Why indoor golf simulator clubs are planting flags across the Valley

There have been traditional golf courses across the Rio Grande Valley for more than a century, typically several miles long with acres of short green grass to water and maintain, where a round can take four hours to play, depending on how quickly the earliest-tee-time players move along in a golf cart or on foot. 

Typically attached to those golf courses are driving ranges where players can practice outdoors, and maintenance crews collect golf balls from the range. 

But the Valley is now on track to see nearly a dozen golf entertainment and training centers — known as indoor golf simulators — where players can tee off 24 hours a day, often order drinks at the bar, and play on a virtual 18-hole course anywhere in the world from inside an air-conditioned lounge like a video game. 

Indoor golf simulators have been sitting in country club caddy shacks for decades, especially for players looking to keep perfecting their swing during the offseason, which is winter in Midwestern and Northeastern states and summer across the Sunbelt. 

But there’s a new generation of golf simulators with more sensitive video cameras and swing-tracking software focused on precision, offering players strategies to reduce their handicaps on the course. It’s not just hitting golf balls into a net or screen to check the distance and whether it would slice or fade in real life. 

Nearly a decade ago, Topgolf, a corporate giant, opened in Pharr as an entertainment center featuring an outdoor rooftop golf range with netting visible from Interstate 2 and lights that let players continue playing after dark. 

In 2021, Killers Golf opened in McAllen, near Nolana Avenue and 4th Street, as an indoor golf simulator lounge, bar, and restaurant founded by Ron “Killer” Kilby, a three-time McAllen Amateur Champion. Killers Golf operates between 2 p.m. and midnight, Sunday through Thursday, and between 10 a.m. and midnight, Fridays and Saturdays. 

In April 2024, The Deep End in Harlingen opened. It’s a bar, restaurant, and arcade with golf simulators near Business 83 and Paloma Lane. The Deep End is owned by Juan Ramirez and operated by Peter Salazar, who founded the El Gallito restaurant in San Benito. 

In May, Hot 9 Golf in Brownsville opened its doors. The independent indoor multi-sport club, which features golf simulator bays as well as soccer and darts, sits near West Alton Gloor Boulevard, just west of Interstate 69 East. It’s co-owned by a husband-and-wife team, Genaro and Lizette Mercado. 

By the end of this year, The Back Nine Golf will open golf simulator studios in Harlingen at 122 Dixieland Road and in Brownsville, inside the new Sabal Market Center — the redesigned North Park Plaza near Interstate 69 East and Price Road. The Back Nine Golf is a franchise founded in 2020 by an entrepreneur in St George, Utah, and is open 24 hours a day for members. 

The Par 5 Golf Lounge in Mission, which is seeking zoning permits from the city this week to serve alcohol, is expected to open in the coming months near Stewart Road and Interstate 2. Par 5 Golf Lounge LLC is owned by Arturo Guerrero. Par 5 Golf Lounge is expected to operate from noon until midnight Monday through Wednesday, between noon and 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. as well. 

The City of Edinburg is also moving forward with several indoor golf simulator bays at the Ebony Hills Golf Club, which is expected to open in the coming months, too. 

On Thursday, a new golf simulator opened in Pharr near Minnesota Road and Interstate 69. Pin High Golf Studio is the brainchild of the Moya brothers, Ali and Jorge. 

Growing up in Roma, Jorge told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal he wasn’t very interested in golf. 

“Golf has evolved in a way that it’s no longer this super prestigious, classist sport as it was kind of historically,” he said. “Now it’s really open to everybody, which I think is great. We didn’t grow up with wealth or anything like that, so I was always intimidated getting into the game.” 

But that changed decades later, when he was living in Austin and working in the technology industry, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, The newfound hobby was yet another bond between the brothers. 

“I picked up golf during the COVID-19 era. I think that’s where we saw a big growth in the game itself,” he said. 

Then, when he’d visit family back in the Valley, he’d be surprised that “Friends that I would have never guessed were out there golfing with buddies,” he said. 

So when Jorge moved back to the Valley after a decade away, the brothers decided to open a small business that offers a different form of entertainment to the region. Demand has been strong so far for the four-bay golf simulator club. 

“We have camera technology, like the overhead launch monitor, that’s what tracks the ball data, the club data to really give you those accurate numbers as if you were playing real golf,” Jorge said. “You’re no longer restricted to what’s here locally; if you want to play a course in California or even one across the world, you can do it on the simulators. There’s been a lot of advancements with the simulators.” 

The existing outdoor golf ranges, especially during peak demand hours after work, are now often overloaded with players trying to practice in the few hours when the heat begins to fade and the sun sets, he said. 

“We’ve seen so much demand and so much positive feedback,” he said. “If you go to the [regular golf course] range here at 7 p.m. when the sun is setting, it’s next to impossible to find a good spot because it’s packed, but it’s too hot to go earlier in the day. Before COVID, that was never the case.” 

The simulators are popular with newer players who may not be comfortable enough with the game to keep pace on a course with dozens of players behind them, those who don’t have four hours to burn, or professionals who need to keep their skills sharp. 

The Pin High Golf Studio has golf trainers and club fitters and will be running a golf league over the summer. The goal is to invite women’s golf clubs and foster partnerships with collegiate teams, such as those at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, or even high school teams. 

“Simulators won’t replace the golf course, but it’s a unique experience. It’s a very social lounge, we welcome date nights or friends,” he said. “Plus, living here in South Texas, where it’s 100 degrees in the summer, not everyone is able to get out there.”