The Santa Clarita Valley is home to several outdoor golf courses including Valencia Country Club, The Oaks, Sand Canyon Country Club and Vista Valencia, but indoor golf has become extremely popular and is growing rapidly worldwide.
According to the National Golf Foundation, nearly 20 million people in the United States play indoor golf. In fact, off-course/simulator golf participants have surpassed traditional on-course players in recent years.
Golf simulators and indoor golf is likely growing because it eliminates traditional barriers such as weather, country club memberships and physical restraints that may prevent walking or riding a course. Golfers also like the swing-metric tracking (spin, club path, ball speed) and the social aspects.
The National Golf Foundation reports that indoor golf tends to attract a younger crowd, with more than half of all indoor golfers under the age of 50. A little more than half of the simulator users are non-golfers who might not otherwise play the traditional outdoor game.
There are now more than 1,500 dedicated commercial golf simulator businesses and franchise locations across the United States.
Movement Golf Lab
25510 Avenue Stanford, Unit #104, Valencia 91355
Info (661) 231-8855; movementgolflab.com
Movement Golf Lab in Valencia was recently opened by married couple Westley Silvestri and Becky Quan.
Silvestri is a graduate of Saugus High School where he was a standout member of the golf team. He started playing golf at a young age when he lived near a golf course and collected golf balls from the public sidewalk to sell back to golfers. The young Silvestri soon made a deal with the course marshal to collect range balls and put them through the washer. His reward was a bucket of balls he could hit on the range.
A sports and fitness buff, Silvestri competed on “American Ninja Warrior. Season 9” in 2017. He also competed on “American Ninja Warrior” seasons 10, 11, 13 and 14.
Named to the 2016 class of 40 Under Forty by JCI Santa Clarita, Silvestri built a career in real estate before deciding to transition to a business involving his love of golf.
He said there are three aspects of some traditional golf courses that don’t meet members needs and designed Movement Golf Lab to address those complaints.
“First, many driving ranges close at 6 p.m., despite the fact that in summer we have daylight until 9 p.m.,” he said. “In addition, there’s no fitness area or recovery room.”
The light bulb went off in Silvestri’s head.
“I went home one day and said to my wife, ‘Why don’t we just built the thing that I love and golf club members want,’” he said. “Golf simulators, fitness and recovery all under one roof.”
Silvestri said Movement Golf Lab is a membership-based experience without excessive, additional fees and focused on the athletic side of golf.
The two hitting bays are powered by ProTee VX and GSPro software featuring almost 3,000 virtual courses.
“There are also hundreds of practice and training aids,” he said. “You can customize any hole you want, at any distance, so you can practice long shots, short shots, different kinds of greens, there are so many ways you can customize your experience. Plus you get all your analytics immediately.”
Silvestri said there are so many options on the simulators to play specific golf courses it can be hard to choose.
“Right now I am into playing The Wynn in Las Vegas,” he said. ‘It is so realistic, it even has a view of The Sphere. That golf course is $1,250 to play in real life. Pebble Beach costs $750 for one round of golf. If you are a member you can play Pebble Beach every single day, for less than half of one round of golf at Pebble Beach.”
Silvestri said people who travel and want an advance look at the golf course they will be playing can usually find the course on the simulator.
“The advantage is you’re not playing the course blind,” he said.
Movement Golf Lab also offers a full-size putting green, a dedicated golf-specific fitness area and a recovery room.
“The putting green is the same style as Riviera’s inside putting green,” Silvestri said. “The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades is one of the most prestigious country clubs in the United States. The guy I hired to create the putting green here is the one who did the putting green for Riviera.”
The fitness area, Silvestri said, features a variety of equipment designed especially for golfers.
“If you went to a standard gym the treadmills are set at a 12% incline, our treadmills are set at 40%, to specifically train glutes, calves and quads,” he said.
Silvestri said the recovery room aids golfers who have issues with knees, legs or back.
“We have compression boots, massage guns and a Ceragem automatic massage table for spinal alignment with more than 40 options,” he said. “We’re trying to help golfers play better, but more importantly, play longer.”
Movement Golf Lab offers unlimited golf for members with discounts for golf lessons and personal trainers.
Day passes and drop ins are welcome.
Membership will be capped at 150 members so the bays will have equitable availability. There is no initiation fee and monthly memberships cost $249/month.
Silvestri said Movement Golf Lab also offers special discounted rates for the SCV’s high school golf teams.
Club Golf Valencia
22945 Soledad Canyon Rd., Valencia 91350
Info (661) 417-8002; www.clubgolf
valencia.com
Club Golf Valencia offers three bays with GSPro and the Uneekor QED golf simulators.
Their technology measures “ball speed, side & back spin, side angle & total, launch angle, land angle/angle of descent, flight time, distance to apex, carry, run and total distance.”
Club Golf Valencia offers public bays and club memberships. You do not need a membership to play, but members have access to the facility during extended hours, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Membership cost is $210 per month.
Club Golf Valencia also offers golf lessons and tournament and league nights with a Scramble tournament offered one to two times a month depending on interest.
