Jeff Tapp is an avid golfer. He’d golf year ’round if the weather in this area were such that he could. Because Mr Tapp is a real golfer. He hates simulators.
Despite ranking fourth among the Golf Digest “Best Golf States,” play on the great courses here in Michigan is seasonal. Closed months ago with the onslaught ice and snow, March 25 re-openings are optimistic, early to mid-April more common. Four or five months off the links can’t be good for anyone’s handicap. [1,2]
That’s exactly what Jeff Tapp was thinking when he tried what he thought would be just another simulator during his 2016-2017 hiatus. But that experience changed his mind and his life. Ten months later, he and partner John Miller opened X Golf Ann Arbor on East Michigan Avenue in Saline. [3]
X Golf is distinguished by its underlying technology, beginning with its short game. Simulator sensors can track the ball starting at just eighteen inches. This means superior feedback on putts and chipping. [4]
In South Korea, where corporate X Golf is based, “screen golf” (as it is called) is extremely popular — and serious. “It has to be,” Mr Tapp explained to Saline Journal. “Land for physical courses is at a very high premium.”
The game can be quite serious at X Golf Ann Arbor, too. The center here in Saline is wrapping up its winter league, which was fully booked, and starting a spring league next month. This fall is already halfway to capacity. And with five simulators running the same tech, different groups can compete against one another on the same course at the same time, but without the wait times.
Players can review video of their games at any time immediately after play for self-assessment or feedback from others. You can also watch pros play the exact course that you are playing as you go along. Upping the ante even further, golf pro Paul Van Slambrovek gives private lessons to individuals and groups.
On average, one person can play eighteen holes here in about an hour; figure two hours for two people.
Like Michigan as a whole, Washtenaw County has a number of fantastic golf courses. How does X Golf Ann Arbor fit into that mix? [5,6]
“December and January are our busiest months,” responded Jeff Tapp. But his business model isn’t limited to off-season play. This is a place to enjoy a variety of otherwise inaccessible courses in their entirety, or repeatedly focus on a particularly challenging short repeatedly for improvement. “There’s no such thing as a rainy day here.”
Looking outside now, the sun has retreated past Austin Road. The wind seems to be picking up a bit as the thermometer drops closer to freezing. But X Golf Ann Arbor is open ’til ten o’clock tonight.
Once again, that makes “now” the perfect time for a round of golf in Saline.
References
- “Eager for green: Michigan’s golf course operators long for warmer weather” Vartan Kupelian (March 16, 2014, updated March 16, 2017) Crain’s Detroit Business.
- “Active Michigan Golf Season: Official Michigan golf season is April 1 – Oct 31” Golf Association of Michigan.
- X Golf Ann Arbor (home page).
- “X-Golf Franchise Company” Playlist, YouTube.
- “Business by Category: Golf” Saline Area Chamber of Commerce.
- “Golf” Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber.
