PLATTSBURGH — At Plattsburgh Golf Simulation, golfers have the chance to tee off on courses they only dreamed of playing on.
“You can play any course in the world, basically,” Griffin Parks said, as the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course in California was being simulated.
“It cost $600 to play a real round of it. They can come here and play it like twice in two hours for $110.”
Parks, 22, and James Conway, 22, both originally from Saranac, opened Plattsburgh Golf Simulation, located at 15 Clinton St. in Downtown Plattsburgh, together on Jan. 2.
As avid golfers themselves, they wanted to be able to play their favorite sport during the North Country’s long, winter months. It was important for them to open their business in Plattsburgh especially, because other simulators were about an hour away and there was a need for more to do here.
“There’s just nothing like this around here,” Parks said. “There’s also nothing to do in Plattsburgh — there’s basically just bowling, the movies or going to a bar.”
Their new business has allowed them, and many other local golfers, to now get close to the full golfing experience indoors with everything a golfer would need or want: grass, tees, golf clubs, golf balls and over 600 courses to choose from to simulate.
Conway said the two Uneekor EYE XO sensors they have allows golfers to view their swing in extreme detail and can help players of any level learn what they can do to get better.
“It tells you everything you need to know about your club path and everything about your club. and everything about the ball: how far it went, how much spin was on it, the speed of it.”
In addition to these metrics, lessons by their friend Nick Dodd will also be offered there.
“I actually just had a lesson recently and he was able to identify things a lot quicker than he would just watching with none of these numbers,” Conway said.
Four people can play on each simulator at once, but if a group of eight wanted to rent the place out, the two simulators can be connected and they can play together, Parks said.
Their hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Currently, there are six rates being offered: $35 for a half hour; $60 for one hour; $110 for two hours; $160 for three hours; $200 for four hours; and $470 for a ten hour bundle.
During the summer, Parks said they may opt to cut their hours back a bit. Though they still expect to get plenty of business on rainy days and at night, when it might be a convenient time for someone to come play after work.
“And some people would rather use the sim than a course,” Conway said, explaining the many opportunities a sim offers.
“There’s just a bunch of different options, a lot of different things you can do with it. There are par 3 courses you can play, to make them as short as you want, as long as you want, anything you can think of.”
And while Pebble Beach may be one of the most famous, coveted courses to play at Plattsburgh Golf Simulation, the 600 other courses offers a variety of options for its players.
This allows golfers of varying skill levels to pick what they’re comfortable with or try something new.
“We have a bunch of the top courses in the world that people probably never get a chance to play in real life, but they can come here and play a pretty accurate version of it. Shoot all the holes that they’ve watched all their favorite pros play … You don’t have to wait for people on the course. Like you can come anytime of the day, any weather, so some people just prefer that,” Parks said.
“So I think people will enjoy it as much as going to the golf courses around here.”
In the future, Parks and Conway are hoping to get their liquor license and if the business does well enough, a possibly bigger location.
“That would be the dream for sure,” Parks said.