Airway Hills Golf Center is a place for the community to come together and enjoy the outdoors of the Palouse through their love of the sport. 

Airway Hills owner Trent Goetze said in 2005 they bought the land as farmland and built it into a driving range. 

He said as the years went on they added a pro shop, mini golf, a par three course, an event center and finally, golf simulators.

The golf course is open year-round, and the golf simulators are used greatly as the weather gets colder, he said. 

“[In the golf simulators], you hit a golf ball into a screen that shows you the spin and launch angle, how much the wind would affect the ball and you’re able to watch the ball actually fly onto a green. It’s pretty amazing actually,” Goetze said. 

Sydney Berger, senior broadcast journalism and sports management major, has golfed at Airway Hills various times throughout the school year. 

She said the staff at Airway Hills was really welcoming and explained how to use the golf simulator step by step. 

“It takes some getting used to, and clearly isn’t the same as golfing outside. But I think it’s the next best thing if you can’t be outside,” Berger said. 

At the course they serve hotdogs, pizza, burgers and a great selection of beer and wine, he said. They host various events such as corporate outing events, recruiting for the football teams, weddings and Christmas parties. 

From five to eight p.m. on September 22, Airway Hills is inviting everybody to join their new patio with fire pits where they will have free hotdogs, live music, half-price mini-golf and driving range balls, he said. 

“The slogan that we have is ‘a passion for the game and a love for people’ and what we desire is every person that comes out here to leave with a smile on their face,” Goetze said. 

Some of the greatest stories are that people don’t think they can golf and then they end up getting a golf lesson and they go ‘gosh, I can actually do this,’ he said. 

“There was a lady that I just taught this week that came out with her husband and I said ‘sir, look at your wife hit the ball. That’s amazing,’” he said. 

The woman said that was the first time someone told her husband to look at her in a positive way in a sporting context, Goetze said. 

He said the staff at Airway Hills wants everybody to enjoy themselves and feel encouraged once they get to the course. 

“We want to get to know them and serve them,” he said. “So that’s my favorite part of the whole thing is getting to serve the people.”