ParTee Golf Brings Trackman Sims to Knoxville’s Smokies Stadium District

There’s a pattern emerging in the sim venue world that I keep noticing. Every new opening seems to follow one of two playbooks: the “upscale entertainment district” model (Five Iron, TruGolf Links) or the “24/7 keycard access” model (Another Nine, Back Nine). Both work. Both are proven.

ParTee Golf does something slightly different. And the difference is worth paying attention to. For context on the broader sim venue boom, see our sim venue startup playbook and commercial simulator guide.

ParTee Golf opens this September at Covenant Health Park — the home of the Knoxville Smokies, the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A affiliate. It’s right at the base of the Beauford Delaney Building, sitting in the stadium’s entertainment district alongside restaurants, breweries, and a soft serve spot. Three Trackman simulator bays, a putting green, eight TVs, a full bar with eight taps, and a menu of bar bites.

It’s a small venue. Three bays is boutique by sim industry standards. But the location strategy is what makes this interesting. For context on the accelerating sim venue boom, see our state of indoor golf America 2026 report.

The Seasonality Flip

The sim venue industry has a problem that nobody talks about enough: seasonality. Indoor golf is a winter activity. Demand drops in the summer when people can play real golf. Every venue owner I’ve talked to confirms this — summer is the slow season for sim bars.

Brennan Hunt, one of the ParTee Golf owners, said it bluntly:

“Simulators are inherently very winter activities. They are very seasonal. So, having the summer traffic that is always through here is going to be great for us. It’s turning one of the biggest weaknesses of these business models into one of our best strengths.”

That’s the insight. Covenant Health Park hosts baseball games from April through September. The Smokies draw solid crowds. A stadium district with 5,000+ people walking past your door on game nights is a built-in demand generator for the months when most sim venues are struggling.

It’s not a complicated idea. But it’s one of those obvious-in-retrospect moves that makes you wonder why more venues haven’t tried it. Stadium-adjacent real estate is expensive, sure. But the economics of a three-bay venue are different from a 10-bay flagship. Lower overhead, smaller staff, lower break-even. If you can capture even a fraction of game-day foot traffic in the summer, you’ve solved the seasonality problem without needing winter league members to carry the business.

The Venue Itself

Three Trackman bays. Trackman is the premium choice for sim venues — it’s the gold standard for accuracy, and it’s what serious golfers want to play on. The putting green is a nice touch for a three-bay setup; it gives non-golfers something to do while they wait and creates a social focal point beyond the sim bays.

The food and drink setup is straightforward. Eight taps, cocktail menu, bar bites. No chef-driven menu or wood-fired pizza (the Five Iron playbook). It’s a bar that happens to have golf simulators, not a golf simulator that happens to have a bar. That distinction matters for the business model — lower food costs, simpler staffing, faster table turns.

Hunt and Cushman met on Facebook last year, both looking for a business partner for essentially the same idea. That’s the kind of origin story that makes you root for them. Two guys who wanted to bring indoor golf to Knoxville, found each other, and made it happen.

What This Tells Us About the Market

The sim venue boom has been dominated by big franchise plays — TruGolf Links with 100+ locations committed, Five Iron with 50+ venues across 20 states, Another Nine with 75+ territories sold. Those are the headlines. But the real story of the sim venue market is the independent operators opening three-bay venues in secondary markets.

Knoxville isn’t a major market. It’s a mid-sized city with a strong college sports culture (Tennessee Vols) and a growing downtown. The Smokies stadium district is a new development. A three-bay Trackman venue at $60/hour for simulator time probably pencils out at a much lower revenue threshold than the glossy franchise models.

The sim venue industry is going to be built on the back of these small independent openings, not just the big franchise flagships. Every city with a stadium district, a downtown entertainment corridor, or a suburban shopping center can support a three-to-five-bay sim venue. The math works because the overhead is manageable and the demand is real.

ParTee Golf is a small example of a big trend. Three bays, a bar, and a smart location. That’s the formula that’s going to put sim golf in every mid-sized city in America.

The Takeaway

If you’re in Knoxville, ParTee Golf opens in September. Walk-ins welcome, hourly bay reservations available. Trackman sims, cold beer, and a stadium view. Hard to beat that combination.

If you’re thinking about opening a sim venue in your city, the ParTee model is worth studying. Small footprint. Stadium-adjacent. Low overhead. The seasonality problem solved by location rather than programming. It’s not the only way to do it, but it’s a smart way.

The sim venue market has room for the big franchise plays and the small independents. You don’t need 20 bays and a chef to make this work. You need three bays, a good location, and a bar that people want to drink at.

ParTee Golf hits all three.