Picture two golf-obsessed friends, both holding down full-time jobs in the auto industry, who turn a backyard practice habit into a business. They bootstrap a tiny simulator venue next to a breakfast restaurant, run it around work and family, and two years later sell it to the man who owns two of the neighborhood country clubs. That’s the short version of what just happened in Midlothian, Virginia, and it’s more than a feel-good small business story.

The deal, first reported by Richmond BizSense, puts a traditional golf operator in charge of a 24/7 simulator club, and it hints at where indoor golf may be heading as outdoor clubs hunt for ways to keep members swinging through the winter. Here’s what happened, what the data says about the economics, and what’s worth watching next.

What Happened

According to Richmond BizSense, Mike Hatch, who owns Brandermill Country Club and Birkdale Golf Club in Chesterfield County, has acquired Green Club, an indoor simulator venue on Harbourside Centre Loop in Midlothian. He bought it from its two founders, Kyle Petersen and Jarad Earley. The deal closed in October for an undisclosed sum, and Green Club now belongs to Acumen Golf, Hatch’s company, which also manages Lake Chesdin Golf Club. Hatch said the timing was deliberate. With three clubs in the area and winter on the way, he wanted to introduce Green Club to his members around the fall time change.

From Backyard Idea to Exit in Two Years

Green Club began with Petersen’s quest for more practice swings. As BizSense reported at the 2024 opening, he started by thinking about a backyard setup, then a garage simulator, then a shared one for the neighbors, and eventually found himself leasing a 1,700-square-foot storefront. He and Earley bought two TrackMan units at $22,000 each and handled much of the build-out, website and computer setup themselves to keep costs down.

The formula was simple. Members got around-the-clock access through a fob or an app on their phones, simulated rounds on 330 real-world courses, instant swing data and a small lounge, with memberships ranging from roughly $50 a month on a pay-as-you-play basis to around $200 for unlimited use. Food wasn’t sold on site, and members were encouraged to bring in takeout from the neighboring restaurants.

What happened next surprised even the founders. They say Green Club took off from the first day and outperformed their expectations, so the sale wasn’t an escape plan so much as a lifestyle decision. Running the place on weekends around jobs and young kids was cutting into family time. They called the sale bittersweet, said the hardest part was breaking the news to members, and plan to remain members themselves. Petersen added that he’d rather spend his free time playing golf than cleaning the facility, which is a sentiment every small-business owner will recognize.

Why Hatch Bought Instead of Built

The most revealing detail is what Hatch didn’t do. He looked at adding a simulator facility at Brandermill itself, but said he couldn’t carve out the space unless he spent upward of $500,000. Buying an operating business, with equipment, members and systems already in place, turned out to be the easier path. That figure measures something different from a per-bay price, because it reflects fitting a facility into an existing club, but it shows why space is the sticking point for so many outdoor operators.

It also fits a pattern in how Hatch runs his business. In 2024, when Acumen took over Lake Chesdin, he said rounds at his courses were up 30 percent since the pandemic and that Birkdale and Brandermill had been turning away would-be members, so a sister club gave him somewhere to send them. At the time, Birkdale had about 200 members, Brandermill close to 450, and Lake Chesdin roughly 150. He now puts Acumen’s combined membership at about 1,000. Here’s my read, and it’s an interpretation rather than anything Hatch has said: a 24/7 indoor club is a natural fourth node in that network, a place to serve members in the off-season and a front door for people who aren’t ready to join a club.

Hatch was candid in that earlier interview about how hard the business can be, noting that “this business isn’t as easy as everybody thinks.” Buying a venue that has already worked out its operating kinks is a sensible way to reduce that risk.

The Winter Math

The National Golf Foundation’s 2025 white paper on simulators offers the best map of the terrain Hatch is entering. It found that about 6.5 percent of U.S. golf facilities had simulators, with private clubs ahead of public courses at 10.4 percent versus 5.1 percent, and with higher adoption in the shorter-season Midwest and North than in the South. About 13 percent of facilities said they planned to add one within a year or two.

The financial picture is the eye-catcher. Operators with simulators reported spending an average of $45,000 per bay, though the NGF cautioned that this may reflect early, premium buyers, and about half of operators without one expected to spend under $20,000. Roughly 70 percent reported a positive financial impact, 44 percent said they saw positive returns within the first month, and 80 percent reached profitability within a year. The average session lasted just over an hour and cost $55, with another $40 in food and drink per visit, a 73 percent uplift, and the typical group had three players.

Take those numbers with the right grain of salt. They come from a survey of 354 facilities in late 2024, they’re self-reported, and the research was sponsored by an indoor golf retailer. They also describe outdoor facilities with built-in food and beverage operations, which brings up an interesting contrast. Green Club, at least at launch, didn’t sell food, so its model leaned on memberships rather than the dining revenue that powers many simulator rooms. How Acumen blends the two will be one of the more interesting things to watch.

A Crowded Richmond Market

Hatch is buying into a busy field. When Tee Box opened in Regency in May, BizSense noted that a handful or more of chains and local operators had set up shop in the region, among them X-Golf, Back Nine, Tee It Up, Indoor Golf RVA and Green Club. Tee Box’s franchisee spent about $1 million on a space of roughly 5,000 square feet with four bays, a gym built for golfers and a putting green, and priced memberships at $399 a month with an annual commitment.

Set that beside Green Club’s launch pricing and you can see the spectrum: a scrappy two-bay club charging from about $50 to $200 a month, versus a larger, amenity-heavy venue at nearly double the top of that range. Backed by a club owner with a built-in pool of members, Green Club now has a different kind of competitive advantage than the small, bootstrapped operator it used to be.

Indoor Golfers Are Not Always Outdoor Golfers

One of the best moments in the story comes after the sale. Hatch hosted an event at Green Club for Acumen’s members and was surprised to learn how many Green Club regulars only play indoors. He recalled a 77-year-old who told him he had no desire to play a real course, and admitted he hadn’t expected that. As Hatch put it, “I didn’t realize a lot of people just play indoor golf.”

The data backs him up. The NGF white paper found that 51 percent of simulator users hadn’t played on a course in the previous year, up from 42 percent a decade earlier, and that three-quarters said they were likely to return. In its 2025 summary, as Colorado AvidGolfer reported, the NGF estimated that nearly 19 million Americans play only off-course forms of golf, outnumbering the 10.2 million golfers who stick strictly to the course, and described those formats as gateways that supplement, not substitute for, the traditional game.

Hatch plans to try converting some indoor-only members to his outdoor clubs, which is a logical sales pitch. It’s worth remembering the challenge, though. NGF’s president noted that over 6 million players teed it up on a course in 2025 who hadn’t in 2024, yet on-course participation grew by only about a million, a sign of many failed trials. An indoor club could help with that retention problem by giving newcomers a gentler on-ramp. That’s speculation on my part, but it’s a plausible reason an outdoor operator would want one.

What to Watch Next

Three questions stand out. First, what Acumen changes at Green Club, if anything, including pricing, hours, food and beverage, and whether the 24/7 self-serve model stays intact. Second, how the venue is tied to the outdoor clubs, whether through bundled memberships, reciprocal access or events. Third, whether other course operators follow the same path of buying an established indoor business instead of building one. This is one deal, and I haven’t found evidence of a wave of similar acquisitions, but the NGF numbers on facilities planning to add simulators suggest the appetite is real.

For now, the Green Club story is a tidy snapshot of indoor golf growing up. A hobby project became a business, and the business became an asset for a traditional operator who sees the great indoors as part of the same game. Two founders who just wanted a little breather now get to play more golf at the venue they built. That’s a pretty good ending, with plenty of room for a sequel.