Built by Operators, Not Consultants

Open Tee Golf did not begin as an independent concept. Before opening, we researched numerous indoor golf franchises and companies, comparing their business models, equipment, costs and promised support.

We ultimately selected a franchise whose private, membership-based concept appeared similar to what we wanted to build. We paid the $40,000 franchise fee, signed a lease, built the facility and opened for business believing we would have the guidance and proven system we had paid for.

That is when things began to go downhill.

Once we were committed and operating, we did not receive the level of support we expected. We found ourselves handling the site decisions, lease issues, construction, vendor coordination, marketing and operating systems largely on our own. After paying the franchise fee and investing substantially more into the facility, we came to believe the company lacked the clear vision and operating structure needed to help us build the business successfully.

We eventually made the difficult decision to take legal action to exit the franchise. That process cost us even more money, but it gave us the freedom to rebrand the business as Open Tee Golf and rebuild the model around what our actual experience showed us worked.

We refined the business into a private, 24/7 membership facility with two Full Swing simulator bays, automated booking and door access, a carefully controlled membership cap and no need for regular on-site employees. We eliminated ideas that did not work, simplified the operation and created a model that requires less than three hours of combined owner time per week.

The results validated the independent model. With approximately 100 members during the winter and about 50 retained through the summer, the business generated approximately $78,000 in revenue from October through March. We project an annual operating profit of approximately $60,000–$70,000.

The Indoor Golf Blueprint is the resource we wish we had before paying a franchise fee and investing approximately $275,000 to open the business. It documents what things actually cost, which decisions matter, what we would do differently, how we built the systems and why an aspiring owner should carefully evaluate whether a franchise provides anything they cannot obtain or build independently.

We learned these lessons through research, experience, expensive mistakes and a legal fight to regain control of our own business. We wrote the book and created the Toolkit so the next owner can begin with the information we had to learn the hard way.