Schuyler Golf Club rebranding as Champs Sports Bar and Grill

While the Schuyler Golf Club has a long local history, Champs Sports Bar and Grill Owner Scott Andel said, Schuyler needed an option for casual food, beer and sports, and the golf club wasn't fitting that bill. Ideas began to form.

"I spend a lot of time in Schuyler. I mean, I'm from here, I grew up in David City, went to Aquinas," Andel said. "I was in the craft brewing industry for the last eight or 10 years, and what I realized is there was really nowhere to go to get, you know, kind of a nice environment for sports and beer and and, like, a real bar experience."

Schuyler has a lot of restaurants, Andel noted, and a few places to buy beer, but nowhere to get the full bar experience, so he decided to make one, inside the golf club building. With his experience alongside other Owner Adam Baumert's experience at the golf club and in the food industry, things started falling into place.

"We really did a deep clean, we have games coming along, we're going to do about 15 TVs along the wall (above the bar)," Andel said. "We're going to redo the menu, it's going to be slightly improved. We're hiring more staff."

They added pool, darts, games to give patrons some entertainment options in addition to the sports broadcasts. Baumert, who is working to improve the menu a little bit and expand the kitchen facilities, said the change was needed and he's excited for something new.

"Schuyler needed it. Our community needed a fun place to come hang out and drink a beer or eat some good food," Baumert said. "Hopefully, especially during golf season when golfers are golfing, they come in and have some good lunch or supper and stick around. The course is nice, the clubhouse, food, beer, everything's great."

Andel said that, growing up, sports were a big deal in the area and he knows they still are for so many today. That's why they wanted it to not just be a bar, but a sports bar.

"It's about having different sporting events on, UFC and boxing and football and volleyball and giving people a reason to come to the same place, that's basically my dream is to make a community place where everybody in the community comes," Andel said. "I think sports is kind of a unifying factor for almost everyone, it might be different sports, but everyone has a passion for it."

The official opening takes place on Nov. 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the Schuyler Golf Club, 295 Higgins Drive in Schuyler.