Virtually par for the course.

• Author: Quesnel, Joseph
• Position: News

Sudbury and area residents can practise their golf swing in the winter, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneurs Gabrielle Roy and her partner Rob McCann.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The couple, aged 25 and 35 respectively, opened an indoor golf centre in March, that has steadily become more popular among Sudbury's golf enthusiasts. The centre makes use of three large virtualreality golf simulators that are completely computerized and make use of sensors. The program allows clients to experience all the hurdles, sand traps and all, of a real golf course-indoors. All three of the simulators are enclosed booths, says Roy, to ensure privacy.

"What's good about this is that people don't have to feel like they're holding up the course and they don't have to run around chasing their golf balls," Roy says.

McCann had first tried the simulators when he was visiting friends in Ottawa. He was immediately hooked. Roy and McCann, both athletic enthusiasts, decided to marry their love for sports and their long-time desire to start a business, and from the concept evolved Mulligan's Indoor Golf Centre. Roy is a golf enthusiast, and McCann currently is the co-ordinator of the Cambrian College Athletic Centre and Cambrian head coach.

Once the couple had resolved to transform their idea into a reality last fall, they decided to develop a survey, which they would send to potential customers around the Sudbury region. They went to places where golf players, as well as the parts of the public they believed could be receptive to the idea, normally go, and distributed it. The idea of stepping into a golf simulator generally appealed to people, says...