TOPGOLF: A Driving Range for Laughs and Fun

The future of golf is bright, as in bright pink, blue and orange, pulsing fuchsia and a hint of sea foam green, ebbing and throbbing to the beat of “Uptown Funk” with the smell of burgers and fresh queso wafting by. That is what it’s like when you visit a Topgolf entertainment facility, the fastest growing enterprise in the game, with 24 current U.S. locations and a half-dozen more expected to open before the end of the year. For those who have never seen it, Topgolf is tough to explain. You don’t get more than a couple of sentences in before someone says, “Oh, it’s an indoor driving range.” While technically accurate, that’s like calling Studio 54 a dance club or Las Vegas a town in the desert. The description misses the big picture by a wide margin.

Topgolf is for today’s millennials what speakeasies and square dances were to young adults in the last century. Just as you didn’t have to know how to “dosey doe” to enjoy yourself 100 years ago, you don’t have to know much about golf to have a great time in these places. In fact, golf is almost secondary to the party that’s rocking at almost every hitting bay. There’s food, couches, more than 200 HD TVs, pool tables, shuffle boards, video games, a full sports bar and restaurant, live music on the weekends, some meeting rooms and a lobby that looks like the love child of an LA Fitness studio and the Bellagio. From the front parking lot, Topgolf looks like a giant nightclub. From the sides and back, you think you’re seeing a psychedelic aviary, complete with nets and an ever-changing array of lights. That’s all before you pick up the first club. Strategically located in densely populated areas, each Topgolf venue houses 102 hitting bays spread over three stories with artificial turf and target greens that look like giant dartboards along a netted area some 215 yards long. The first target green (which is actually a grid with lights that change colors to the beat of whatever song happens to be jamming on the sound system) is close enough and the turf is angled enough for any ball that rolls off the front of the tee to make it to at least an outside edge. So, like bumpers on a bowling lane, all patrons can enjoy themselves, even those who come in high heels and leather pants having never held a club (which is a larger percentage of the customer base than you might think). Games are played based on how close each person hits shots to flags at different distances. Points show up on video monitors inside each bay. That feature is made possible because of chips inside each golf ball, which is, at its core, the technology that makes Topgolf possible. Twin brothers, Steve and Dave Jolliffe, developed the chipped golf ball near their home in London more than a decade ago. Like a lot of young golfers, the brothers found traditional driving ranges about as exciting as a trip to the dentist. So, they decided to create something different. “They felt that they could liven up the driving range experience but also improve their skills at the same time,” said Randy Starr, Topgolf’s Chief Operating Officer. “That was really the intention behind it: to create a fun, non-intimidating way to hit a golf ball but also to make it into a friendly competition.” The brothers’ original business was called World Golf Systems. Topgolf Entertainment bought the patents and intellectual property along with three U.K.-based facilities. The company is now headquartered in Dallas. Each Topgolf bay goes for $45 an hour, unlimited balls, no matter how many people are there – and six can fit comfortably. Servers come by with drinks and food, and you can even get a lesson if you want. While revenue figures are not available, published reports and conversations with a few employees confirm that a typical facility pulls in $150,000 on an average weekday, much more on the weekends when they’re open until 2 a.m. Business groups flock there by the busload. “It’s the perfect first-date place,” one 20-something man said when asked what attracted him to Topgolf. From the looks of the crowd on any given night, that assessment is true for a lot of people. “It is a breeding ground for attracting golfers who wouldn’t otherwise get a golf club in their hands,” Starr said. That is why both the PGA and LPGA Tours have entered into strategic partnerships with Topgolf, which should prove beneficial to all involved. “Topgolf venues are bringing new people to the game and many of those people are then also taking up the game in the traditional sense on golf courses,” said LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. “Everyone is taking notice of Topgolf’s innovation and creativity. “One of the things we struggle with is how do we make sure our players and our amateurs get to know each other in a pro-am gala situation,” said Whan. “Imagine a pro-am party on the LPGA that’s completely different. Now an amateur walks into a Topgolf. We tell the amateur, your tee time tomorrow is at 8:34, but tonight you’re in Bay 47. They walk to Bay 47 and at Bay 47 are the two LPGA players they’ll be playing with tomorrow. For 90 minutes, they get to know each other over a couple of drinks, some good food and some competition.”

It’s a great vision, one that could help bridge the gap between traditionalists and a new generation. In the meantime, Topgolf is a rip-roaring good time for everyone, no matter how much you care about the game.

www.topgolf.com/us

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