While the rest of us are enjoying warm nights by the fire and brilliant blankets of snow, the sports world shares a universal sadness over winter. Across football, soccer, and other outdoor sports, teams are forced to either pack up their things or move indoors for the season. Luckily, these communities often have indoor arenas and stadiums to sustain themselves through the winter. Zumbro Falls Golf Club has not had the same luxury, however, having to close its green and rely on other means to stay afloat during Minnesota's cold season. Wanting to fix this while giving members a chance to practice their winter swings, Kevin Kautz and his son Kaleb recently closed their deck for the installation of four state-of-the-art golf simulators. Alongside a driving range and practice green, these developments have produced a system with stunning graphics that will remain available through the winter season. Their efforts to stay open seven days a week, year-round, are actively making golf more accessible to the larger community.
Kevin: "We looked for a system that could fit our seasonal needs for golf. The [simulators'] amazingly clear graphics are about as close to real golf as it gets. Sand flies when you hit out of the traps; water features have moving water; selected courses have different animal species in the background. Even hitting yardages are spot on to the same distance you might hit a ball outside."
When Kevin first constructed Zumbro Falls Golf Club in 1999, golf simulators were hardly on his mind. With rolling hills and four ponds surrounding this 9-hole course, his only priority was to open such a beautiful venue up to golfers. After a year of construction and the beginning of a new millennium, the course's opening brought members flocking to drive fifteen minutes north of Rochester, 63, to enjoy a rather scenic round of golf with water views on every hole. Getting through the course is no easy feat, though, as golfers must utilize every club in their bag to get through its two 550-yard holes, several unexpected breaks, and their famous hole #4, the 180-yard par three that has never seen a hole-in-one in the course's 25 seasons of operation. With the addition of their first grapes planted nine years ago, golfers now enjoy a lovely vineyard on hole #6. In 2023, they officially became licensed and had their first toast of wine the following winter.
Aside from the course, the clubhouse offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, a picturesque wedding venue, and the previously discussed winery and staff. These developments bring us back to the present, when Kevin and Kaleb realized the inevitably slow business of the winter season. When mid-October arrived along with its cold weather, the two were ready with a plan to close in the club's deck and erect four simulator bays within the over ten feet of newly available ceiling space. Without fastening anything to the floor or ceiling, they installed the system alongside minor cosmetic improvements in a five-day process with better-than-expected results. Actually installing the courses was another matter, as it took nearly two weeks of round-the-clock downloading to acquire and configure 2,000 courses from around the world. Since the simulators are only popular during uncomfortable weather, the club plans to take them down on May 1st. The winter season certainly does not mean that leagues will stop, however:
"We are offering six men's league nights, a couple's night, and a ladies' night. All of our leagues are casual and play a 2-person scramble format. Each league will have sixteen people and play every other week. We will be open for business seven days a week, opening every day at 10:00 a.m. and closing at 8:00 p.m. Our rates are $40/hour per bay. A foursome would only pay $10/hour."
With this expansion, Zumbro Falls Golf Club aims to attract golfers year-round, especially during the slower winter season. To those who would prefer to wait until everything thaws again, however, the winery and eatery will always be there to keep members occupied. More importantly, Kevin and Kaleb have given a previously underutilized space a valuable, year-round use. You can catch one last look at their course before the snow or test out these new simulators off Hwy 63 just south of Zumbro Falls. When that fated frost does eventually roll around, the golfing community can rely on simulator bays like these to ease the burden of a harsh winter. After all, if you love something enough, no amount of obstacles will stand in the way of pursuing it. Instead of letting the challenge of winter tear them down, Zumbro Falls Golf Club built around it. The result has provided the golfers with year-round practice and reminded them of a crucial lesson in the process- decisions made for the community are the best by par.
To join one of their leagues or book a bay from an online tee sheet, reach out to Zumbro Falls Golf Club at 507-421-3101 or on their website.
