A couple of entrepreneurial brothers looking to keep the legacy of their grandfather and his family alive in Michigan’s Great Southwest have established a new state of the art indoor “country club” for golfers in the Benton Harbor Arts District, which adds one more piece to the puzzle of the renaissance of downtown Benton Harbor.
Dramatic renovations have transformed the building at 259 Territorial Avenue across from Richard Hunt’s Benton Harbor Sculpting Studio into the exciting new Pipestone Indoor Country Club, a world-class golf simulation space with two major simulators in the house and expansion space for potentially as many as five to seven such bays if demand warrants expansion in future phases.
Adam Lester and his brother Dustin have invested heavily into the top rated golf simulation experience available in the country today. Their GolfZon Premium Vision+ simulators have been recognized by Golf Digest magazine as the Editors’ Choice Award winner for “Best Simulator/Luxury” in the Best Gear & Gadgets area for the last three years running — winning the award in 2017, 2018 and again here in 2019.
The brothers had plenty of motivation considering their grandfather, Bruce Dustin, created Pipestone Creek Golf Course on Naomi Road in Eau Claire, and the Dustin family continues to carry that tradition forward.
Ironically, Adam says, “My brother and I always knew that we wanted to go into business, and just last year we were sitting around wondering, ‘Are we always and forever simply going to talk about it, or are we going to do it?’ So then we started trying to put the pieces together. He had visited me when I was in Korea, and we got to try this out and we realized there was nothing around like it in our area, but my Grandpa was skeptical. However, my mom reminded him that 60 years ago when he started a golf course in the middle of a farm that most people were pretty skeptical, so he concurred — point taken — and he got excited for us, too, and was always offering input and trying to help us out.”
The Lester brothers really wanted Grandpa Bruce Dustin to be the first to hit a ball at their new business, but, as Adam notes, “We missed that window, but it was definitely a lot of the motivation for getting this thing together.” They missed the window when their grandfather died last December at the age of 89. Their mom is on the hunt for photos of Bruce at Pipestone Creek to frame and hang on the walls of the new destination attraction in Benton Harbor.
The new 3,000 square foot space is split into four usable spaces, a spacious lobby which includes the welcome desk, a large putting green and seating space…two simulator bays with the GolfZon Premium Vision+ gear…and a meeting and event room which will get a conference table capable of seating up to a dozen or more people and space that can be used for birthday parties, bachelor parties, business retreats, or whatever.
Adam Lester first discovered the amazing realism of the GolfZon simulators while living in Korea, where he says people have been playing indoor golf for decades due to space constraints and the costs associated with outdoor golf in that nation. He became enamored with the realism, the accuracy, and the incredible statistical feedback while playing on them.
He showcased them to me, and says, ” They have state of the art sensors, over 180 courses to choose from — from all over the world — and they even have an oscillating swing plate which replicates your lie on the course, so if you’re on a downhill shot, then it will tilt downward on you, or vice versa for an uphill lie.”
Unlike many cheaper simulators, there is also a three way patch where if you’re lying the fairway, you expect to take the shot from the fairway, or if you’re in the rough or the sand, the same. Many other simulators make you unrealistically hit the ball from a tee every time, which is decidedly unlike real golf. However, if you want to take all of your shots in an easy format from the fairway patch, the system will actually penalize you. Essentially, the power of your shot will be reduced since you’re not playing it from the proper lie.
Adam says, “The cool thing is, even for people who aren’t usual golfers, to just come in and have something fun to do, you are able to kind of ‘tone it down,’ whereas in real life, if you hit a slice, you’re hitting a slice, and if you’re a beginner golfer in here, it can forgive it a little bit, so you don’t end up virtually chasing your ball all over the place.” However, he adds, “For the experienced golfer, if you set it on ‘tour difficulty,’ it will be very, very similar to real life and on top of that, you’ve got cameras on which you can watch a replay of your swing, and check your form. It’s going to give you your ball speed, your club head speed and angle of the club head, show you your follow through, and all of those statistics that help you to improve your game.”
Adam says he’s most excited for the fact that, just like at Pipestone Creek Golf Course, it’s a very inclusive opportunity that makes it something for everyone, whether you’re an experienced golfer or have never hit a club in your life.
While you can’t play Pipestone Creek on the simulator, you can play some of the top golf courses in the world. Adam admits, “We did talk with GolfZon regarding what it would take to get a course uploaded and playable, and that actually takes quite a bit of money, so we’ll not likely see Pipestone Creek on the simulator anytime soon. However, they are constantly updating their courses and they are focused on the Top 100 in the country. They’re paying for that knowledge and if we wanted Pipestone, we’d have to pay a pretty penny to be sure.”
You can, however, play where the PGA Championship was just played at Oak Hill’s Bethpage Black…or Cog Hill, Harbortown, Pebble Beach, Spyglass, Trump National, Warwick Hills, St. Andrews, and many more including the best courses of America, Japan, Korea, Europe and beyond.
GolfZon is working constantly on adding the top courses in the world, according to Mr. Lester and they have immediate access to all updates as they take place, so there will always be something new for golfers to try out at the new Pipestone Indoor Country Club of Benton Harbor.
Adam says, “It even shows you the difficulty you can expect on each course. For example everybody was talking about Bethpage Black and how difficult it is, so when I had my friends here the other day testing things out I can assure you it is very difficult to say the least. It did not go well for those guys. But, it’s awesome for people to come and actually try it out for themselves if they’re thinking, ‘What could be so hard about that course?’ and give it a try to find out first hand.”
Adam notes, “The biggest difference between this and outdoor golf is going to be that you’re not paying for 18 holes, you’re paying for an hour of simulator time. You can have control of the entire suite, we just rent the suite which has the simulator in it, a flat screen TV, all the bells and whistles and comfortable seating for those awaiting their turn.”
If you are a regular golfer, it will probably take you an hour to finish 18 holes, largely because you’re not physically chasing your ball, or driving your cart. It cuts down on a lot of time, and you’re not running the expense of losing balls, tees, and things like that.
You can take your own clubs, however, you are asked to make sure they are completely clean, because dirt transfers from the club to the ball, and from the ball to the screen. They also have some sets available for you.
You can book by the hour, or more. Adam says, “If you have a foursome, playing 18 holes, you’ll want around four hours.” You can book in the house, or he admits it’s safer to do it online where you can see if the time you want is available. Just click the link below. There’s a booking engine, that shows you the price, the times available, and you can also go there to book packages which will earn you a better hourly rate, and even memberships which will give you the best hourly rate of all.
Memberships are different than a traditional golf membership, because whereas on a golf course you could go in a line and go off one at a time, once someone tees off in the simulator, they’ve got it for an assigned period of time, so their memberships are tied to a kind of basic membership which gets you four hours each month, and if you want to go more than that you pay more out of pocket. Here’s the link for booking and other information:
The Lester brothers figure that once you get in and understand the experience you get, you will be hooked. They admit that some friends were thinking it would be like an arcade game, but there is dramatically much more accuracy and reality to it, and they point out, “Most folks don’t realize they are actually able to play on any major course in the world from the current list of courses in the system.”
This week is an Open House, Walk-In week, where they are open daily from noon until 8pm through Friday. You can try a par three challenge for walk ins, but you can’t book the room until next week. Once they start regular hours beginning Monday with bookings, they plan to be in the house from 8am until midnight daily, however if somebody wants to get in before work, “We’d consider opening a booking at 6am, or if someone wants to stay a bit past midnight, we can arrange for that, too.”
Players are invited to bring snacks or non-alcoholic drinks because at this juncture they don’t have a liquor license. Adam says, “If we’re doing well with events we’d keep the event room, if there’s more demand for simulators, then we’ll try to approach that. Also, tying in the back, once we feel out what kind of volume we’re dealing with, it will be easier to justify the expense of going after a liquor license.”
Essentially, Phase one happens now. Phase two would be expanding the third room into a simulator, and Phase three would be going back into the rest of the building with a liquor license, setting up a bar, getting buckets of beer for people and things like that, but that would be the long term goal.
Adam says, “Ideally we may end up with 5 to 7 simulators in the house, and make it something that’s a more immersive experience, with a food and beverage component, and potentially something we could take to other areas.” The Dustin family legacy just got a nice bounce from a couple of young guys that want to make their Grandfather proud. Stay tuned, and check it out for yourself.
