Back Nine Golf Leeds: New simulator where players can experience St Andrews course to open in Guiseley

Back Nine Golf, in Guiseley, will welcome its first customers at the end of September. The venue allows golf fanatics to recreate the experience of playing a round at the likes of St Andrews in Scotland and Pebble Beach in California.

Although a relatively new concept, golf simulators are springing up across the country as the sport enjoys a post-pandemic boom in popularity. Back Nine Golf will also serve alcohol from 10am to 10.30pm, after securing a licence from Leeds City Council at a hearing on Tuesday.

Explaining the venture, co-director Mark Flanagan told the hearing: “There’s a major shift in golf at the moment. There were more golf rounds played indoors than outdoors in America last year. It is a booming sport.

“After Covid there was an explosion in golf. It was generally declining and golf clubs were generally struggling, but now waiting lists for memberships have returned and increased.”

Mr Flanagan said there was a particular gap in the market for simulators in the UK, where playing outdoors “can be pretty inhospitable for eight months of the year.”

He added: “Here people can do it in a setting were they can have a cup of coffee, or an alcoholic drink. It’s a different experience. The social side of it is very important.”

The venue will open on Oxford Street in premises formerly occupied by a tattoo parlour. Its application for a booze licence had drawn six objections from local people, who raised concerns about the prospect of noise and parking problems.

But Mr Flanagan insisted the bar, which will have a capacity for up to 16 people, would only be open to customers who’d booked a session on the simulator. He also told the hearing stag dos would not be permitted and that customers would be advised to leave their cars in a nearby council-run car park.

“People have nothing to worry about whatsoever with that we’re doing here,” he added.

None of those who’d objected to the licence attended the hearing, after which a panel of three councillors unanimously agreed to approve the application.