WEBB CITY, Mo. — Companions Jonathan Johnson and Kellen Grantham launched the group to a dream that they had been working to construct for greater than three years now by pulling their drivers out and hitting golf balls at a building website.
“That is principally our groundbreaking,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s been three years and a few change engaged on this. There have been occasions after I felt like saying, ‘Is that this even price it?’ I do know Kellen has felt the identical manner. However after some regular progress, it’s beginning to grow to be a actuality.”
Tee Time Golf will probably be an leisure venue centered on a 215-yard driving vary that can embody a restaurant and bar, a patio and 4 pickleball courts situated on the nook of Broadway and East streets within the former mining space of Webb Metropolis.
Standing on a concrete pad poured final week with bolts, plumbing and electrical conduits protruding of it, Johnson and Grantham described their plans to about 25 individuals who got here to the “tee off” they hosted Tuesday instead of a ribbon-cutting or groundbreaking.
Johnson, 24, mentioned he and Grantham, 25, grew up within the Joplin space and felt there simply weren’t sufficient household leisure choices right here.
“So as an alternative of complaining about it, we determined to do one thing about it,” Johnson mentioned. “Kellen got here up with the thought of Topgolf. I used to be like, ‘Dude, it’s Joplin, Missouri. I don’t suppose it’s going to fly.’ However three years later, our plans went from constructing a small little driving vary with a shack to what that is going to be.”
Topgolf is a golf-based leisure franchise with areas in Rogers, Arkansas; Overland Park, Kansas; Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma Metropolis; and St. Louis.
Johnson mentioned he and Grantham moved to Rogers and went to work on the Topgolf location there to get an inside view of the enterprise.
“We realized a number of what to do and what to not do, which was very informative,” Johnson mentioned. “It’s slightly totally different going to it versus working there and seeing it on daily basis as a result of typically you would possibly catch them on a nasty day, typically you would possibly catch an excellent day. However if you’re really there working, you possibly can sort of see all of the ups and downs and in-betweens. I labored there about six months. Kellen continues to be working there. He’ll work there a few months longer.”
Johnson mentioned the driving vary at Tee Time will probably be bordered by nets reaching as much as 130 ft within the air to maintain errant golf balls from flying out to East Avenue or into the neighborhood to the west.
Johnson, who owns a landscaping firm and is a companion in a downtown Joplin nightspot referred to as Brew Pub, mentioned they need to make Tee Time a “place the place individuals really feel welcome and really feel like they need to be right here and be part of it.”
Kristy Tackett, a companion with Johnson on the Brew Pub, mentioned golf-based venues like Topgolf are standard.
“I do know individuals journey to go to Topgolf, so I feel that is going to be good for the realm,” Tackett mentioned. “Outside leisure is at all times good. We don’t have a number of out of doors choices, and that is one thing all ages can get pleasure from. And all the things new is on South Vary Line. I like how that is sort of out of that space and it’s in an open area. I feel this space is nice for it, and I feel it is going to be good for Webb Metropolis.”
Johnson mentioned he and Grantham hope to have building carried out by early within the spring of 2024 and the enterprise up and operating by late spring or early summer time of 2024. He mentioned he remembers driving by the placement as a child when it was lined in chat piles and mine waste.
“Not in one million years did I dream I’d personal this land and be constructing one thing on it,” he mentioned. “However the metropolis of Webb Metropolis was good about getting us out right here and making it so we have been capable of buy this land. It’s actually good that we have been capable of take a spot that was as soon as misplaced and make it our personal and construct one thing good on it.”
