The parking lot of a strip club will soon be home to a driving range in a quirky pivot to survive. 

Club Pro Adult Entertainment has been around for 37 years, located in Vaughan and one of the only strip clubs in Canada to be owned by a woman, Teresa Marciano.

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"Over the past year, we've tried to adapt in any possible way, and it has been nothing short of nearly impossible," Teresa's nephew and Club Pro manager Rob Marciano tells blogTO. "Nevertheless, we persist." 

The club closed temporarily in March 2020 due to lockdowns, but spent two and a half months building a patio in the parking lot and according to Marciano, had "a fantastic summer" until strip clubs were ordered by the province to shut down in the fall.

From there, to at least keep their cooks employed, the club tried opening up a ghost kitchen concept called The Food Emporium.

"Our food has always had that 'Holy shit, I was not expecting that' reaction," says Marciano.

"But we were fighting an uphill battle," he says. "We jumped off a cliff and we had to build the plane before we hit the ground."

When the emergency-brake lockdown was implemented, Club Pro temporarily closed The Food Emporium and went back to the drawing board.

Marciano says a "eureka moment" that "started out as a joke" came when Club Pro staff found out golf would be allowed during the stay-at-home order, and that evolved into Stiff Shafts, a driving range comprised of five practice areas in the strip club's parking lot.

Technically, outdoor amenities like tennis courts, soccer fields, skate parks, basketball courts and even golf courses are now closed and the driving range would be grouped in with these, but Stiff Shafts should still be tentatively ready to open for May 20, when the stay-at-home order is slated to end.

"It can bring our kitchen and bar staff back to work and it can provide a new career for our entertainers to turn from dancers to 'caddies,'" says Marciano.

"This will give us the ability to open our doors and provide the atmosphere and service we've become known for."