Sim Facility Boom: 5 More Openings in One Week

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I’ve written twice this week about sim facilities popping up everywhere. Seven in one week. Then fourteen more the very next day.

You’d think the well would run dry eventually.

Nope. Five more in the last 48 hours. Different states. Different formats. Different reasons for existing. The same underlying story: sim golf is infrastructure now.

Let me hit them quick.

Jerome Township, Ohio — Proposed Lounge Near Columbus

A developer has proposed an indoor golf facility and lounge for Jerome Township, just northwest of Columbus. Still in the proposal phase, but the interesting part is who is proposing it — not a golf pro, not an existing sim operator, but a developer who sees sim golf as a commercial anchor for a mixed-use development.

That’s a tell. When real estate developers start treating sim lounges the way they treat coffee shops and gyms — as amenity drivers — the category has arrived.

Source: Columbus Dispatch, July 2026.

Par Tee Golf — Tyler, Texas

Tyler, Texas is getting its first dedicated indoor simulator facility. Par Tee Golf is planned as a multi-bay sim center with plans to host leagues, tournaments, and casual play.

Texas is already a hotbed for sim facilities (Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston all have multiple locations), but Tyler is a smaller market. Population around 100,000. If Tyler can support a dedicated sim facility, the model works well beyond the major metros.

Source: KLTV.com, July 2026.

The Golf Place — Newtown, Pennsylvania

Bucks County gets its first state-of-the-art indoor sim venue. The Golf Place in Newtown is described as “state-of-the-art” with multiple simulator bays, which in 2026-speak means launch monitors you’d actually want in your garage.

Newtown is about 45 minutes north of Philadelphia. The Philly suburbs have been underserved on sim facilities — most of the action is in the city or down near the shore. This fills a gap.

Source: Google News RSS / local coverage, July 2026.

West Allis, Wisconsin — Milwaukee’s Surge Continues

West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, just got its newest indoor golf destination. This is the fourth sim facility I’ve tracked in the greater Milwaukee area in the last two weeks — Sweet Spot Golf Club in Franklin, the proposed West Allis location… the market is getting dense.

For context: Milwaukee has about 1.5 million people in the metro area. That’s four sim facilities serving a mid-sized Midwestern market. Two years ago, I think Milwaukee had maybe one. The pace of buildout is accelerating.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 2026.

Back Nine — Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Back Nine, the indoor golf franchise that’s been expanding across the Midwest, has opened a Cedar Rapids location. This is part of the broader franchise boom we’ve been tracking — Back Nine, X-Golf, Five Iron, and Golf VX are all scaling simultaneously, and Cedar Rapids is the latest data point.

Cedar Rapids is interesting because it’s a smaller market (population 135,000) with a strong corporate base (insurance, manufacturing). The sim franchise model needs enough white-collar workers to sustain leagues and corporate events. Cedar Rapids has that.

Source: Google News RSS, July 2026.

What This Keeps Telling Us

Five more facilities in 48 hours. That’s 26 facilities tracked in a single week across two articles and now this update. (Update #5 has since pushed the total past 40 — the latest batch includes a third 24-hour facility and Back Nine’s five-location expansion.)

The pattern is consistent:

Small cities work. Tyler TX (pop. 100K). Cedar Rapids (pop. 135K). Huntingburg IN (pop. 6K). The sim facility model isn’t dependent on NYC or LA. It works in Middle America.

Developers are catching on. The Jerome Township proposal proves sim facilities are being planned into mixed-use developments from day one — not retrofitted into empty retail spaces.

Franchises are the engine. Back Nine in Cedar Rapids. Five Iron everywhere. The franchise model is how sim facilities scale from novelty to infrastructure, and it’s happening right now.

Every one of these facilities is another reason to build your home sim. More people trying sim golf means more software innovation, more used gear when facilities upgrade, and more cultural acceptance. Your friends will stop asking “what’s that thing in your garage?” because they’ve already hit balls at a sim bar.

(If they still ask, bring them to one. Then show them the build guide.)

More facility coverage: Original · 14 More · Update #4: Openings + First Closure · Update #5: 15+ More · Indoor Golf Franchises · How TGL Made Sims Mainstream