'Hard to beat': Bridport's latest golfing experience to draw plenty

Of course you did.

But this time, these courses are not Barnbougle Dunes or Lost Farm, they are Pebble Beach, La Jolla and Spyglass Hill, to name a few.

Adding to the growing list of indoor golf simulators such as X-Golf and WillFit Golf in Invermay, Nic Betts opened Bridport Golfers Lounge about five months ago on Main Street.

Overlooking the village lawn, the passion project turned business offers golfers a personalised single-simulator experience.

The elephant fitting into the rather cozy office space is, 'why put a golf simulator five minutes away from a world-famous golf venue?'.

A pessimist would say that potential customers would prefer to play the sport 'for real' instead of into a screen.

But Betts looks at it differently, suggesting that the lounge could be used as important preparation for visitors hoping to perform their best on the big Barnbougle stage.

He also said international and interstate golfers, of which there are many during peak season, would not want to waste the hundreds or thousands of dollars they paid on the trip should it rain.

"Obviously people aren't going to play here over Barnbougle," Betts said.

"But when it's pouring down rain and people have booked a trip a year in advance, travelled all the way over from the other side of the world to come to play golf, at least now they've got an option."

In fact, Betts said the close vicinity of those courses as well as Bridport Golf Club is actually a positive, because it is proof that there will be a year-round demand for golf even when it's wet or dark.

He added that a positive addition to the software would be to have access to the Barnbougle Dunes course.

Consisting of golf and beaches respectively, there is small wonder why Barnbougle and Bridport are far busier places in the summer than the winter. And Betts is looking to tailor his product towards this.

It means that in the winter, when tourists are fewer, Betts has looked to draw the local community through competitions, two-man ambrose tournaments and sponsored golf days.

"The locals can come down here after work when it's dark, play golf, still have some fun with their mates and play anytime, rain, hail or shine," he said.

Along with memberships, Betts said he is pushing kids games which can be played on the simulator, making it more accessible for parents to bring their children along.

When my colleague Josh Partridge and I went for a two-hour session, we looked for aspects that were different to other simulators.

The first thing that stood out was the personalised approach, you get to play whatever music you like and more obviously we had the whole place to ourselves.

The system worked really smoothly, which was great because there is nothing more annoying than hitting a great shot that the monitor doesn't register.

The only slight concern was that Partridge's left-handedness meant adjusting the system throughout the round, but by no means did it spoil the fun, there were fairly easy workarounds.

There was a good range of courses, plenty of them are well-known PGA Tour courses and there are heaps of filters to accommodate whatever you might want from the experience.

"It's a really good system and software and the graphics are hard to beat," Betts said.

"Because we are so small, a bit more unique, we try and make it more of a friendly vibe than the other, bigger commercial golf simulators."

The only thing missing was a liquor licence, but Betts assured us that it was just a matter of time.