The Golfice: Jack Weber's High-Tech Oasis for Golf Enthusiasts in Vestavia

Discover how to take your golfing experience to the next level with Jack Weber, manager of The Golfice in Vestavia. Ever wondered if you could play on over 400 different courses without leaving your city? Jack reveals the ins and outs of their incredible one-bay simulator lounge, designed for both casual fun and serious game improvement. Learn how this venue is perfect for everything from birthday parties to practice sessions, offering detailed stats and driving range features for those looking to enhance their skills. Jack also walks us through the seamless online booking process, ensuring your visit is as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

Join us as Jack Weber explains the perks of their membership package, a must-have for frequent visitors wanting to get the most value and benefits from The Golfice. With options to play renowned PGA courses or local favorites, there's something for everyone. Hear firsthand how The Golfice is revolutionizing the golfing scene in Vestavia, making it accessible and fun for both seasoned golfers and newcomers alike. Whether you're looking to perfect your swing or just have a memorable outing with friends, this episode promises actionable insights and plenty of reasons to book your next session at The Golfice. #GNPBirmingham #TheGolfice #BirminghamGolf #GreystoneGolf #InvernessGolf #RossBridgeGolf #Golf #Simulator #GolfSimulator #Links #Clubs #GolfClub

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Jack Weber, and Jack is the manager of the Golfists in Vestavia. Jack, how are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:28

I'm good, patricia, how are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:30

Good, you are living the dream. You get to live, work, play in the place that you work. Not many of us can say that, but a lot of us can take advantage of it. So tell me about the golfists.

Speaker 3: 0:47

Yeah, so I'll just go real quick and simple. The golfists we are a one bay simulator lounge. I would say we have plenty of entertainment options as well as a membership package. But to keep it simple, we're basically just a nice place, kind of like a Topgolf 5, where you can come in, whether you're looking to work on your game kind of hang out, have family functions such as birthday parties We've had bachelor parties, different stuff like that. There's anything you want to do. It's a great place to come and hang out or play some golf.

Speaker 2: 1:19

So describe this experience to me. You have simulators and you have a space. What would a typical visit look like?

Speaker 3: 1:33

Yeah, so we try and make it as easy as possible for all our clients. First and foremost, it is online booking only, so we do not currently accept walk-ins. I don't believe we'll gravitate towards that. We'll probably stay towards the bookings only online. So if you were a new customer and you were looking to book with the golfers, you just go to our website the golfers calm, easy as that to enter.

Speaker 3: 1:57

Once you get on our website, you're gonna see our calendar with all the available bookings that you can book for. All the times will be listed, so you'll just select your time. You'll go through all the prompts. Bookings that you can book for All the times will be listed, so you'll just select your time. You'll go through all the prompts, enter your basic information. It takes about two to three minutes. You'll enter your card information, pay up front. That way, when you come into the simulator after you book your time, there will be someone to help you get all set up. They'll explain how the simulator works, show you all our features, all our little knickknacks and stuff, extra options we have available, and really just answer any questions you have that you might be looking for or really just anything the simulator has to offer. So you know, you come in, we get you set up. Then we kind of just let you do your own thing.

Speaker 2: 2:43

So do you need to be a member to go to the golfers?

Speaker 3: 2:48

Absolutely not. You are more than welcome to come, whether you are a member or not. Our membership package is actually just for those who kind of want to. They find themselves coming into the golfers more times than often, so it's a great way for them to actually save money and get more benefits.

Speaker 2: 3:06

What kind of benefits would a golfer achieve by going and taking advantage of the simulator? What kinds of things does the simulator simulate?

Speaker 3: 3:16

Yeah. So I would say for your average golfer, if they're looking to come in and work on their game, which is what most of our normal golfers are doing, we do have a driving range that is available. It shows all your distances, all your stats, all your shot shapes, stuff like that. But we also have courses. I mean, everyone wants to play courses and we have over 400 to play from, 400 to choose. Those include local courses, those include professional courses that you'd see on the PGA. So you know you'll see some courses that you see around here in Birmingham as well as you would on the tour. So whether you're looking to come in and just kind of work on your game a little bit as an average golfer with our driving range, or you're looking to maybe practice for a course that you're going to play the next weekend, we might have it available. So it's a good way to come in and either just kind of get your stock yardages, work on your swing a little, or maybe play a course that's upcoming.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Golf is man against nature, would you agree?

Speaker 3: 4:20

Absolutely. There's no doubt about it.

Speaker 2: 4:23

So how do you simulate natural environment factors like wind and rain and humidity?

Speaker 3: 4:34

Of course, Obviously, there's always some room to give or take with simulators. No simulator you go to is ever going to be perfect. Whether that's ours or a more professional one, higher grade or lower grade, it doesn't matter. They're not going to be perfect. But really, you just got to take what you get. You got to know that what you're getting. You kind of take it with a little grain of salt, but, with that being said, you kind of take it with a little grain of salt, but, with that being said, our simulator, so the program we use it is called GS Pro. It's a great program. It has all the courses, it has the range, everything. It does a really good job of simulating real life aspects or kind of challenges that you would face on the course. So you know if you have a lie in the rough, if you're in a sand bunker, or maybe you're behind the tree it's a little windy that day the simulator does input those aspects into the program so that it makes it a little more realistic for you.

Speaker 2: 5:29

But of course, just like I said before, you got to take all that with a little grain of salt there's never been an entrepreneur that I know of that hasn't had a journey to where it is that they're that they end up to, in your case, the dream job. What was your, what was your journey?

Speaker 3: 5:51

Yeah, so, um, it's a long one, but I'll keep it short for time's sake. Um, basically, um, right out of high school, I graduated from Spain Park in 2020. So I'm 22 years old. I'm still pretty young, still kind of finding my rhythm, finding my step in the real world. But out of high school, I made a lot of different decisions some good, some bad moved out of state for a little while, came back, worked a bunch of different jobs, ended up at my father's business called Weber Mortgage. We're actually a broker. We do loans, home loans, stuff like that. I am a processor here.

Speaker 3: 6:30

During my processing, I was presented with an opportunity from my dad, which kind of started as a little idea for fun but morphed into this whole business we know, as the golf is today. Yeah, it was really just. I have my dad to thank first and foremost for it all. He's the one that made it possible. He's the one that's funding all of this. Of course, he's the one that's putting all his effort into it, making sure everything is going smoothly. He's just leaving me with the managing managing part. So as long as I come in and I'm trying to keep up with all that I can and get more golfers in to play, appearing on podcasts like this great one you're hosting, then I'm doing my job. So, yeah it's, it's great to just be able to wake up, come into work, do my processing side of things for the mortgage business and then, once I'm done with that, I can jump into the golf. But that's where I really love to strive.

Speaker 2: 7:28

Well, I actually feel silly asking you this question what do you do for fun when you're not working?

Speaker 3: 7:35

Well, surprisingly, I actually just got into golf this year as a person. So before it was kind of more of my dad's thing and he used to play all the time. He used to be a scratch golfer. I wouldn't say he's that good anymore. But with all that being said, yeah, I've loved golf. I've got the bug for golf right now. I just started playing consistently a couple months ago. I got some new clubs in my bag and I'm going to be taking lessons here soon. So you know I'm not the perfect golfer. Obviously you don't want to be taking lessons from me or anything when you come into golf is. But you know it's been a great journey. And yeah, but you know golf, we're a hockey family. I've played hockey my whole life, so that was what I mainly did before golf. But now I like to golf, so it's great. It's great. It just goes hand in hand.

Speaker 2: 8:34

You're still trying to get the puck in the hole, right?

Speaker 3: 8:39

Basically, yeah, something like that. Same objective get the ball or the puck in the net or the hole, anything like that.

Speaker 2: 8:50

Well, now you. I know you're young, but that doesn't mean you haven't encountered challenges in your life, and I believe anyone who takes something like this on does it after they've become stronger from those challenges. So tell me, is there anything that you've had to hurdle over that has made you the person you are?

Speaker 3: 9:13

today. Well, patricia, I'm a huge man of faith. First and foremost, I thank God and my Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, for everything I do. I was raised that way, I was brought up that way and I do it myself that way, just being invested in the Word and everything around it. But besides all of that really just my dad, my family I was raised up very well. I'm more than thankful for everything that they've provided me. They shaped me into the man I am today. But you know there are, there's always challenges, new challenges coming up. There were some old challenges that some personal, you know, some just basic like everyday stuff or month to month things. But you know you got to learn to work over them. Some of the things, you know, was trying to balance how I'm going to work at Weber Mortgage and the golf is at the same time. That was a big one, but we've worked through that and I'm doing well now. So just taking them as they come.

Speaker 2: 10:13

That's kind of the essence of faith, isn't it? Taking it as it comes and staying elevated through all of it, right?

Speaker 3: 10:23

A hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 10:25

So what would you like our listeners to take away about the golfists?

Speaker 3: 10:30

Yeah, just know that it's run by me and my dad. My name's Jack, my dad's name is Michael. Just us two run it. We're a hardworking group of guys that just like to have fun. We're really laid back. We're not strict on any rules here. You know we're always looking for what's best in our customers' interest, so any opinions or recommendations or anything like that that our people have to offer us we love to hear. Feedback is our biggest thing and without you know, having a big platform like you might see, topgolf or, you know, public courses or anything like that, simulators are a little bit under the table, so we're really just looking to get our name out there in any way we can. Whatever anyone has to offer for us, we'll take it.

Speaker 2: 11:14

Jack, how can our listeners learn more about the Golfist and how can they find you?

Speaker 3: 11:20

Yeah, absolutely, let me think about this. So the way that our listeners can obviously help us is by coming to the office and just checking it out. Um, you know you don't have to spend two, three, four hours here, Um, which we do offer. You know, if you want to spend as much time as you can, I believe we have offers up to six, seven hours. You can book the whole day if you'd like. We've had businesses in the uh have on-site meetings there, but anyways, um no yeah it's great for just people to come in get experience themselves.

Speaker 3: 11:52

If you feel like calling our numbers on our website, uh, I'm always, 99 of the time, going to be the one that answers that phone to answer any questions or concerns anyone might have. Um, the other one percent of the time it'll be my dad, michael. But, um, yeah, all I can say is come try it out. Uh, if you want to experiment with different simulators that may be closer in your area, feel free to. All I can say is about the golfers is we are a completely private, uh, completely open space. Uh, very affordable for whether it's just you or the whole family. We book by the hour, not per the person, which I would love to say, because that's what gets most of our people to come here is the affordable pricing. But, yeah, just check it out.

Speaker 2: 12:39

Wonderful Jack. Thank you so much for coming by and for sharing the golfers with us today.

Speaker 3: 12:44

Thank you so much, patricia, and for sharing the golfers with us today. Thank you so much, patricia. Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.