Expand<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI played high school golf against Jake and some other guys, so it\u2019s been cool that that\u2019s part of our story that we\u2019ve known each other going back that far,\u201d Paone said. \u201cI\u2019m from Valley View, Jake and Mike went to (Scranton) Prep. We have some Dunmore guys, North Pocono (guys). It\u2019s kind of a collection of friends around golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dougherty added that playing a round of golf on the simulator is more efficient than playing outside on a course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quicker \u2014 it\u2019s not four or five hours away from family or friends,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd from a technology standpoint, I don\u2019t think there is anything like it in the area. It\u2019s high-end, high-quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dougherty feels the atmosphere will make the spot attractive for players of all skill levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf has become less serious over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople listen to music, drink and socialize. There has been a big transformation from the \u201990s golfer to today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dougherty noted Picciocchi\u2019s Pasta, another commercial tenant in the building, will provide food for 7 Under.<\/p>\n
Casey Donahue, a partner with D&D Realty Group, which owns the building, believes the new business will be a great addition to the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe golf simulator and bar is something entirely new to the downtown, which is going to be great,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been saving that space for someone good and we think that\u2019s the perfect fit to activate that corner. I think it will bring a bunch of foot traffic to other businesses and I know the tenants are going to love it \u2014 they\u2019ll be able to walk downstairs, not even have to go outside, and play a round of golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bar aspect will include 12 big-screen TVs, and the three simulators will transition into viewing screens after 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be your favorite sports bar with the ability to play golf inside of it,\u201d Manci said.<\/p>\n
The new golf simulators coming to downtown Scranton add to the trend started at the Greater Scranton YMCA on North Blakely Street in Dunmore in January 2024.<\/p>\n
The local YMCA introduced a TruGolf simulator to cater to the interests of its members, said Brandon Whipple, senior program director.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was traveling to different YMCAs, both in state and out of state, and I saw a YMCA had it set up, and I saw how successful it was,\u201d Whipple said. \u201cBeing that we have a big golf community within our YMCA, we explored ways that we could potentially bring this to our facility and get our members engaged with it. After contacting some local golf professionals, we were able to find somebody that was selling a simulator. We purchased it and set it up in our facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The simulator is available to members and nonmembers; however nonmembers must sign a liability waiver at the desk, Whipple said.<\/p>\n
Players must bring their own clubs, but golf balls are provided, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see a lot of people coming in who want to keep developing their golf game, or work on their swing, and we\u2019re giving them that environment to continue to play year-round as opposed to having to wait until the spring,\u201d Whipple said. \u201cWe see people even in the summer, trying to beat the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whipple stressed the technology associated with the simulators serves as a quality teaching tool.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is moving toward artificial intelligence,\u201d he said. \u201cIt tells you the speed of the ball you\u2019re hitting, the curvature, the direction, and the force coming off the club head. I\u2019m not a golfer, but the guys I talk to say the info it spits back out after you swing is pretty thorough and gives them more information on how they can correct their shot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 A group of friends who bonded through golf aim to share their love of the game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-70775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news","15":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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