3680 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 387-2111

Hours: M-F 6am- 11pm, weekends 7am-11pm

Pricing: see below for various “scenarios”

 

The Aroma Golf Academy is located in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles (Wilshire/ Serrano). If you are staying in downtown Los Angeles, then this is probably the most convenient location for you. As it is in the center of the city parking can be tough. There is an underground parking lot and at the time of this post, it is free for 3 hours if you use the golf facilities. In addition there is street parking with parking meters varying with 1 and 2 hour time limits.

This range is the kind which you see on TV in places like Japan. It is high (4 stores, each with 15 stalls) and crammed into a dense city area. I am not a big fan of heights, so try to keep to the lower levels if possible. The range can get extremely busy. In fact I would recommend that you probably should avoid it at peak times. They have recently started an allocation system. Which means when you pay they give you a stall number. So there is no longer the experience of walking up and down all of the stairs (there is also an elevator) in order to find a vacant stall. Talking of paying, you literally need a degree in mathematics to figure it out. It is so overly complicated. They have three different plans and then the price changes according to your stall. The higher you are, the cheaper it is.

The range is 150 yards long. That is a negative for me as you can not really see how your drives turn out. That being said it is good for practicing irons. You hot out into the range which has a giant net at the bottom. The net is sloped so that all of the balls roll back to be collected. There are a few flags indicating distance, but generally due to the size of the range and the netted hitting area, there are no greens to shoot to.

Now, the best part of this range… it is automated! The balls automatically pop up from the floor and onto the tee. As it is automated there is no need to bend down and pick up a ball to put it on the tee. This is clever from a business sense as it speeds up the process. People hit more balls – thus spend more. As it is all automated, there is obviously no need to buy or bring tees.

 

There is a smoothie bar at the range; then additional food/ drink places (including Starbucks) located in the adjoining building. I believe there is also a spa, gym and swimming pool at this location. But a membership is required to use those facilities. The other people frequenting this location and some of the staff are not that friendly or engaging. It is pretty much a place where you put your head down and just concentrate on hitting your shots. I love all of the technology, but due to the popularity of the place, traffic in Koreatown (some of the worst in the country) and my dislike of heights, I do not go to Aroma all that much.