Pinseekers! New 'Topgolf' Style Entertainment Complex Coming To Lake Of The Ozarks

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — Pinseekers, a “Topgolf”-style recreational golfing complex, is under development at Lake of the Ozarks, just outside Osage Beach.

The site sits right on eastbound Highway 54, between Y Road and the city limits: it’s currently just an excavated valley. But Tyson and Erin Bowyer, the husband-wife team that’s developing Pinseekers, say drivers on Highway 54 will soon begin to see the landscape changing.

They expect to open the complex in 2025.

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JUST THE FACTS:

• Pinseekers, a “Topgolf” styled golfing entertainment complex

• Full food and drink service included

• Will also include mini-golf, simulators, arcades

• 30 golf bays and a rooftop 9-hole putting green course

• Location: Eastbound Highway 54, between Y Road and Osage Beach

• Opening 2025

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A civil engineer, Tyson Bowyer has ample experience in managing projects — many of them being much larger than this one. And over the past two years, during lulls at other jobs, he’s been putting some of his people and equipment to work clearing the valley for Pinseekers. In all, the Bowyers have already invested more than half-a-million just preparing the site.

The original plan had been to build luxury mancave units that they referred to as “car condos.” A weathered sign at the property entrance still recalls that concept, which had been tentatively named “Conquest Motorplex.” But life changes, including a cancer diagnosis for Erin, put those plans on pause for a time, and once they were ready to begin developing again, they decided to pivot.

“We actually had planned on doing several different things [with the property], like a family-friendly area,” Tyson said.

“But I think that it all worked out,” Erin added, noting the construction of The Toy Barn, a large luxury-mancave facility in Lake Ozark, began shortly after they started excavation on their project.

Now the family-friendly concept has taken center-stage, with the construction of Pinseekers as phase one of a long-term development plan.

pinseekers Front Elevation Plan 11.24.jpg

Because the golf bays will be shielded from bad weather, the Bowyers are confident Pinseekers can draw visitors year-round: in the winter the heated bays are perfect for scratching that golf-itch when it’s too cold to hit the links, and in the summer they offer another fun outing for a Lake vacation… doubly so when it’s raining and no one wants to go out on the boat.

The Bowyers are partnering with father-son duo Bill and Ryan Ranguette on the business; the Ranguettes are the founders of the Pinseekers franchise. Currently there are only two others in the country, located in Madison, Wi. and Iowa City, Ia., with others under construction in Dubuque, Ia., Stevens Point, Wi., and the Tampa, Fla. region.

They’re financing the project through First Mid Bank & Trust; the Bowyers made a point of mentioning their loan officer Peter Grefrath. “Peter has been so helpful throughout this process to get us rolling on the funding for the project,” Erin emphasized.

The Ranguettes and the Bowyers believe Lake of the Ozarks is an ideal location for a Pinseekers, as the model is designed with the flexibility to serve large and mid-sized markets, rather than the exclusively large markets targeted by the biggest name in the golf-gaming business, Topgolf.

Ryan Ranguette says a friend at Lake of the Ozarks had encouraged him to bring the concept here; but then he met the Bowyers, and they partnered to make it happen. “Tyson came up with a really unique design-build that we thought we could implement with the Pinseekers brand and grow from there,” he said.

Ranguette, a PGA golf pro, worked in the gamified-golf business for nearly a decade before deciding to launch his own brand.

“Topgolf has done a great job of growing the game of golf, getting people introduced in a nontraditional way,” he told LakeExpo. But he says Pinseekers will be more family-oriented, with mini-golf, multisports simulators, mini-bowling, arcade games, and pinball. “And we’re not using limited-flight golf balls, so this could actually be a practice facility where you improve your game of golf,” he emphasized.

He also said the Pinseekers brand is designed to have a more local flair, rather than feeling like a corporate brand.

pinseekers Range Elevation Plan 11.24.jpg

What else is different?

Ranguette touts Pinseekers’ interactive targets: “Not only do you physically get to see the ball land, but it’ll light-up and interact with you… it creates more of a theatrical experience out on the range.” The facility’s InRange gaming system allows golfers to play more than 20 different virtual golf courses. “So you can actually play physical golf courses on this gaming system… so it’s much different than simulator golf and hitting it into a screen,” he said. The system allows golfers to create an account, where they can see how their golf game changes over time.

Lit-Up Targets At Pinseekers in Tiffin, Iowa — photo courtesy of Pinseekers

The Bowyers say they’re also excited about the targets: the neon-colored, lit targets will add an especially fun element at night, Tyson said, and they’ll be highly visible from Highway 54.

The site’s central location at Lake of the Ozarks, and being just a stone’s throw (a little more than a long par-5 drive) from the newly rebranded SuperSplash USA waterpark, bode well for it becoming a popular new destination in the Lake area’s rapidly growing family-friendly entertainment scene.