Fueled by the growing popularity of indoor golf entertainment – especially in Wisconsin where the outdoor season is short lived – a Sussex-based golf simulator venue and sports bar is expanding to a second location, in the city of Waukesha, after just two years in business.
Tap In Golf Bar will open in late October at 2100 Silvernail Road at Silvernail Plaza shopping center, located off of I-94 and North Grandview Boulevard. The 6,776-square-foot space will be outfitted with eight wide-screen golf simulators for open play and seasonal leagues as well as a full bar and kitchen serving pub fare.
Since opening in January 2022 on Sussex’s Main Street, Tap In has ridden the post-pandemic wave of demand for out-of-home entertainment and group activities – golf being one of them.
“The popularity of these simulator bars is just exploding here in Wisconsin. Before COVID, Wisconsin was top 10 in golfers per capita and then post-COVID, it just exploded,” said Bret Flora, who co-owns Tap In with is his wife, Lori Flora, and friends Jill and Travis Kennicker, and has worked in various avenues of the golf industry for the past three decades, including at Kohler Co.’s famed Whistling Straits Golf Course in Sheboygan County.
Tap In’s simulators are powered by Full Swing, based in California. It competes with several other virtual golf platforms that have popped up in recent years, including Top Golf and X-Golf, which both have operations in southeastern Wisconsin. A year-round X-Golf venue opened last year on the club level of American Family Field, joining three other local franchise locations, in Brookfield, Mequon and Appleton
Winter leagues at Tap In’s Sussex location have proved to be increasingly popular, with registrations this year more than doubling 2022’s total. There are also fall leagues, including for women and couples. Between afternoon league play and open play on a typical Friday in the wintertime, most if not all of the simulators are booked from 11 a.m. or noon until Tap In closes at midnight, said Flora.
And the bar often brings its own crowd.
“Being a sports bar, we have people that will come in just for watching games … people that don’t bring their clubs and come in for the food and basic bar atmosphere,” he said.
In searching for a spot to open a second location, Tap In’s owners looked at potential spaces in Oconomowoc and Muskego before selecting Waukesha, particularly for its population density and for the number of golf courses in the area – an indicator of demand for off-season play. Plus, the business could capture some of the foot traffic from the neighboring restaurants and shops at Silvernail Plaza.
“We hope to add to the nightlife around there and give people other options of different things people can do during the winter,” said Flora.
Emily Smits and Scott Satula of Mid-America Real Estate Group represented the landlord, Waukesha Retail LLC, in the lease transaction.
