Indoors and thriving

After 20 years working as a golf course superintendent, two critical factors moved Jeremiah Ergen’s career indoors. Ergen’s outdoor-to-indoor transition was spurred by a major health setback, as well as his fascination with the burgeoning golf simulator industry.

In 2019, after two years of comparing simulator equipment, Ergen installed four Uneekor QED launch monitors at Monticello Country Club in Monticello, Minnesota. This was on the heels of working as a superintendent at Como Golf Course in St. Paul, during which he experienced shortness of breath and chronic fatigue.

Ergen and Monticello Country Club approached their golf simulator partnership with a wait-and-see approach. Their thought was, “Let’s watch how the golfing public responds to playing indoors.” Timing is everything. COVID-19 hit a few months later.

The pandemic proved to be a catalyst for skyrocketing golf participation and revenue. Just as the sport and Ergen’s simulator business prospects were taking off, the father of two boys landed in the hospital. “In May 2020, I ended up at Mercy Hospital with a fever of 105,” he recalls. “My heart was beating like crazy.”

While in the hospital, Ergen received an email from Jay Lasco, a YouTube entrepreneur with nearly 30,000 subscribers on his Golf Simulator Videos channel. Ergen had contacted Lasco with the idea of creating an alliance that would allow him to reach out to golf simulator enthusiasts who had contacted Lasco’s YouTube channel. “I explained to Jay that I was pretty sick,” Ergen says, “but that I would do everything I could to make our partnership work.”

The bedridden Ergen took action. Fever or not, he knew he needed to make a move. The now-former superintendent grabbed his laptop and cell phone and started making calls. “While in my hospital bed I made four Uneekor launch monitor sales from the leads Jay provided me,” Ergen says. “After researching a lot of launch monitor and golf simulation brands, I believed Uneekor delivered the best quality data and price points.”

Ergen’s hospital stay was a precursor to learning he had congestive heart failure. This diagnosis meant he could no longer continue with the physical demands of being a superintendent. Ergen decided there was no turning back on dedicating himself to full-time golf simulator sales.

After Ergen secured his initial commercial golf simulator partnership with Monticello Country Club, he purchased a Uneekor Eye XO launch monitor and put it on his credit card. Feedback at the course was positive from the outset and Ergen paid off his credit card bill within a year.

Since making the commitment to full-time simulator sales, Ergen has continued battling the lingering effects of heart disease. As for business, his partnership with Lasco’s YouTube channel has proved lucrative. Ergen has also generated successful referrals from his own Green Pro Golf Simulators website. Gross annual sales have been in the seven-figure range.

The bulk of Ergen’s sales are with individual buyers looking to get set up with a simulator in their basement, garage or detached residential facility. “I really enjoy serving as a mentor with clients, answering installation, technology and best-scenario situations,” Ergen says.

He has added partnerships with Breezy Point Resort and Phalen Park Golf Courses. Both commercial simulator clients have realized their initial investment in less than a year.

What are some common simulator threads among the 45-year-old Ergen’s residential clients?

“First, I ask about the dimensions of the space they’ll be utilizing,” he says. “Then we determine their budget. Once we come up with a budget, we talk about a launch monitor, software, computer needs, a custom enclosure, a landing turf, hitting mat, LCD projector, ceiling mount and accessories. I also sell à la carte items like tees for using a driver. Each situation is unique.”

Ergen still reflects on his superintendent days. “I miss being outside,” he says, “but I don’t miss getting up at the crack of dawn and rarely having a day off in the summer. I really love my new business. It allows me to spend more time with my 8- and 9-year-old sons. I still get up early but now I work from home. My heart tells me that my life is a lot less stressful.”

Tim Cotroneo is a Minnesota-based travel, golf and business writer. This is his first Golf Course Industry contribution.

Tartan Talks 79

John LaFoy specialized in golf course renovations decades before it became an integral part of other architects’ businesses.

“I just liked it,” he says on the Tartan Talks podcast.

A passion for working with people who are passionate about their golf course started during LaFoy’s days as an apprentice under George Cobb, whose renovation workload included projects at Augusta National Golf Club. LaFoy says Cobb taught him “everything” about the industry — most importantly how to land jobs. LaFoy has owned and operated his own firm since the early 1980s and performs most of his renovation work in the Southeast.

LaFoy developed into one of the industry’s go-to renovation gurus and provides numerous insights throughout the podcast about the modern evolution of course enhancement projects. His best lessons involve handling people, especially vociferous naysayers.

“Almost every project that I have been on, I find that individuals against the project are always more vocal than the ones for it,” he says. “I always tell clubs that the (individuals) for it need to be organized and as powerful a voice as the ones against it.”

The podcast can be found on the Superintendent Radio Network page of popular podcast distribution platforms.

Course News

Pinehurst Resort selected Tom Doak to design its first new 18-hole course in nearly three decades. Located four miles south of the main resort clubhouse, the course is expected to open late spring 2024, coinciding with the return of the U.S. Open to Pinehurst No. 2. The new course — the resort’s 10th — will incorporate rugged dunes mined at the turn of the 20th century accented by native sand and wiregrass. … Bobby Weed Golf Design completed a multi-year modernization project on the Championship Course at Grandfather Golf & Country Club in eastern North Carolina. The work occurred from 2019 to 2022 and included tee modifications on the 11th and 16th holes, rebuilding of fairway bunkers on the eighth, 10th, 11th and 18th holes, and reinstalling diversion on the high side of multiple holes to help contain surface runoff. Herringbone drainage systems were also installed in every fairway to enhance surface and subsurface drainage, as well as retain firm playing conditions. … Landscapes Unlimited finished multiple enhancement projects at two golf courses at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. Collaborating with Nicklaus Design, Marvin Mills Irrigation Consulting and Desert Mountain’s agronomic team, Landscapes Unlimited’s work at the Renegade course included construction of a new driving range to accommodate a new clubhouse build, resurfacing and re-seeding of fairways and tees from bentgrass to ryegrass, and several changes to the first hole. The company also expanded and enhanced the driving range tee area at the Apache course. … The USGA selected the West Course at Winged Foot Golf Club to host the 2028 U.S. Open. The championship will be the seventh U.S. Open contested at the Westchester County, New York, club, most recently in 2020.