Play, Stay, Repeat

Paddle + Par combines hospitality with two popular sports, all in an innovative indoor complex

By Jacob Burton
October 7, 2026 • 7 min read

A Must-Visit Club

Pickleball courts, golf simulators and table tennis may bring people through the doors of Paddle + Par, but the concept was designed around giving them reasons to stay. With a restaurant and bar featuring a scratch kitchen, lounges, event spaces and 22 flat screen TVs alongside its sports offerings, the Beverly Hills, Michigan, facility blends recreation, dining and the atmosphere of a social club.

The concept grew from an idea for an upscale indoor golf simulator facility into a 50,000-square-foot destination built around sports, hospitality and community. For founder Neal Check and his wife, Dawn, creating Paddle + Par meant bringing together two sports they believed shared something important: people enjoy playing them, but they also enjoy everything that happens around the game.

An Unexpected Beginning

Neal Check is the CEO of RainCheck Pickleball and the founder of Paddle + Par, which opened in March 2025 in Beverly Hills, Michigan. He was born in Toledo, Ohio, but moved to the Detroit suburb of Southfield in Oakland County when he was four years old. His father started an alarm company in the 1960s, and he and his brothers worked for the company as soon as they turned 16.

Neal became more involved in the family business as his father became ill and could no longer run it. When the company was sold before his father passed away, Neal decided he wanted to start his own alarm company, and he did just that.

In that company, he started a division called SoundCheck, which focused on home automation. A big part of that business for him was the Full Swing Golf simulator, the number one PGA-endorsed golf simulator in North America.

NEAL: “I run all of my businesses with my partner in all things, my amazing wife Dawn. People used to come to our showroom all the time and wanted to use our golf simulator, hang out and have parties at our showroom. We never did that because it was our private showroom, but it gave us an idea: What if we were to go out there and find a space to open up a really cool, elevated indoor golf simulator facility, a really cool place with bottle service and a fun staff and great food, and people could come in and do parties there?”

The idea was created, and the original plan Neal, his wife and their team developed only required 8,000 square feet. They found a standalone building, an old Bed Bath & Beyond that was 50,000 square feet, but it was exactly the type of building and location they wanted. It was in the Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills, which is a rather wealthy suburb. They had way more space than they needed, though, so they decided it had to be used for pickleball because of how popular the sport was becoming.

The barrier was that they had never even played pickleball before. The team went out and took a pickleball lesson before committing, and they had fun. They signed the lease, the process began and the dream of Paddle + Par was born.

Bringing Play & Hospitality Together

NEAL: “We wanted to bring these two very communal, fun sports of pickleball and golf and marry them together into something that was more hospitality-driven. We wanted a casual country club feel without the expense of a country club membership.”

Neal does not consider Paddle + Par to be a golf club or a pickleball club; he called it a “social sport activity club.” The club has 11 full-sized pickleball courts, five Full Swing Golf Simulator suites and two table tennis courts. Above all the sports they provide, what they decided to key in on more than anything was the hospitality aspect of the club.

When you first walk into the club, you are met with the top-notch bar and dining area that provides an elevated sports bar feeling. They have a scratch kitchen, making everything from pizzas to desserts in the kitchen and providing some incredible food for guests.

Neal talked about how he knew there were many pickleball clubs, both outdoor and indoor, but the way Paddle + Par was going to be set apart was through the amenities offered at the club. He and his team wanted to lean into the hospitality side much more and focused on providing a great experience for everyone, not just pickleball and golf players, but something for anyone to enjoy. This is why they placed the dining area and bar at the front. Even if you don’t want to play pickleball or golf, you can just come in and enjoy lunch or dinner. He even mentioned that you don’t have to order anything at all; you could just come in and do work for your job at no charge.

NEAL: “We were trying to attract active, affluent people looking for a place to play and improve their golf game, play pickleball, table tennis and be social. We have a bar, 22 televisions to watch sporting events or pickleball events or golf or ping pong events, whatever is going on. We wanted players who lean a little social, want that kind of country club amenity and say, ‘I can come here and get a great game in, work up a sweat, take a shower, hang out with my friends, eat, drink, all of it.’”

The club is open to both members and non-members, although he said if you were looking to be consistent, the membership would make sense to save money. They have two membership options, Player and Social. For both options, hourly rates for pickleball and golf are the same, but the Player membership provides some added discounts and perks.

The Player membership is $720 per year, and the Social membership is $480 per year. The biggest difference between the two is that with the Player membership, you can book 14 days in advance, compared with seven days in advance for the Social membership. The Player membership also provides members with more guest passes per year and better pro shop and clinic discounts. Both memberships give members access to monthly member-only events as well.

They have also built the club with many private areas that are still open to the club. They can hold eight different private events at once without hindering the rest of the club. They have enough seating for a 400-person event, and the club can hold up to 1,000 people. They have cultivated a great atmosphere for everybody, and as Neal said, they chose who they wanted to focus on bringing in, capitalized on that idea and made it happen.

The Big Attraction

As Neal said, Paddle + Par includes 11 regulation-sized pickleball courts, along with two table tennis courts and five Full Swing Golf Simulator suites. The pickleball courts use SportMaster as their court surface, which gives players an outdoor feel while still getting the full indoor experience without worrying about the weather.

Each court is individually fenced, providing separate experiences for each court. They also installed soundproofing on the walls of the pickleball area to mitigate the pop of the ball, both for the pickleball players and the rest of the club. They took a step further than most pickleball clubs, installing cameras on each individual court that allow players to access instant replays for point disputes, along with full game replays for their own social media accounts.

There are the open play lounge and the center court lounge, where members and non-members alike can congregate during downtime between games or meet up with friends. The two table tennis courts are placed with an incredible Paddle + Par backdrop, and the area can also become a great event space. It can become a dance floor, as they will roll the table tennis courts out. It is also very popular in the fall, as they will often book bands to play live music, with the stage placed in front of the backdrop.

Moving upstairs, you will find the golf suites in an 8,000-square-foot space. There are five suites with plenty of space in each one for a group. These simulators are top of the line, and they are not restricted to golf. They are the only simulator on which you can play essentially every sport, including baseball, football and basketball.

Looking to the Future

NEAL: “We wanted to look and have a feeling that when someone walked in the door they would say, ‘Wow, this feels like a national brand.’ As a result, we have had at least 20 franchise inquiries, both national and international. We’ve had inquiries from private equity firms who have come to the club and sat down with us to discuss our vision and where we’re going. It’s very exciting and all by design.”

While Paddle + Par has only been open for 18 months, it has gained significant traction in the Michigan area and has caught the attention of many people. It makes sense that people are going to want to expand Paddle + Par, and Neal said they are welcoming talks about the possibility of opening new locations.

He also clarified that to do that, the new locations have to be perfect. They must have the right type of building in the right area, just as the current location in Beverly Hills does. Neal and Dawn have curated this club from the ground up. He said it is their baby, so if they are going to expand, they must be presented with the perfect opportunity.

Paddle + Par is doing something incredible that has not been seen much before. The combination of hospitality, wellness, sports and entertainment is something that has made them very successful in such a short period of time, and it is only going to gain more traction for Neal, Dawn and their team. They had an idea, worked it out and found a way to make it happen.

They homed in on the exact target audience and experience they wanted to focus on, and they perfected it. It is an all-around great club and atmosphere. The Checks have curated something they love in Michigan. ●

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About Jacob Burton
Based in West Chester, PA, Jacob Burton is a senior at West Chester University who covers tournaments and other stories in pickleball. His work has also been featured in The Quad newspaper at West Chester University. When he isn’t writing, you can find him on the soccer field playing his childhood sport.

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