Texas Sim Facilities 2026: Indoor Golf Across the Lo...

Texas is ground zero for the sim facility explosion.

I’ve been tracking this boom for weeks now. Seven facilities in a week. Fourteen more the next day. Then five. Then six. Then fifteen-plus. Over forty facilities tracked in a single month across five updates.

And Texas keeps showing up in every single batch.

DFW expansions. Houston 24-hour spots. College towns getting their first sim bay. Small cities nobody’s heard of getting dedicated facilities. Texas has more new sim facility activity than any other state, and it’s not particularly close.

This guide covers every facility you need to know about, organized by city and region. If you live in Texas and you’ve been wondering where to try sim golf before building your own setup, this is your guide.

The Big Picture: Why Texas?

Texas is the perfect market for sim facilities, and the numbers prove it.

First, population growth. Texas added more people between 2020 and 2025 than any other state. DFW alone gained 1.6 million residents. Every new rooftop is a potential sim customer, and the franchises are following the rooftops.

Second, winter is real enough. No, Texas doesn’t have Minnesota winters. But it gets cold enough from December through February that outdoor range sessions are miserable, and the weather is unpredictable enough that planning a real round is a gamble. Sims are the year-round backup.

Third, heat. Texas summers mean 100-degree days from June through September. The guy who wants to hit balls at 5 PM in July is not going to an outdoor range. A climate-controlled sim bay is the only option.

Fourth, money. DFW, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all have the income demographic that sim facilities need. High disposable income, homeowner-heavy, and a population that loves golf.

The math works. The facilities are proving it.

National Chains in Texas

PGA Tour Superstore

Start here. Always start here.

PGA Tour Superstore now has golf simulator demo rooms in every single location — that’s part of a national rollout that Forbes covered this week. In Texas, that means free demo access in:

Dallas (multiple locations)
Fort Worth
Plano
Houston (multiple locations)
Austin
San Antonio
Southlake

No appointment needed (though calling ahead is smart during busy hours). They have eight different launch monitor brands set up on hitting bays. You walk in, talk to the staff, and hit balls on a GCQuad or a Trackman. For free.

This is the single best way to try before you buy in Texas, and it costs zero dollars.

X Golf Alliance

X-Golf, the franchise operator, has multiple locations in Texas with more coming. The most recent opening is their Alliance location in North Fort Worth — simulators, drinks, food, the standard X-Golf model that’s proven to be the most scalable format in the space.

X-Golf locations are full sim bars. Think Topgolf but indoor, quieter, and with actual sim data instead of point-scoring. Good for a night out, good for practice, good for league play.

Back Nine

Back Nine is the fastest-growing sim franchise in Texas right now. They announced five new locations in a single week — two in Virginia, one in New Jersey, one in Florida, and one right here in Plano, Texas.

Their DFW locations now include multiple spots and they’re clearly targeting Texas as a core market. Back Nine locations have sim bays, full bars, and league nights. They’re more social than PGA Tour Superstore (which is a retail environment) but more serious than a bar-with-sims hybrid.

Five Iron Golf

Five Iron has a presence in Texas, particularly in the DFW area. Multiple sim bays, Trackman units, bars, and leagues. They’re the premium option — the kind of place where you’d book a bay for a client meeting or a date night.

The 24/7 Facilities: Golf Whenever You Want

This is where Texas gets interesting.

Birdie Central — Spring/Klein (Houston Area)

Birdie Central opened June 20, 2026, in the Spring/Klein area north of Houston. It’s a 24/7 keycard-access facility — you get a membership, you get a keycard, you show up whenever you want.

This is the second 24-hour sim facility we’ve tracked nationwide (after a proposed Berlin, CT concept) and the first one that’s actually live. The concept: you pay a membership fee, you get 24/7 access to bays with high-end launch monitors and sim software. Show up at 2 AM. Show up at 6 AM. Doesn’t matter. The door opens for you.

For the guy who works until 8 PM, puts the kids to bed at 9, and wants to hit balls at 10:30 — this format is an absolute lifesaver. Most sim facilities close at 10. Birdie Central never closes.

Source: Community Impact, July 2026.

Sherman — North Texas

A third 24-hour facility was announced for Sherman, Texas (north of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border). Three 24-hour facilities tracked nationwide, and two of them are in Texas.

That’s not a coincidence. The 24-hour format works because it solves a real problem: late-night golfers have nowhere to go. Texas proving grounds for the concept means the model can scale.

Source: KXII, July 2026.

Denison — Main Street

Denison, Texas (right next to Sherman) also has a facility on Main Street in the works. Same region, different concept — more traditional hours, but still serving the North Texas market that’s clearly underserved by existing sim options.

DFW Metroplex

Prosper

Prosper is a fast-growing DFW exurb that’s seen its population grow 200%+ in the last decade. A new sim facility opened here recently, serving the booming residential market north of Frisco.

If you live in Prosper or Celina, you no longer have to drive 30 minutes to McKinney or Frisco for sim golf. There’s one in your backyard.

League City

League City, southeast of Houston near Galveston Bay, got a new sim facility. This is the Houston suburban market filling in — not just Houston proper, but every growing suburb around it.

X Golf Alliance — North Fort Worth

Already covered above, but worth calling out separately: North Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing parts of the Metroplex, and X-Golf following those rooftops is a sign that the franchise model is working at scale.

What You Can Actually Do at These Facilities

If you’ve never been to a sim facility, here’s what to expect:

Hit balls on a simulator. Every facility listed above has at least one launch monitor connected to sim software — GSPro, E6, or Trackman. You pick a virtual course (Pebble Beach, Sawgrass, St. Andrews) and hit into a screen. The data is real: ball speed, carry distance, spin rate, launch angle, club path.

Take a lesson. Many Texas sim facilities offer coaching. PGA Tour Superstore has staff pros at every location. GolfTEC has dedicated sim bays for instruction. Private facilities like Back Nine and X-Golf often have lesson packages.

Drink a beer while you do it. Sim bars are the dominant format. You’re playing virtual golf in what functions as a bar with sim bays instead of pool tables. It’s social, not sterile.

Play league nights. Most chains have weekly leagues. Show up, get assigned a sim bay, play a format, drink, talk trash. It’s bowling league culture applied to golf, and it’s genuinely fun.

Test gear before you buy. PGA Tour Superstore is the obvious choice for this, but any facility with a current launch monitor (Trackman, GCQuad, etc.) will give you real data you can use to inform a purchase decision.

The Gap: What Texas Still Needs

Even with all this activity, there are gaps.

Austin is underrepresented. For a city its size and income level, Austin has fewer sim facilities than DFW or Houston. The boom hasn’t fully reached the capital yet. Expect this to change in the next 6-12 months.

San Antonio has room to grow. Same story — big market, decent income, but fewer dedicated facilities than the population would support.

Rural Texas is wide open. Places like Midland, Odessa, Lubbock, and Amarillo have essentially no sim facility presence. The franchise model needs population density, and these markets may not support a full sim bar. But a 24/7 keycard model like Birdie Central? That could work anywhere.

How to Find a Facility Near You

If I didn’t list your specific city above, here’s the play:

Search “indoor golf simulator [your city]” — Google Maps results are improving fast as more facilities open
Check PGA Tour Superstore locations — if there’s one in your city, you’re covered for free demo sessions
Search “sim golf near me” — the term is gaining search volume as the industry grows
Check the facility boom articles — I’m updating them weekly and Texas keeps adding new data points

What the Texas Sim Boom Means for Your Home Build

Here’s the connection most people miss.

The sim facility boom in Texas is not a separate story from the home sim story. It’s the same story.

When Back Nine opens in Plano, every guy who plays there thinks: “I could do this at home.” When Birdie Central launches 24/7 access, every member realizes: “I’m paying $X/month for this when I could have it in my garage.”

Facilities are lead generation for home builds. They lower the barrier to entry. They let people try sim golf without committing $5,000. And then they convert.

If you’re reading this because you’re thinking about building a home sim start with a facility visit. Go to PGA Tour Superstore, hit balls on a Trackman, talk to the staff, ask questions. See if the data is useful to your game. See if the experience of hitting into a screen feels right.

That visit costs you nothing. A home build costs thousands. The facility boom saves you from buying blind.

Your Next Move

You live in Texas, which means you have more sim options than almost any other state in 2026.

Go try one this weekend. Then think about the garage version.

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