Facility Boom #14: Back Nine at 200, London
Another week in the indoor golf facility boom. Let me cut through the press releases and tell you what actually happened. The headline numbers keep climbing. Back Nine has crossed 200 open US locations, Five Iron opened its London flagship as part of a 20-million-pound UK expansion, and a new operator in Pennsylvania learned the hard way that not all contractors know how to build a commercial simulator facility. The market is growing fast enough to hide mistakes but not fast enough to fix them. Here is what you need to know.
Back Nine: 200 Locations and Still Accelerating
Back Nine quietly crossed the 200-location mark. The company reports approximately 20 new locations per month, which puts it on pace for 240-plus this year. The original goal of 150 by end of 2026 was hit months early. New this week: Back Nine League City, Texas opened June 9 at 2640 E. League City Parkway with a grand opening scheduled for July 25. A four-bay facility with 24/7 access, Full Swing technology, and the standard Back Nine membership model. Back Nine Richardson, Texas received City Council approval for a special permit on June 8. Located in a 17.4-acre shopping center on Coit Road. Four Full Swing bays, 24/7, members-only. This is the fourth Back Nine in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, joining Plano, Allen, and McKinney. The density question is starting to matter for Back Nine. At 200 locations concentrated heavily in the South and Midwest, they are beginning to compete with themselves in the suburbs. The Richardson-to-Plano drive is 15 minutes. That is not a market gap. That is the beginning of a cannibalization pattern that franchise systems typically ignore until it becomes a problem. Back Nine Reston, Virginia signed a 4,500-square-foot lease at 1860 Reston Row Plaza in the new BLVD Haley development. This is notable because Reston was originally slated for a Puttshack location that fell through. Back Nine stepped into the space the regional mini-golf-and-beer concept vacated. It is also the sixth Back Nine in Virginia after Leesburg (opened May 7), plus locations in Richmond, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach in development. Back Nine also announced an exclusive Full Swing partnership that makes them the largest Full Swing-powered franchise network in the country. The deal gives Back Nine franchisees access to proprietary software, app functionality, and data-driven programming. With 300-plus additional locations scheduled to open by end of 2027 and international expansion into Canada, Australia, and the UK, Full Swing just locked in the highest-volume customer in the commercial sim space.
Five Iron Goes Global: London Opens, Nashville Debuts
Five Iron Golf opened its first UK location in Broadgate, London, this week. CEO Eric Parker, a former precious metals trader, bought the UK franchise rights and plans 10 locations across Britain. The company announced a 20-million-pound investment with New York-based Third Seven Capital as the lead investment vehicle. Five Iron now has more than 40 locations across 16 US states and five countries. The UK expansion is a bet on the premium golf entertainment model working in a market where indoor golf has historically been limited to driving ranges and private members’ clubs. Five Iron’s average unit volume was $2.7 million in 2024. Whether that translates to London, with its commercial real estate costs and licensing complexity, is an open question. Also new: Five Iron Nashville, Tennessee opened at 202 21st Avenue South in Midtown. A 14,500-square-foot venue below the Aertson Midtown hotel, operated by franchise partners Peter McCormick and Alex Zega. This is Five Iron’s first Tennessee location. For more on the facility landscape, see our facility boom update 16 and indoor golf franchise comparison.
The Capital Greens Nightmare: A Lesson in Contractor Due Diligence
This is the story every prospective sim facility operator needs to read before signing a buildout contract. Skyler Plott opened Capital Greens Golf in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Two weeks in, a code enforcement officer showed up. The inspector found serious violations. The contractor had never pulled a single permit. He used residential 2x4 studs instead of commercial metal studs. The electrical wiring was residential Romax instead of commercial-grade. The sink was not ADA-certified. The verdict from the code officer: tear it all down to the studs and rebuild. Plott had 30 bookings lined up. He had been open two weeks. He and his wife spent days doing the demolition themselves. They ripped out walls, disconnected electrical, removed plumbing. Total loss on the initial build: roughly $25,000 to $30,000 in combined materials, labor, and lost rent. Plus they had to pay for the rebuild. The contractor offered to tear it down and rebuild for $7,500 in labor, with Plott paying all materials and permits. Plott fired him instead. Here is what this means for you, the person reading this thinking about opening a facility: building permits are not optional. Commercial code is not a suggestion. And the contractor who says “we can start next week, don’t worry about permits” is the most expensive contractor you will ever hire. A proper buildout with permitted work, licensed electricians, and the correct commercial materials costs more upfront. It costs less over the life of your business. Plott is rebuilding with proper permits and commercial-grade materials. The timeline is uncertain because permitting in Pennsylvania is slow. Capital Greens will reopen. But the lesson is written in $30,000 of ripped-out residential wiring.
Raby’s Golf Central: The Restaurant-Within Model Gets Real
Chris Raby, owner of Raby’s Golf Central in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, got approached by Summit Smokehouse owner Jim Holton. Holton wanted to clear out space in his restaurant and host a golf simulator inside. Raby said yes. Raby’s Golf Central is temporarily closed and moving into Summit Smokehouse. The indoor golf course uses Trackman iO with access to 288 courses, 51 venues, and three new courses monthly. Players stand 10 feet from the screen. Raby has access to Summit’s liquor license and their food menu. This is the restaurant-within model we have talked about in previous updates. The operator gets built-in food traffic. The restaurant gets a differentiated offering. The capital costs collapse because the space is already built out. Raby is targeting a late June opening. The risk is revenue share complexity and the fact that the sim bays are secondary to the restaurant’s core business. When Summit Smokehouse has a busy Friday night, the sim bays might feel like an afterthought. When it slows down, the sim revenue matters more. The power dynamics of restaurant-within arrangements are tricky. But for a single-bay operator in a small market, the math beats a standalone lease every time.
Sweet Spot Golf Club: Family-Owned in West Allis
Sweet Spot Golf Club opened June 15 at 11606 W. Dixon Street in West Allis, Wisconsin. Owner Evan Kiefer built a 2,700-square-foot short-game practice area with putting greens, chipping greens, and a real sand bunker, plus simulator bays. The family-owned facility targets making golf more welcoming and affordable. The facility is small. It is not a franchise. It is not backed by private equity. It is the kind of local operation that does not make the franchise blogs but represents the majority of actual indoor golf facilities in America. Kiefer did not try to out-spend Back Nine or Five Iron. He built a space that serves his community, keeps costs low, and generates revenue from lessons and practice rather than premium hourly rates. It is a model that works in markets where the franchise chains are not yet interested.
X-Golf Middleton: Wisconsin Gets Another Option
X-Golf Middleton opened in Middleton, Wisconsin, just outside Madison. This is X-Golf’s second Wisconsin location and part of the chain’s steady expansion into mid-sized Midwestern markets. X-Golf now has more than 50 locations in the US.
GolfSuites Pivot: Lubbock Driving Range Sold, Sim Lounges Ahead
GolfSuites followed through on its planned pivot. The company sold its Lubbock driving range to Double Tee Golf & Restaurant, a newly formed local entity led by Marc McDougal and Keith McNeese. The transaction closed June 4. GolfSuites is now focused entirely on indoor simulator lounge development for company-owned and franchised locations. The Lubbock transition keeps the facility operating under local management with the same staff. For the broader industry, this is the most concrete signal yet that the sim-lounge-only model is winning over hybrid range-entertainment concepts among investors. GolfSuites had the data to make that call. They looked at unit economics across both formats and chose sim lounges.
The Closures: Old News, Lingering Lessons
The Sweet Spot Bar & Grill in Allentown, Pennsylvania closed June 30 after three and a half years. The owners cited the lasting impact of COVID closures and a struggle to raise awareness. This was a Topgolf Swing Suite-powered restaurant concept, not an indoor golf facility per se. But the closure fits the pattern we have tracked all year: the restaurant-with-sims model is the one dying, while the sims-as-primary model continues expanding. Valley Golf Center in Fresno will close July 29 after eight years. Owners Cindy Vining and her partner are retiring. The property owner, Valley Children’s Healthcare, is in talks with a potential new operator. The facility might stay open under new management. The closure date is the current owners’ retirement date, not necessarily the facility’s end.
Market Signal: What These Openings Tell Us
The second half of 2026 is shaping up like this: Back Nine is winning the franchise volume game by a wide margin. Two hundred locations with 300 more scheduled puts them on a trajectory that no other indoor golf franchise comes close to matching. The risk is market saturation in the South and Midwest, where Back Nine is densest. The next 12 months will tell us whether the 300-city plan works or whether the company shifts to international expansion faster than planned. Five Iron is winning the premium positioning. International expansion and an average unit volume of $2.7 million give them the unit economics to absorb slower markets. They do not need 200 locations. They need 40 to 50 well-chosen ones. The independent operators are winning on adaptability. Raby’s restaurant-within model and Sweet Spot’s family-owned approach show that the market still has room for small, locally focused operations. The capital-light path is alive and well, especially in secondary and tertiary markets where franchise buildout costs do not pencil out. The contractor problem is real. Capital Greens is not the first facility to have a buildout disaster and it will not be the last. Until the commercial sim industry develops a standard contractor certification or at least a vendor reference network, every operator is doing due diligence from scratch. That is expensive in both time and money. For the full franchise comparison including Back Nine, Five Iron, and Another Nine, see the Indoor Golf Franchise Comparison. For startup costs across bay counts, see the Golf Simulator Startup Costs by Bay Count. For the previous update, see [[facility boom update #13](/blog/facility-boom-update-14-back-nine-200-five-iron-london-2026/).