Temperatures in Montreal have remained in the single digits this week.
Bertrand Quentin would like to keep his handicap as low as possible. But that is difficult in the Canadian city where he lives.
Winters in Montreal are long. The golf season is short.
“It’s a cycle,” Quentin told GOLF by email. “I’ll work my way to a single-digit handicap in October, but then I’ll wake up with a 12 handicap when the season finally starts in May. That six-month layoff is a real momentum killer.”
How do you keep the mojo going when you live in a cold climate? Some golfers install simulators in their homes. Others fly south for the winter.
Quentin has come up with another solution.
Enter: Megalodome.
Megalodome Golf, not to be confused with a megalodon, is indoor golf on an outsized scale, housed in a series of interconnected domes, on a real course with artificial turf designed to bounce and roll like real grass. Plans call for it to open outside Chicago in late 2027.
Word of the project went viral on social media this week, complete with images and details that seemed plucked from a sci-fi future: an Arizona-style design, decorated with palm trees, cacti, water hazards and sandy expanses, nestled in the village of Oswego, about an hour west of downtown Chicago, in a location Quentin said he couldn’t yet reveal.
Indoor golf already exists, of course, most famously at the SoFi Center in Florida, home to TGL, the technologically advanced competition backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. But TGL is simulator golf.
Quentin describes Megalodome as something completely different.
“Simply put, there is nothing else like it in the world,” he said.
The design calls for four massive, interconnected domes. Three of these will house a 9-hole executive course – six par-3s and three par-4s, playing to a par of 30 – designed by Montreal-based Huxham Golf Design. There will be a practice room in the fourth dome. There will also be a clubhouse, with views that Quentin says will extend “300 yards into the Megalodome Golf Course on one side, and another 300 yards into the practice facility on the other.” The practice facility will include a short game area and 50 stalls, with a range of more than 250 yards.
“The scale is really unprecedented,” Quentin said.
Quentin, a 65-year-old forest engineer, said the seed for his Megalodome dream was planted by a friend seven years ago. “It’s been an intense journey since then,” he said.
If the plans sound ambitious, so does the timeline. Will this all be completed by fall 2027? But Quentin said he and his partner, Alain Desrochers, “are in a very healthy position to execute on our current roadmap.” They plan to launch a $50 million investment fund and, Quentin said, “engage in advanced discussions with major financial groups.”
They chose the Chicago area, he said, because of its large market and short golf season. But they also have their eyes on other locations further down the line.
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