PEORIA — The big picture is coming into focus as the Peoria Park District’s renovations at the Golf Learning Center & Academy continue toward a fall completion date.
“We are still on track for a Labor Day opening,” Peoria Park District executive director Emily Cahill said. “It looks totally different out there, the entire interior of the former meeting room and golf pro shop is now one big space, beautiful. We’ve painted the building.
“The two-level TopGolf structure is in place, the bays are being built out. There’s so much going on.”
That includes a proposed restaurant and bar that has taken shape in a collaboration between former Fox Pub & Cafe owner John Rixner and Bearded Owl Brewing former owner Nick Babcock.
The new food and drink venue now has an official name: Fairways.
“The biggest upcoming milestone in the project will be the license agreement approval by the board at beginning of June,” Cahill said. “At this point we’re trying to finalize all the details.”
That approval will clear the two former pub owners to operate Fairways, under corporate name Gopher Entertainment LLC, which lists its company address as the GLC (7815 N Radnor Rd, Peoria).
“We are partnering with Gopher Entertainment LLC, so we’ve been working with them throughout the contract,” Cahill said. “It’s the final approval for the bar and restaurant.”
In the meantime, parking renovations are in full swing, making the area a bit of a challenge.
“With work on the parking lot and different elements we really should be closed,” Cahill said. “But we’re trying to keep what we can open for people as we move along.
“The parking lot is being expanded, we anticipate on really busy nights we may have to have some type of valet support to get people over to Kellogg Golf Course.”
Cahill said the Park’s traditional driving range and its 9-hole pitch-and-putt are open despite the renovations. A party room and two golf simulators have been added, as well.
The drawing board
The $6.5 million project surfaced in October of 2023 with a Park District plan to bring a technology-based golf entertainment center to Peoria.
It was primarily funded from $4 million of state money secured by Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, for the project. Cahill says inflation later drove cost over-runs.
It’s a hybrid of popular TopGolf facilities in larger markets, but using the same technology, called TopTracer.
Included in the renovation plans:
21 bays constructed — 10 on the lower floor and 11 on the upper floor of the two-floor structure.Bays will be heated, and each one will include couches and TVs.The Top Tracer golf technology, tracks a player’s golf ball on the range and sends data on distance, accuracy and more to the user’s phone or to a screen in the bay. The technology will include challenges that are set up on the range for distance and accuracy, games built around a point system. And golfers can also choose to play a simulated round on some of the world’s most famous courses, giving users the option to play in The Masters, the U.S. Open, British Open and other major tournaments.The site will still have a standard driving range. And the new technology will help serious players practice their pitch and putt game. For the not-so-serious, there’s even a golf game based on the popular game app Angry Birds. The characters are golf balls, which the player hits at structures to knock them down.The lighting will be LED-based, which is more precisely focused on the fairway and not as harsh or broad as outdated old-school systems.They plan to operate the facility from 8 a.m. to 10-11 p.m., depending on day of the week. Hours will be shorter on weeknights. The GLC was built in 2000 and has customarily been open over the years from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily during summer season.Finally, there will be two golf simulators indoors, and a nine-hole pitch-and-putt course.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
