Bob DiMeo imagined a place where state of the art fitness and golf could exist together in complete harmony, and in January 2008, that vision came to life.

Golf Nation, a 25,000-square-foot facility in Palatine, Ill., is actually a golf smorgasbord with filling entrees and tasty side dishes golfers love to indulge in—including a fitness center, driving range, pro shop, and restaurant and bar—all served on just three acres.

Featuring a reduced-size range and year-long profit centers, Golf Nation is a unique facility and Golf Range Times’ Best New Range Award winner for 2008.

The Birth of a Brainchild
“I am passionate about golf and I am passionate about working out,” says DiMeo, owner of Golf Nation.

This passion of DiMeo’s helped nurture and grow the seed for his dream facility, first planted during a family vacation to Florida. Due to an injury to his Achilles tendon, DiMeo was unable to play a full round on a course, and so instead he visited a few small pitch-and-putt facilities to satisfy his golf craving.

“I thought to myself, ‘Boy, this is kind of fun. There should be something like this up in Chicago,’” DiMeo says. “I started thinking about golf and fitness, and combining the two.”

An institutional investment consultant by day, DiMeo says his job’s traveling requirements helped him further develop the idea. DiMeo has visited his fair share of golf courses and facilities over the past five years, which came in handy when he began to design Golf Nation.

“This is my brainchild,” he says. “I conceived the idea, my wife is very active in the business, and Tim runs the place.” Tim Wuhrman, general manager of Golf Nation, studied business in college and met DiMeo at a country club where he was working shortly after graduation.

“Bob DiMeo brought me on a couple of years ago,” Wuhrman explains. “He had the vision [for Golf Nation] about five years ago, and we kept going from there.” After being offered the general manager position, Wuhrman quit his job at the time, which was a bit of a risk. “My wife thought I was crazy,” he says. “Bob and I bought the building and went from there.”

Making The Dream Come True
DiMeo says he had his eyes on a couple of buildings for the golf and fitness facility, but one particular location stood out.

“I’d drive by, and as it turned out, it wasn’t for sale,” he explains, adding that the building was supposed to be turned into condos. As fate would have it, however, DiMeo later met the owner of that same building on a Wisconsin golf course, where he learned that the condo development firm had pulled out and the location was up for grabs. “Everything happens for a reason,” he says. “It’s really a great site. It sits on Illinois protected prairie.”

Wurhman says the building was purchased in June 2007 and the facility opened to the public in January 2008. “It took six months for a complete build out and that’s for everything in the facility” except the Scoring Zone practice area, which was added this past summer and took about two weeks to complete, Wuhrman says.
For design inspiration and research, DiMeo and Wuhrman traveled the country studying golf facilities and checking out what worked and what didn’t work. Bringing their final design to life was another sizeable task.

“No one ever conceived of this building being a golf facility,” DiMeo explains, adding that he had to obtain letters from residents supporting the projected golf and fitness facility, along with getting local officials to approve the new land use. Dimeo says the rezoning process was difficult, and “changing the permitting was equally as difficult.”

So how did they get everything completed in just six months? “We just kept pushing multiple fronts simultaneously,” DiMeo says. “We’d get one phone call from a turf supplier, the next would be about ordinances and the next from PGA professional instructor Todd Sones,” DiMeo says.

He hired Todd Sones, founder of the golf school Impact Golf, and his staff to fulfill Golf Nation’s teaching needs. “His company is the fourth best in America and he’s a top 50 teacher,” DiMeo says. “They’re booked solid [at Golf Nation] all the time,” Wuhrman adds.

Growing Golf Nation
Ernie Loberg Construction of Rolling Meadows, Ill., began working on the facility in late August 2007. “There were tons of gravel brought indoors to shape and mound the putting greens,” DiMeo says.

Lots of decisions were made every day during the building process, such as what kind of turf to use indoors and outside, what kind of rubber flooring to use in the fitness center, who to call for netting and range equipment—and the list goes on.

“With every decision we had to be thoughtful and play into our targeted demographic,” DiMeo says. “We tried shaping every decision on how it fit with our slogan and more importantly our mission, which is, ‘To help golfers of all skill levels play, improve and enjoy the world’s greatest game year round while providing a rewarding environment for staff and reasonable profits for owners.’”

All in all, DiMeo says he couldn’t have completed the project without Construction Manager Ralph Grande, a partner of Crane Construction based in Northbrook, Ill. “He was truly invaluable,” DiMeo says. “I just can’t say enough how terrific his input was.”

DiMeo says one reason Grande was so helpful was because he was familiar with their targeted demographic (35 to 64-year-old golfers). “We simultaneously opened four businesses,” DiMeo says. Golf Nation is a pro shop, restaurant and bar, golf range, and fitness center all wrapped up into one upscale facility.

Fitness Fit For A King
The fitness center has state-of-the-art equipment, strength training, and a fitness studio with complimentary classes for members. “We have various things that are golf-specific, and others that aren’t related to golf at all,” Wuhrman says. Some customers even purchase a membership just for the fitness center. “We don’t discount it or anything [the membership] they just love it,” DiMeo explains.

Three of the four fitness instructors at Golf Nation were trained at the Titleist Performance Institute. “Whenever you see exercising or working out on the golf channel, that’s TPI,” DiMeo says. “Everything is based on how to build your golf game.”

The fitness center also features free-motion strength training equipment, which builds core strength for balance with less risk of injury—a form of training also practiced by the Chicago Bulls, White Sox and even by Tiger Woods. Two pieces of the strength training equipment at Golf Nation were purchased from the White Sox team.

Profiting Year Round
The pro shop features equipment from Callaway Golf and Tour Edge, and apparel by Adidas. “Tour Edge is in Chicago so that works out well,” DiMeo says. Training aids also are available in the pro shop.

Wuhrman says the indoor restaurant, “caters to the healthier side of food” with wraps and sandwiches. “We have an alcohol license so we’re able to serve beer and liquor, too,” he adds.

The facility’s lounge is for adults and members only, and also serves as a corporate meeting center. The lounge features plasma TVs, leather couches and a conference table that doubles as a pool table. Besides hanging out after practicing their swings, members also can host private events here.

Also indoors are four Full Swing golf simulators that go for about $50,000 each—a sizeable investment for the facility.

“We went down to the PGA Show in 2007 and checked out a lot of different vendors,” DiMeo says. “They’re good for practice but also good for entertainment and recreational purposes,” Wuhrman says. Members can play Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, St. Andrews, Cogg Hill and more. “They feel the spin on golf balls,” Wuhrman says, adding that the simulators can even tell what kind of ball is being used and track trajectory, ball speed, carry, distance and even wind speed.

A Place for Practice
The indoor “Skills and Drills” area of the facility features a variety of training aids. “What you don’t want to plop down $100 bucks for, we provide that for you,” Wuhrman says. The Skills and Drills area also features four hitting stations and a short game center complete with putting, chipping and pitching shots. The indoor putting green is 25,000 square feet with a laser flat level for putting on a true roll synthetic surface.

“We roll it out every week and there’s no divots or leaves,” Wuhrman says. “It’s a great surface to hit on.” The outdoor driving range is smaller than a typical range and features six hitting bays and eight tee boxes. It also is heated and lit for year round use.

“This was not meant to be a full, bombs away range,” DiMeo says, adding, “It’s a pretty neat design. You can see what you’re doing and it’s about as long as most of the domes in our area.” Wuhrman adds, “You’re hitting into the netting area so people don’t focus on ball flight all the time and they can really concentrate on fundamentals.”

Also outdoors is the “Scoring Zone,” a par-3 hole for practice and play with eight hitting stations and sand traps. It will accommodate about 10 to 15 people at a time. “Todd Sones wrote in one of his books that two thirds of golf shots are done 70 yards and in, and that’s what we have out there,” Wuhrman says. Net Connections installed the netting on the outdoor range, and Turf Solutions took care of all the outdoor surfacing needs. Golf Nation provides Callaway balls for indoor use and Top Flight Super Range balls outdoors.

Memberships, Benefits & Events
Memberships to Golf Nation include access to the entire facility, except for age restrictions in the lounge. “If you’re a member, you can come in and work out, hit 100 balls and go, or hit 1,000 balls and go. It’s an affordable amenity right now in today’s economic climate,” Wuhrman says. “We’re approaching 500 members.”

There are four different kinds of memberships: Birdie, Par, Experienced and Junior. “We’re open to the public but membership driven,” Wuhrman explains. Day passes for non-members are $30, and that includes everything except the simulators, which are $40 per hour for non-members.

Golf Nation hosts a number of events for members and charities. Wuhrman says they recently hosted a 24-hour golf-a-thon from 7 a.m. on a Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday for Journeys from PADS to HOPE, a local homeless shelter. “For $25, you could get 90 minutes of golf and there were drink specials, too,” Wuhrman says. They also gave away a BMW as a prize and raised more than $3,000 for the cause. “We donated all the proceeds, so we didn’t collect a dime,” he says. “It was just a good thing for us to do to help out the community.”

Golf nation also hosts private parties for members such as birthday parties, and have even hosted a private family Thanksgiving dinner for one of their members. “We’re becoming very popular as an event venue,” Wuhrman says. Aside from parties and charity events, members also can catch complimentary golf teaching clinics, camps, schools, junior academies and ladies-only clinics.

New Kid On the Block
Wuhrman says word spread easily about Golf Nation in the beginning. “When we first started we were a little media darling,” he says, adding that after opening, the new facility was covered in many of the area newspapers. Now, they have to work a little harder to get that coverage. “I’m a big believer in direct mail,” DiMeo says, but they’ve also experimented with print ads, radio, TV and email blasts.

What has worked the best? “Email blasts and direct mail have been the most successful, and TV and radio probably come in third,” Wuhrman says. “Now we’re about to do ESPN radio in Chicago,” DiMeo adds. Golf Nation also sends out a newsletter to its members every month that highlights the various things going on at the club, such as complimentary members only clinics, special event dates and times, merchandise specials and golf outings.

Prospective members get a general newsletter that covers club events and explains member benefits. The facility gathers contact information from these potential members through a form on the website. They use these contacts for targeted marketing.

“Once you get people in the club it really makes a difference,” DiMeo says explaining that a person can ride by the facility a thousand times and still have that jaw dropping expression on their face when they actually come inside. So what’s in store for the future of Golf Nation? “The key is to get this one to capacity and then think about number two,” DiMeo say