Couple plans Wichita golf business offering simulators, equipment sales, food and beer

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the business.

Glenda and Rick Shank plan to turn their family activity into a business by opening Divots Golf Shop.

The business will rent time on golf simulators, operate a small retail shop and offer limited food and beverage service, including beer, Glenda Shank said.

“We’ve looked at this (concept) for quite a while,” she said. “We’ve been bouncing the idea back and forth and decided to jump in with both feet and do it.”

The Shanks signed a lease with Occidental Management this week for a 4,000-square-foot suite at the company’s Northwest Centre at 13th and Tyler, Occidental president Chad Stafford said Wednesday.

Shank said she and her husband came up with the idea for Divots Golf Shop from visiting similar operations in Omaha and in the Dallas area.

Golf, she said, is a family affair. She said her husband has played the game for years, and her adult children, Gavin and Shannon, started playing it when they were 8. Gavin and Shannon played on the golf teams at Northwest High School. Shannon Shank also played golf for the team at Creighton University in Nebraska, Glenda Shank said.

“I started golfing in self-defense,” Glenda Shank joked. “I learned to play golf because my kids were out there. It just became a family thing for us.”

Divots Golf Shop will be run full time by Rick, she said. He recently retired as a middle school teacher for Wichita Public Schools.

She said the simulators will allow golfers to play between 50 and 60 different courses, including Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.

“The other thing we’re hoping to do is to have local teaching pros come in (and offer lessons),” she said. “The simulators are set up for lessons.”

Divots’ food service will include items such as fresh sandwiches. And its beverage selection will include beer on tap.

The retail store will be small, she said, but will offer the equipment and accessories necessary to outfit golfers.

Shank said she hopes to open in early December. The space the Shanks are leasing will need to be finished, she and Stafford said. Spangenberg Phillips Tice is the architect and Sauerwein Construction is the general contractor.

Stephanie Wise handled the lease for Occidental.

Divots’ address will be 8414 W. 13th, Suite 140.

This story was originally published September 3, 2014 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Couple plans Wichita golf business offering simulators, equipment sales, food and beer."