PHOTOS BY MEGHAN ERKKINEN

Milton resident Chris Johnson , along with business partner Bob Gelinas, is bringing state-of-the-art technology to golfers (and wannabe golfers) in the area. The golf simulator has 26 programmed courses, and when a golf ball is hit at the screen, lasers measure the trajectory and spin of the ball to determine its direction and distance.

Milton resident aims to bring golf back to locals

By Meghan Erkkinen

You do not have to go to Scotland to experience the fabled greens of St. Andrew’s. Milton resident Chris Johnson and his business partner Bob Gelinas have brought 26 of the world’s most famous golf courses to the area – and they will teach you how to play them.

Johnson and Gelinas, both Professional Golfers’ Associa-tion (PGA) professionals for about a dozen years, opened their Concept Golf Studio late last month in South Hill as a way to bring golf instruction and activity to area residents.

“There’s not a golf influence in this community (Milton) right now,” Johnson said. “This is what we could provide to them.”

About 10 months ago, he and Gelinas began searching for a location for their studio and found that storefront opportunities were too expensive. Instead, they opted to partner with a fitness club and run their business alongside it. They negotiated a deal with Bally Total Fitness at Puyallup’s South Hill Mall to convert a racquetball court inside the fitness center into a golf studio.

The deal is one that could benefit both Bally’s Total Fitness and Concept Golf. While a Bally’s membership is not required to visit the golf studio, the studio’s paying customers can take advantage of Bally’s workout equipment the day of their visit. Bally’s can also provide Concept Golf customers with training that targets golfing muscles. Concept Golf also has the added benefit of visibility to Bally’s members.

“It’s a real nice relationship we enjoy,” Johnson said. “They can use our clients and we can use their clients.”  

Concept Golf provides a variety of services for all levels of golfers. Chief among their services are golfing lessons, using the state-of-the-art Full Swing Golf simulator. With the simulator, customers can play famous courses and view various aspects of their swing and direction of the ball.

The simulator allows users to practice all aspects of their golf game on a mat with four levels of turf for the fairway, rough, deep rough and sand traps. Whereas on a real course, it would take a golfer about 15 minutes to play a hole, with the simulator it takes three minutes.

Using the information generated by the simulator, Johnson and Gelinas can pinpoint swing, grip and stance problems and can even determine if a new club would be more appropriate for the golfer.

In addition, they videotape golfers’ actions and play them back in slow motion, using software to identify problems. The videos can be recorded and given to customers, or can be saved to show customers improvement over time.

In addition to both private and group instruction, customers can rent the simulator room for practice or parties, even online tournaments and longest drive and closest-to-the-pin contests.

Johnson and Gelinas are also installing a hitting stall with a video camera. Their services also include club repair and the sale of golf travel packages and a range of golf equipment and apparel. Their main golf lines are TaylorMade, Cleveland and Adams, but they also carry other leading golf gear manufacturers. Golfers are invited to stop by to try out the newest clubs.

So far, Johnson and Gelinas are excited by the level of business they have encountered.

“We’ve been very well received,” Johnson said. “I’m presently surprised by the business so far because we haven’t told anybody yet.”

The two also look forward to growing their business. Already they are in talks with Bally’s Total Fitness to provide a similar service at other Bally’s locations, and may begin to seriously look into a second location this fall.

“We’re excited to grow the game of golf,” Johnson said. “That’s what we want to do.

But they are also looking to build partnerships at home. We’re very involved in the community.”  

He is working to build a partnership with Fife High School’s golf team, and said many of his customers are from Milton, where word of his business is spreading. And while it may seem like a humble task for PGA professionals, Johnson and Gelinas look toward building on what they have started.

“We have the experience in golf clubs, but this is what we’ve chosen to do,” Gelinas said.   

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