GUILDERLAND — Local businessman Troy Miller, an avid golfer, got the idea for the Bunker when he visited a couple of other golf-simulator businesses, he says, and left “surprised at what it wasn’t.” 

He expected them to have a country-club or clubhouse environment, but instead it was a “bowling-alley environment,” he said. 

On the ride home, a friend reminded him that the real-estate business Miller owns, CM Fox at 2390 Western Ave., had tall ceilings in its back area. Miller thought about it and soon realized, he said, that he could turn the space into “something special.” 

The name comes partly from the fact that the space will be on the subterranean level of the CM Fox building, which is built into the side of a hill. It also refers to the term used for a sand trap. 

Miller plans to make the Bunker a luxurious and comfortable setting for golfers to practice their swings and enjoy “19th-hole” camaraderie while talking golf year-round. 

He has enlisted the help of local designer Sam Madia to evoke the feeling of a country club, cigar bar, or upscale golf clubhouse, with the three simulators surrounding a high-end central bar. 

Design elements are to include mahogany, polished brass, fabric wall treatments, a coffered ceiling, leather chairs, plush rugs, and a replica of the famous “Butler fireplace” where the winner of the Master’s Tournament traditionally slips into his green jacket. 

Golfers will be able to experience about 70 courses from around the country and the world.

“If you’re going on a vacation this weekend to Florida, you could come here and play that course here first,” Miller said. 

Real and virtual worlds will collide when golfers click on the name of a course and see that fairway appear on the 16-foot screen before them. They will hit a real ball that then enters the virtual world, curving through the fairway in the exact trajectory created by the swing they just took, made possible by cameras that feed data about the swing into the simulator. 

The simulator will give feedback on the swing, and the golfer can also watch it on replay. 

Golfers can enlist the support of local golf pro Jeff Betti, current head pro at Orchard Creek and former assistant pro at the Albany Country Club, who will supervise and support the golf experience and instruction. 

The Bunker’s simulators can be rented by the hour, and memberships will also be available. There will be league play during the week, and Betti will offer lessons. For special events, the entire space can be rented out. “It’s perfect for something like a corporate event,” said Miller. 

The Bunker will be renting from the company that owns the building, which Miller owns and which he described as being “like an investment property arm of CM Fox.”

Miller calls himself an entrepreneur. In addition to his real-estate business, he owns a construction company that he says does a lot of residential and commercial buildings, and he is also half-owner of the liquor store Remedies Wines and Spirits in Altamont. 

He thinks that the Bunker would be a good model to duplicate in other locations, which he hopes to do within the next couple of years. 

Miller expects to open the Guilderland Bunker in late September.