By Wil Crews
sportscrews@opelikaobserver.com
OPELIKA —
Bobby Reaves is a golf fanatic.
Within the last year, rumors of Topgolf coming to the Auburn-Opelika area got Reaves and the community excited. Turns out, the party venue/sports bar/golf experience eluded Lee County. That’s when Reaves turned his love of golf and inspiration into action to bring his business, Tee Time Golf Studios, to the area.
“I looked at doing this probably close to two years ago, right before COVID,” Reaves said. “We saw that Topgolf was trying to come in … but the timing was not good and so on and so forth.”
Tee Time Golf Studios is located at USA Town Center on Fox Run Avenue in Opelika, Suite 215. The interactive, indoor golf studio features five individual swinging bays, with plans to add a putting bay in the near future.
Tee Time Golf offers customers an interactive, authentic and immersive place to play golf, with data-driven feedback.
“It’s a ton of data — face angle, launch angle, back spin, etc.,” Reaves said. “This will give them a means of seeing tangible data to better themselves — plus the fun factor,” Reaves said. “As long as you can interpret the data on the screen, you can easily teach yourself to be better at golf.
Tee Time Golf Studio allows visitors to virtually play 18 holes on some of the country’s most famous golfing venues like Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, to name a few.
“It’s professional courses you are playing,” Reaves said. “It’s very authentic.”
At Tee Time, aspiring golfers and the sport fanatics alike receive the benefit of playing the same courses as PGA professionals, however, without the worry of environmental hazards like heat, wind and rain.
A core difference between places like Topgolf and Tee Time Golf Studios is the hyper-realistic golfing experience. Whereas Topgolf focuses on driving for distance and accuracy, Tee Time puts the golfer on the course where all aspects — driving, chipping and putting — are factors.
“You’re playing real golf, inside,” Reaves said. “It’s an arcade experience, but it’s still real golf. [At Topgolf] you aren’t playing golf. It’s the amusement of it, like an arcade, but for the serious golfer, it’s very tough.”
Apart from seeing the need for more entertainment-based activities in the area, Reaves said he wanted to open Tee Time, in part, to help grow the game of golf locally. Reaves has future plans to involve local schools and youth organizations to provide aspiring golfers a place to hone their craft.
“I have a passion for growing the game and furthering everyone else’s abilities, so that’s why I wanted to put this in,” Reaves said. “I’m planning to get a PGA professional in here to give lessons.”
Tee Time Golf Studio is set to open on Aug. 4. A ribbon cutting with the Opelika Chamber of Commerce is planned for a later date. Initially, the business will only be open to the public on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the other days reserved for local school teams to come practice.
Customers can play 18 holes and immerse themselves in some of the most legendary golf courses in existence for $35 an hour. In the future, Reaves hopes to offer memberships in a similar fashion to other golf courses.
For more information on Tee Time Golf Studios, visit its Facebook page Tee Time Golf Studios.
“We needed something like this,” Reaves said. “Everyone was super pumped about Topgolf coming in, but I am a fan of the mom-and-pop kind of places. Come check us out.”