so.”

Like mushrooms

Since the end of the pandemic, virtual golf centers have mushroomed in Quebec because demand is so strong. However, the current owners know that they will have to avoid the trap of expanding too quickly as we often see in the business world.

Those at the Saison Golf center, who opened a new location in Lachute before the holidays, plan to launch another one next year if all goes well.

“We don’t want to saturate the market. We must not forget that it is a seasonal sport,” explains Steve St-Denis.

Visibility thanks to Tiger Woods, but…

Another factor could allow virtual golf to gain even more popularity in Quebec: the launch of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s league, TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League), in the last days in Florida.

Woods and McIIroy, two popular figures in the PGA world, invested several million dollars to set up this team circuit. The clashes are presented in Palm Beach Gardens in an amphitheater specially built to accommodate an IMAX-size simulator.

The presence of the two PGA players brings visibility and credibility that the sport has never had before. In the past, when technology was not very advanced, this discipline was rather marginal.

Could the creation of the TGL, with the notoriety of Woods and McIIlroy, have an impact as far as Quebec? Not really.

“I don’t know that there is a link between the popularity of golf and the arrival of Tiger Woods on the landscape,” mentions Pascal Garneau of Golf 3R. What they did with the TGL is crazy.

“It’s a new sport that they created. I was skeptical, but there is a lot of enthusiasm.”

Same story with another owner of a virtual golf center.

“I don’t believe that the presence of Tiger Woods will have an impact on the popularity of the sport,” adds Philippe Foliot, of L’oiseau in Saint-Sauveur. We have seen growth almost everywhere for several years.

“Was the TGL created because of this craze for indoor golf? I think it’s really being able to play during the winter that’s the big factor.”