The best golfer in the Roanoke Valley has played two of the world's most renowned courses this month.

First, Fielding Brewbaker teed it up at Pebble Beach, the famous links course on California's Monterey Peninsula. A few days later, he found himself taking dead aim on the flag sticks at the home of golf, the famed Old Course of St. Andrews, Scotland.

"Yeah, I've played them both now," Brewbaker confirmed matter-of-factly.

Of course, the fun-loving first-year professional from Salem couldn't keep a straight face long. Within seconds, he erupted into sheer laughter.

"Yeah, I've played Pebble Beach on [Route] 419 and I've played St. Andrews on 419," Brewbaker confessed. "So you might want to add a little parenthesis in there on both of those."

So what. Hey, he toured two of the globe's most prestigious golf venues for a mere pittance. He never even had to leave town. No packing clothes, no catching airplanes, and no damage for a hotel room or eats.

Welcome to Golf Around the World, folks.

Since opening amid little fanfare last Nov. 7, one of the valley's newest business entries has quickly found a niche among area golfaholics. Featuring a PGA Tour-accredited simulator that has been 20 years in the making from an Ohio-based company called aboutGolf, the business on Electric Road (Route 419) has turned the sport into a doable indoor entity no matter what the weather conditions may be outside.

So what there's snow on the ground this morning? No big deal. There are available tee times today at Golf Around the World.

Where you want to tee it up? Pebble Beach? St. Andrews? Want to head to South Carolina to play? The Ocean Course at Kiawah or Harbor Town in Hilton Head? Those are just four of nearly 40 well-known courses waiting on you to march to their No. 1 tee box.

OK, the indoor game won't ever touch or replace the outdoor game. That said, the simulator's three-dimensional, high-speed photography tracking system that works off doppler radar-based technology makes the "fake" game as close as you can get to the real deal.

This is not a video game, golfers. You hit all the shots like you do on your home course with your own clubs. Each player hits a ball from a tee into a video screen that measures 9x12 feet. From there, all ensuing shots on a hole are struck from an Astroturf-like mat that includes shorter grass for fairway shots and longer grass for shots from the rough.

Plus, there's all the ingredients of outdoor golf, such as course condition factors as weather (wind or rain), course firmness, lie of the terrain, speed of the greens, different-length tee boxes and assorted pin placements. All of the aforementioned factors can be adjusted from easy to hard on each course at the command of each competing player.

"It's unbelievable technology," general manager Rick Kanode said. "The good players who have been in here and say the distances they hit a club here is almost identical to the numbers they get on a golf course."

Rick Sidor, an area physical therapist, is the owner of the facility, the only one in Virginia equipped with the high-dollar simulator that the PGA Tour has fully endorsed.

"We opened last Nov. 7 and the response we've gotten so far has been excellent," Kanode said. "On the weekends, we've even had to turn some people away. We've got plans to bring in a second simulator because we haven't had enough tee times. So people must like what they're seeing."

Brewbaker, 22, is sold on the place. After finishing third in a Jan. 12-14 Hooters Tour Carolina Winter Series event in Little River, S.C., Brewbaker credited much of his success in the tournament for the work he got in Roanoke the previous week.

"There was snow on the ground here then, and I had a place to go hit balls and actually see where the ball went," said Brewbaker, who turned pro soon after winning the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame men's title last June.

"The great thing about the place is you can go in there when it's 100 degrees outside in the summer or when it's 2 degrees in the winter, and you can play golf. You can play golf there 365 days a year."

Brewbaker spends much of his time on the facility's driving range, where he can hit shots and four seconds later get all the numbers such as launch angle, ball spin rate and speed.

"It's unreal technology," he said. "And they're going to have a video camera hookup so they can give video lessons soon."

What about the average hacker? Will the place teach them anything?

"A 15- to 18-handicapper can come in there and they can actually practice, actually be productive and then actually get better, I think," he said. "I think they could some serious improvement."

Brewbaker said he was tipped off about Golf Around the World by Tommy Joyce, the head professional at nearby Hidden Valley Country Club.

"I would drive down 419 and I would see the sign to the place and I thought maybe it was a travel agency booking golf trips," Brewbaker said. "Then Tommy told me it was a simulator. And I was like, 'well, that's got to be some kind of a hoax.'

"Now, I love the place. I think it's awesome."