Crossroads Golf KC Opens: 5 Trackman Bays and Craft Bar
Crossroads Golf KC opened its doors Friday at 3 p.m. at 1656 Washington Street in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. If you live in KC and haven’t been yet, you’re missing the kind of sim venue that makes you realize most other places aren’t trying hard enough.
The space is five Trackman bays, a bar, a lounge area, a merchandise shop, and a cigar patio — all housed in a building that was a cold storage warehouse for the Mid-Central Fish Company back in the 1920s. The original building’s cooling coils are now built into the bar tables. That’s the level of detail we’re talking about.
Managing partner Eric Willey told the Kansas City Star the concept was inspired by Denver’s craft golf scene. “We thought there was a space here downtown that needed it,” he said. “There’s quite a few out in the suburbs now, but downtown there was nothing.”
He’s right. The sim venue boom has been mostly suburban strip mall stuff — and that’s fine, that’s where the economics work. But downtown Kansas City, in the Crossroads, in a historic building? That’s a different bet. It’s a bet that the sim venue can be a destination, not just a place to practice your swing.
Crossroads Golf KC: The Hospitality Thing
Willey comes from hotel and golf hospitality. It shows. The difference between Crossroads Golf KC and a typical sim spot is evident before you even hit a ball.
When you book a bay, waters are already set out for you when you arrive. A “bay tender” — their term, and I like it — stays with your group the whole time. They set up your game, help you navigate the 500-plus courses on Trackman, and make recommendations so you don’t burn 10 minutes of your $60 peak hour scrolling through menus.
Most sim venues hand you a tablet and walk away. Crossroads Golf KC assigns you a person. That’s a meaningful difference.
The pricing is straightforward: $30 off-peak, $45 mid-peak, $60 peak. Walk-ins welcome if space allows. There’s a Founding Membership at $350 a month for unlimited golf, two-week advance booking (vs. 10 days for non-members), a private liquor locker, and the ability to bring up to three guests for free. Two more membership tiers are coming in the fall.
Crossroads Golf KC Food and Drink
The menu was curated by Chef Celina Tio, a James Beard Award winner and Food Network regular who owns The Belfry in KC. The whole standard food menu is $14 or less. Happy hour drops flatbreads to $10, cocktails and wine to $10, and draft beer to $6.
The drink menu is intentionally simple — every cocktail and glass of wine is $13, all nine beers are $6-$7. There’s a “beer buggy” option where you get six mixed-and-matched beers or seltzers served in a small green golf cart for $30. That’s the kind of fun detail that makes a venue memorable.
They also serve transfusions — vodka, ginger beer, lime, Concord grape juice — the unofficial golf cocktail. It’s not on the menu, but Willey made sure to have grape juice on hand for the soft opening crowd. If you know, you know.
Crossroads Golf KC Course(d) Concept
Here’s the idea that got my attention. Willey is planning themed dinners called “Golf Course(d)” events. The first one: you play a virtual course in Mexico on the Trackman, then sit down for a four-course Mexican-inspired dinner with drink pairings.
“Play a course in Mexico, then have a four-course Mexican-inspired dinner and drink pairings,” Willey said. “It’s like a sit-down course dinner, but you feel like you’re playing in Mexico.”
They’re planning the same for the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland. If you’re a sim venue operator reading this, steal this idea. It’s brilliant. It turns a simulator bay rental into an experience people will tell their friends about.
What Crossroads Golf KC Means for Sim Venues
Crossroads Golf KC is part of a wave of venues that are redefining what a sim facility can be. It’s not a golf store with a simulator in the back. It’s not a sports bar with a Trackman bolted to the wall. It’s a genuine hospitality venue that happens to have five world-class simulators — a model we’ve analyzed in the 24/7 golf simulator facility guide.
The leagues start in the fall — Monday and Tuesday nights, eight-week formats with head-to-head match play and alternate shot. Ladies’ Night on Wednesdays for $10. Lessons from instructors. Corporate events. The whole package.
Kansas City now has a sim venue that downtown residents can walk to, that has a James Beard chef on the menu, that serves transfusions and has a cigar patio. That’s a template more cities should follow.
If you’re in KC, go check it out. If you’re building a sim venue somewhere else, go study what they’re doing. The bar has been raised.
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