⛳️ Dream it. Build it. Craft your perfect home setup or launch a thriving business. I began looking into indoor golf as a potential investment opportunity.
Play it. ️We're your one-stop shop for all things golf simulators - business plans, in-depth reviews, expert advice, and buyer surveys, data-driven insights. In doing so, it quickly became apparent that the assumptions about the number of rounds played drove the business case on such an enterprise. This refers to both the number of simulators my area could support and the percentage of time they
would be rented. Most of the simulator manufacturers had ROI models that they provided me showing an expected utilization of ~70-80% for the year, but were unable to share actual results. They also didn't have any empirical information on impacts of weather, population, etc. I decided to create a survey to collect that sort of information and provided a copy back to participants of the survey. What I found was that these ROI models overstated actual use. I was also able to evaluate a number of other data sources covering weather, golfers in a 10 mile radius, home price, percentage of renters, etc around a facility to identify a few drivers to help build a forecast of expected utilization in my area. In the end, I concluded that an indoor golf center could be profitable, but not close enough to replacing my existing salary to be worth the risk. Given the total lack of information like this, I thought it might be interesting to see if I could build a community and continue to gather data that owners would find useful. If through this venture, someone comes up with a way to crack the nut on how to really drive strong traffic in good weather, I might still open a facility some day.
08/07/2025
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The Yardstick Golf Story
I began looking into indoor golf as a potential investment opportunity. In doing so, it quickly became apparent that the assumptions about the number of rounds played drove the business case on such an enterprise. This refers to both the number of simulators my area could support and the percentage of time they would be rented.
Most of the simulator manufacturers had ROI models that they provided me showing an expected utilization of ~70-80% for the year, but were unable to share actual results. They also didn't have any empirical information on impacts of weather, population, etc. I decided to create a survey to collect that sort of information and provided a copy back to participants of the survey.
What I found was that these ROI models overstated actual use. I was also able to evaluate a number of other data sources covering weather, golfers in a 10 mile radius, home price, percentage of renters, etc around a facility to identify a few drivers to help build a forecast of expected utilization in my area. This led to the creation of the Complete Startup Package for Indoor Golf.
THE INDOOR GOLF STUDY (RESEARCH ON INDOOR GOLF BARS)
The Indoor Golf Center study is a valuable tool for prospective golf simulator bar owners and investors. In addition to detailed analysis factors driving golf simulator choices, indoor golf visitor volumes by month, frequency of golfer visit, composition of revenue and future plans, the indoor golf study provides straight forward metrics to benchmark your business.
These include things like:
Average hourly golf simulator price charged
Golf simulator utilization by month
Indoor golf revenues by age of business and number of simulators
Ratio of the number of golf simulators per golfers within 10 mile radius
EXCEL INDOOR GOLF STARTUP MODEL
The model takes all of the information learned in the study and puts it into a simple to use Excel-based business model. It allows you to project profits and losses based on real business averages learned in the study.
The indoor golf business model includes information to help you determine the right number of golf simulators for your golf simulator bar based on home ownership, number of golfers in the area and weather.
It also includes a 3 year summary financial projection based on the input you provide along with detailed monthly forecasts for years 1 through three on separate tabs. Each is formatted and ready to print to make it easy to use with your bank, investors or business plans.
The model allows you to see averages and adjust assumptions for:
Monthly indoor golf simulator player volume, along with food and beverage consumption and cost per golfer
Cost of rent, marketing expenses and merchandise sales
Number of golf simulators and rate charged per hour for golf simulator use
Initial capital expenses, number on staff and square feet of your indoor golf facility
Hours per week the golf simulator bar is open
and much more. . .
INDOOR GOLF BAR LOCATION GUIDE
Picking the best location can be a complicated endeavor. You want to be sure you are convenient to customers, have the right amount of space, aren't paying too much, understand build out for your facility and more. It's a lot to stay on top of as you are trying to start a business. Make it easier with our location analysis tool. With a small amount of data to collect on each property, we give you 8 comparative financial metrics and 11 descriptive comparisons on each property. We also show you have to find out the number of your target customers in a 5 mile radius from each location.
Here is a screenshot from the location analysis tool:
INDOOR GOLF PLAYER PREFERENCES STUDY
Yardstick Golf surveyed indoor golfers to understand their preferences and find out more about what might make their experience more enjoyable or more frequent. This paper shares what we found and how you might use the information.
The study is 5 pages covering how factors such as a player's handicap drive differences in how they think about indoor golf, how frequently they'll play, whether they'll recommend to a friend and more. The preferences study is included with your purchase.
In the end, I concluded that an indoor golf center could be profitable, but not close enough to replacing my existing salary to be worth the risk.
Given the total lack of information like this, I thought it might be interesting to see if I could build a community and continue to gather data that owners would find useful. If through this venture, someone comes up with a way to crack the nut on how to really drive strong traffic in good weather, I might still open a facility some day.
