World’s great courses on our doorstep
Fancy a round of golf at Pebble Beach? Happy hackers and professional golfers alike can now pop along to Cumberland St, rather than California, to... Tee Box indoor virtual golf, the brainchild of 23-year-old sports enthusiast Tim Horton, has opened in New Zealand. Mr Horton is the first performance analyst employed by a New Zealand domestic cricket team and has three large simulator bays, 4.7m wide and 2.8m high. The facility was designed to provide a beneficial training and practice tool for golfers. There are more than 250 courses from around the world available to play, including Pebble Beach and St Andrews, the oldest course in the world. Both Mr Horton and his father and a friend are involved in the business and he may expand it after Christmas.
Published : 2 years ago by in Business
Happy hackers and professional golfers alike can now pop along to Cumberland St, rather than California, to try their luck on the famous course where the green fees for the real thing are a whopping $US625 ($NZ1055) for a standard round.
Tee Box indoor virtual golf, which opened yesterday, is the brainchild of 23-year-old sports enthusiast Tim Horton who has the distinction of being the first performance analyst employed by a New Zealand domestic cricket team.
Last winter, Mr Horton and a flatmate went to play golf but, when they got to the course, they were rained off.
That got him thinking that an indoor centre was needed in Dunedin.
So he started researching indoor golf, what it was and how it worked.
He found it was becoming increasingly popular in the United States and Europe.
Tee Box, which is above the Bendon outlet store, was about the sixth to open in New Zealand and was understood to be the only such facility south of Christchurch.
With a passion for being creative and innovative, Mr Horton said the business was the combination of all his skills and passions which was "pretty cool and special".
A keen cricketer since the age of 7, he changed his focus from playing to analysis after suffering a back injury in his final year at Otago Boys’ High School in 2017 while representing the school in the national secondary schools’ cricket tournament.
That was hot on the heels of competing at the national secondary schools’ athletics championships as a sprinter.
Knowing he would not make a professional cricketer, he still wanted to be involved in sport and he completed an applied science degree at the University of Otago in 2021, majoring in sport technology.
His subsequent role with the Otago Volts was a dream job but, with the advent of Tee Box, he had to choose where his life was going and he chose the start-up over his analysis role, saying he would be kicking himself if he did not give it a go.
Initially he thought he could probably do both but, about two months ago, he realised that was not practical.
He would be too stretched and he would feel "terribly guilty" if the business failed.
Mr Horton’s father loved golf but he never really played while growing up, concentrating instead on athletics and cricket. He did not get into the sport until 2020 when Covid hit and he discovered his natural cricketing ability helped a little when it came to hand-eye co-ordination.
Tee Box has three large simulator bays, 4.7m wide and 2.8m high, and golfers hit the ball into a screen while tracking software displayed the shot on the screen.
There were more than 250 courses from around the world available to play, including Pebble Beach and St Andrews, in Scotland — the oldest course in the world. There was a closest-to-the pin challenge on hole seven at Pebble Beach.
The opportunity to play one of those famous courses was "pretty incredible" while the facility also served as a beneficial training and practice tool.
It was "for everyone", not just serious golfers.
It was ideal for anyone wanting to take up the sport without feeling the pressure of being on a course and feeling like everyone was watching, he said.
Mr Horton’s vision was to see a family having fun in one bay, a serious golfer practising in the second, and a couple of friends playing on a golf course in the third.
Both his father and a friend were involved in the business and he would probably look at employing other staff after Christmas.
Down the track, it was possible he might expand the venture, although the current premises were limited to the three bays so he would have to move elsewhere.