Bowling in the Gables?

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5 Iron Brings an Indoor Mix of Simulators and Lanes

Enjoy Golf Simulation and Bowling in a Sci-Fi Vibe With a Martini at Five Iron and Strike Club

One of the slowdowns in the activation of The Plaza Coral Gables on Ponce de Leon was Pinstripes, a bowling, dining, and entertainment complex that never opened. The company had signed a 15-year lease for 30,000 square feet in the Plaza in 2019, aiming to install 12 bowling lanes, six indoor/outdoor bocce courts, a restaurant, a wine cellar, an outdoor patio, and a private event facility for up to 1,000 guests.

Coral Gables would have been location number 19 for the national chain, but too rapid an expansion drove Pinstripes into bankruptcy last year. Another national chain – Five Iron Golf – took over the space and opened this past summer. Their concept was a little different: keep the bowling alleys but add a dozen Trackman- equipped golf simulator bays, along with pool tables, a full bar, and American pub grub.

On a recent Saturday night, we decided to give the Five Iron concept a test run. At first blush, Five Iron feels a little neo-industrial gritty, with high ceilings and black-painted walls, echoes of revelers in the background, and a house-beat soundtrack. Fortunately, they also have a large, well-stocked bar near the entrance on Ponce. We opted to start with a couple of martinis and a golf simulator.

Our simulator, like the others, consisted of a large screen which displayed your choice from dozens of the world’s great golf courses. Using your own clubs or those provided, you pound your ball into the screen and watch it soar – or dribble, or shank, or get caught in a bramble (we tried an Irish course). Especially because my group did not consist of regular golfers, mutual mocking quickly ensued. We left our simulator after an hour, just as we were learning how to lightly lift our balls out of sand traps.

By then we’d finished our first martinis, along with a pile of chicken wings and a couple of wagyu smash burgers, so we were ready for the more restrained art of bowling. The 12 lanes have a kind of Buck Rogers science fiction theme, starting with a campy “Invasion from Space” poster and continuing with cartoon frames over the pins at the end of each lane – pulp dramatics, like an astronaut telling an attractive blonde, “You Must Go to the Mother Ship and Shut Her Down!” To which she replies, “I’ll Go! Just Tell Me What I Need To Do!”

What she needed to do was throw a good ball, straight and true, down the middle of the lane. Which we managed to do every so often, with neon signs encouraging us to “Let the Good Times Roll.” Unlike the cavernous golf bays below, the upstairs bowling alley is tight and bright, with a checkered floor and plenty of sports screens.

Five Iron also offers pool tables at no charge (the bowling lanes and golf simulators – which are frequently used by instructors from the Jim McLean Golf School at the Biltmore Hotel – charged by the hour). They also recently installed wrap-around-screen F-1 race car simulators, but we’ll save that for our next visit.

Five Iron
3009 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
800-513-5153