Despite there being more than 80 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area, there has forever been a dearth of indoor facilities.
That has all changed in the span of a couple months.
Topgolf introduced the concept of golf under a roof to the area in 2019, but it is an open-air facility.
There will soon be three indoor golf training, practice and entertainment facilities encompassing the north, central and south Grand Strand.
Mashie Golf Institute in Myrtle Beach and Performance Indoor Golf in Pawleys Island are open, and Golfluent in Little River is expected to open in January.
Each business includes at least three golf simulators equipped with launch monitors and other features.
While Mashie and Performance Indoor Golf primarily feature a membership model, Golfluent is more about entertainment and rents the bays for a time period.
Mashie Golf Institute
Mashie is the creation of the father-son team of Rob and Christopher Griffin.
The indoor golf training center is the largest and most comprehensive of the three new indoor facilities at 8,400 square feet, and it will be open 24/7 for members.
“The intention is to be kind of like a 24 Hour Fitness for golfers,” Christopher said.
Mashie contains or will contain three golf simulators featuring Full Swing swing monitors, a five-station monitored driving range into netting, a 1,000 square-foot putting/chipping green with some undulation from Fusion Turf, longer putting lanes with different speeds, a fitting bay, a conference room, and a workout area with golf-specific gym equipment.
Golfers can get video for every swing, with 16 club, impact and ball data points.
“It’s basically supplying the community with everything the pros use every day to get better and stay the best in the world,” Christopher said, “and you can practice with the actual ball you play with.”
Of his putting green, Christopher said, “This is the most realistic putting surface within four walls in Myrtle Beach. It’s not built to sell putters. It’s tough. And it accepts chips and pitch shots really well and realistically.”
The green is surrounded by a couple levels of rough, including a taller one that mimics St. Augustine grass.
A Uneekor launch monitor is being installed in one bay that will be able to provide club impact and ball spin videos.
The Griffins plan to have a PGA-accredited instructor on staff who can spend time with members during their visits at no additional cost, and club fittings will be available. They expect to have a pro by February.
Mashie is in the midst of a soft opening, with manned operating hours of noon-8 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.
It is set up to have up to 275 memberships.
There are 25 lifetime memberships for a one-time payment of $12,000, and lifetime members won’t have charges for member tournaments and other benefits.
Up to 50 founding members will have set rates of $249 monthly or $2,499 annually for life. Another 200 members will be set at $349 monthly or $3,499 annually.
In addition to the memberships, Mashie is currently offering $25 day passes with unlimited time during manned operating hours. By mid-January the Griffins plan to increase that to $40 for locals and $60 for vacationers, and day passes could end when membership increases.
The Griffins plan four member tournaments per year on area courses, not simulators, and an annual Mashie Open that will be open to outside players as well as members.
The Griffins want to be a benefit to the community. They plan to establish a junior program, and work with local groups including the LPGA Amateur Golf Association and multiple veterans organizations.
Rob is a veteran and Christopher is a 2007 Socastee High graduate who returned to the area in 2022 after spending more than a decade in San Francisco operating specialty coffee bars and later serving as a communications director for a podcast publishing company.
Christopher said he missed golf and wanted to move back to the Strand and dive back into it. He said he spent about $12,000 hiring instructors and working on his game over a couple years to get as low as a 3 handicap, but believes Mashie Golf Institute is a more efficient way to improve with the technology and unlimited hours.
“There’s a lot of golf here but there’s no resources,” Christopher said. “We’re the golf capital of the world and we’re missing a lot of aspects that so many other cities have, especially for local golfers and player development. My idea was to give the community and people like me who want to be training and getting high-quality reps . . . [a place] in a neutral environment.”
Mashie is located at 4205 North Kings Highway in a shopping plaza off Kings Highway and 38th Ave. North that includes a Hooters and Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Golfluent
Rudy III and wife Ashley Rueda will soon open Golfluent in Little River, an indoor golf entertainment and training facility featuring five golf simulators.
They plan to be open in the next two or three weeks, and will schedule a day for an open house to show off the business.
Golfluent rents the bays for a time period beginning with 30 minutes.
“That will allow many people to come and see us. I don’t think the memberships are conducive to somebody who just wants to try something out,” Rudy said.
The cost will be $60 per hour and $40 per half hour for a bay, and up to four people can use the bay.
Ashley said Golfluent is for golfers of all ages and levels.
“The catalyst for us was family-based,” she said. “We wanted to make it a family-friendly environment. A lot of the indoor golf facilities you see now are 24 hours, they are bar-restaurants and a lot of them lean into the bar side, or they are private memberships. We have two young sons, 7 and 2, and we really wanted to create a space for them where they could learn about the game of golf in a fun way through the Trackman games, and learn how to swing a club.
“Adults go to a bar-restaurant to enjoy adult time. We’re not focused on that.”
The Trackman and simulator still provide serious players with pro-style feedback.
Golfluent will have PXG rental clubs, and multiple types of apparel including for children. Ashley said it is receiving apparel from a company that is licensed with Disney, Universal, Marvel and WWE.
The five simulators feature more than 300 courses, games, and a driving range for practice. Four will be paired with Trackman iOs that specialize in simulator games, and one will have a Trackman 4 that has additional data available and can be used for training, instruction and fittings.
The Ruedas plan to eventually offer an instructor or instructors for guests.
“We were like, ‘We can open it and we can just have our family and friends and our neighbors there,’ ” Ashley said, “but it seems like the community is really excited about it. So we’re pumped.”
The Ruedas met while both were athletes at American college – Rudy was a wrestler and Ashley a swimmer. They are both recreational golfers, though Rudy is more active and is in a membership program at Thistle Golf Club.
Ashley’s grandfather, Donald Rose, moved to the Grand Strand in 1988 and Ashley regularly came for vacations throughout her youth and adolescence. They moved from Washington D.C. in 2020 to Carolina Shores, N.C.
“We knew the community was great and we could be close to family,” Ashley said.
Golfluent is located at 1763 Highway 17 near the North Carolina border.
Performance Indoor Golf
Performance Indoor Golf in Pawleys Island is owned by the husband and wife teams of Jimmy and Julie Hiott, and Garland and Vicki Greenway.
It opened in September, and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony involving the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 22.
It offers a choice of two-hour day passes for $50, and weekly, monthly ($175), three-month, six-month and annual memberships ($1,785), and is open for members from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
The memberships and reservations can all be purchased and booked through PerformanceIndoorGolf.com.
Users can access the front door through bluetooth on the ProDataKey app.
“We want everyone to have access to it when they want to have access to it,” Jimmy said. “I want this to be a benefit to Pawleys Island and the Grand Strand 24:50. Opportunity to keep your game going and just have some fun.”
It’s also available for groups to book the facility.
Performance Indoor Golf is 2,000 square feet and has three hitting bays with the Trackman iO system that hangs from the ceiling above the bay and provides 24 data points regarding the swing, ball contact and ball reaction.
You can see some of the feedback during a practice session, and download a session on the Trackman app to see all 24 data points.
Each bay has a TV and Bose speakers for live television or music, and for noise effects during simulated shots.
Though there’s not a designated putting green, users can practice putting on the facility’s indoor/outdoor carpet.
The owners plan to have monthly simulated tournaments and competitions for members.
Jimmy experienced indoor golf in the Charleston area, and when the couple moved to Pawleys Island a few years ago they looked into opening a facility, and it took a couple years to find the right location and put everything together.
Jimmy grew up with Vicki and was a college roommate of Garland. He and Julie proposed the idea and the other couple was all in.
“I wanted somewhere where you came in and you were there for golf, and you’re able to work on your game and have some fun and such,” Jimmy said. “It’s up-and-coming, something I think can add value down here in the Pawleys area.
“. . . This is a great tool for you. When it’s 40 degrees inside it’s 70 degrees in the shop and you can come stay loose and keep your game going.”
Visit the website or call 843-344-1356 for more information.
