Clarity Indoor Golf

BILL

BALES

PROVIDES CLARITY

ON THE FUTURE OF INDOOR GOLF

At Clarity, we offer free expert knowledge on the acquisition and integration of anything related to indoor golf and launch monitors.

Our customers have the benefit of a free consultation that fully educates them on all aspects of their project. I jokingly tell them that if they make any mistakes, it will be because they choose to do so. Those who buy from us know they are getting the best products and services for the best prices — with lifetime technical support.

In addition to custom simulator integrations, Clarity has a host

of products we will be bringing forth:

• Better ball and club tracking

• Better sim software

• Better learning tools

• Great force plates with a unique interface

• Markerless skeletal-sequential body tracking

• Unique and advanced physical product designs

• Creative advances in simulator environments

• Empowerment for teachers and fitters

Bill Bales, Clarity.Golf Founder

CLARITY.GOLF’S VIEW OF THE FUTURE OF INDOOR GOLF

Software:

The industry is becoming commoditized. E6 has been the industry leading simulator software for over twenty years, and you can get it for numerous trackers. GSPro are the new guys and their product and pricing are compelling. There will be major future disruptions in software over the next few years, including Clarity’s entirely unique view of how to interact with a simulator.

Content:

Content is software but differentiated from the above to clarify the message. We are seeing fairly obvious and mundane content such as kicking a soccer ball, playing skee-ball, simplistic range games like at TopGolf, even beer pong. We will be seeing new, out-ofthe-box, totally original content in the future. It will make what’s out there today look silly.

Data to Knowledge:

Simulators and launch monitors can overwhelm you with data. That must change. Data doesn’t teach. It just sits there. Pros can teach with it. Consider the total percentage of usage of sims and launch monitors with a pro standing there, vs not. A smartphone isn’t smart without apps.

Product Knowledge:

If sims and launch monitors were cars we wouldn’t know their 0-60 times, horsepower, torque, braking specs… we wouldn’t even know if they were a V8, a V6, or a hybrid. Other than often spurious website claims and uneducated online reviews we have zero knowledge of the actual performance of these systems. That must, and will, change.

Pricing:

The emergence of the DIY market and the commoditizing of simulator components is increasing customer awareness and pushing pricing lower. Clarity is doing the same thing with turnkey integrated sims.

COVER STORY CLARITY.GOLF

THE FUTURE OF INDOOR GOLF

WITH BILL BALES, CLARITY.GOLF FOUNDER

NEG: You’ve been an influencer in golf simulation for over thirty years, and recently founded Clarity. Golf. What is Clarity.Golf?

Bales: Clarity.Golf has been working with brilliant minds around the world to bring what will be my third major disruption to the golf launch monitor and simulator industry. We call it Paradigm3.

Where do you see this whole indoor golf movement going?

Indoor golf is growing rapidly and will continue growing in evolving ways.

Why?

Technology and Inclusiveness. Tech has been driving indoor golf growth for twenty years. Indoor golf is truly inclusive, and it eliminates the ridiculous rules you encounter on the course. Anyone can do it and have fun. The number of indoor golfers in the future will dwarf the number of outdoor golfers.

You’re saying there will be more indoor golfers?

A lot more. The math is simple. Over the last 20 years the number of golfers who played golf courses has remained static while the number of golfers doing it off course (usually indoors or partially indoors) has increased six-fold.

What is holding back the growth of on-course golf?

The golf powers, progenitors of the BEASTS: Barriers of age, race, sex,

class, and skill, expensive Equipment, Access to play, Satisfaction as in a great experience, Time as in it takes way too long, and Social as in pros do a lousy job of getting players together.

What makes Clarity unique?

Bales: We offer free expert knowledge on the acquisition and integration of anything related to indoor golf and launch monitors–with lifetime tech support. And we’re developing a bunch of cool stuff.

Can you expand on the “cool stuff”?

Bales: Better ball and club tracking, sim software, learning tools, force plates, body tracking, creative simulator environments, empowerment for teachers and fitters, extreme gamer-oriented golf derivatives, and more stuff we’ll disclose in the future.

CLARITY.GOLF TEAM

Bill Bales

Founder

Craig Van Vliet CTO

Kathleen Wilkinson Sew Shop Manager

Jack Wachowiak VP Sales

Will Branum CIO

Pete Brewer FPGA/EE

Wilson Bales President Aran Wainwright Clarity UK’s VP Former English Amateur Winner

Doug Woodward Warehouse Manager

Mike Mundwiler Key Accounts

Carson Bales Creative Director

Wes Maass Rendering Artist

AFTER

BEFORE CLARITY REFIT

Before and after at the new Mastodon Golf Club, where in 1989 the former owner unearthed the full skeletal remains of a Mastodon. www.mastodongolfclub.com

THE TECHNOLOGY MIRACLE UNFOLDING BEFORE OUR EYES

Bill Gates summed up a huge challenge mankind faces when he said, “We need an energy miracle”. For us golfers, a technology miracle is taking place now. Consider the effect of ball and club tracking technology on golf. It relates to every TopGolf or TopGolf wannabe, every driving range with ball tracking and games, every indoor golf center, pro shop indoor studio, fitting center, and club retail facility — plus on every range in some portable form and as used by all of the touring pros. “The range is no longer about a bucket of balls — it is an experience”, said Nick Longley, Founder of InRangeGolf.com.

Witness Tiger and Rory’s new TMRW indoor stadium golf con-

cept, partnering with the PGA TOUR and applying Dave Shultz’s approach to indoor golf short game play. And the technology is going to get much better on all fronts. Ball and club tracking will get light-years better. And we’ll see a proliferation of magnificent and spellbinding content that will take the golf experience to a level not previously known or contemplated

Off-course golf has grown six-fold in the same period on-course golf has not grown. People think Covid did it. Covid boosted indoor golf awareness, but the technology miracle is taking place and it’s not going to stop growing this wonderful new facet of the game we all love.

NextLinks Founder Dave Shultz has patented an Innovative Simulation Approach to Short Game Play

Greg Hall and Jeremy Williams 2 Successful Entrepreneurs in Atlanta enter the Indoor Golf relm.

Five Iron Golf Indoor Golf Done Right

BY BILL BALES

INDOOR

GOLF CLARITY GOLF

cool would it be if your local muni obsessed over your experience?”

A long time ago, before I didn’t know a golf simulator from Market Street, I gave a keynote address on revenue generation in the Waldorf Astoria ballroom in London to a worldwide group of newly minted Internet content experts. Where the other speakers talked of singular concepts such as subscription fees, “freemiums,” and the like I outlined how my company took the foundational code from our Microsoft Golf product and turned

it into an “advergaming” product with no less than nine revenue streams. I likened it to the American Indian consuming and utilizing every bit of the buffalo, down to the last hair, where the Lewis and Clark team left a trail of dead carcasses after removing and eating the tongues.

This formula applies fully to the business of indoor golf, an amazing growing element of the golf culture. But in my world travels over the last two decades, I have not found a single indoor golf operation that has fully executed on this critical fundamental–until now.

Mike Doyle and his co-founding partners Nora Dunnan and Jared Solomon founded their first Five Iron Golf indoor center in 2017 in the Flat Iron District of Manhattan.

They have grown to fifteen locations and expect to add five more by early 2023, and 8 more by years end

Pretty cool. But what’s even cooler is how Mike and his partners have used the whole buffalo. I’ve been somewhat of a broken record over the years encouraging my clients to exercise Sam Walton’s greatest point of wisdom, “It’s not about one thing, it’s about a hundred things”. The indoor golf business is not easy, at least if you simply build it and wait for them to come–and if they come to let them just play golf.

Five Iron Golf gets it done. They do it all for both ends of the golf culture–the more serious “on course” golfers and the emerging class of fun-loving “off course” golfers. And

“How

INDOOR GOLF CLARITY GOLF

they do it well. As Mike Doyle told me, “We obsess over the customer experience, whichever customer that may be.”

How cool would it be if your local muni obsessed over your experience, versus pointing out all the things you cannot do or must do to be allowed to give them your money? In the sense of the customer experience, Five Iron is much better, a shining example of what the golf experience should be.

And, with 7-15 well-maintained sims per site, equipped with top-shelf technology, in-house bar food, full bar, top of the line clubs for every swing in every bay, instructors, proprietary custom club fitting, and a atmosphere that welcomes parties. Five Iron caters to corporate events, leagues, and all golfers from absolute beginners to touring pros, Five Iron defines the future of growing the game of golf.

Consider that in 2000 the World Golf

Foundation established the now defunct Golf 20/20, with the goal of growing participants in U.S. golf by 20 million over 20 years. The number of on course golfers has remained static the last 20 years. At the same time the number of offcourse golfers has grown SIX-FOLD! Note, that’s the third time in my life I’ve used an exclamation point.

I’ll always cast my vote for enterprising, capitalistic entrepreneurs making things happen, versus buildings full of overpaid disconnected suits. And I cast my vote for Mike, Nora, Jared and Five Iron Golf.

see every day.

Email anytime: BillBales@Clarity.Golf

Bill Bales works with Home Golf Lifestyle Media and provides free expertise to readers. His team can assist any homeowner on how to optimize their simulator plan — and how to avoid the egregious mistakes they

designbuild

Luxury Home Simulators

Planning for a High End Golf Simulator

BY BILL BALES

The largest and most frequent mistakes in planning indoor golf are made by high end home owners.

You might not think it’s much of a challenge to install a golf sim. But after having seen countless unconsidered sacrifices for space by jamming an outdoor sport into a relatively tiny space, I predict that any design ideas you might have for your sim have flaws.

Golf is played outside. Higher is ALWAYS better, wider is ALWAYS better, and deeper is ALWAYS better. And, do reality checks; drivers are long–the footprint of a drive can be 11’ long by 7’ wide by almost 10’ high in some cases. And that’s just the footprint of the swing. It’s best to plan for 12 feet of ball flight and at least a foot of open area between the screen and the wall behind it. And don’t forget a comfortable 8-15 feet behind the sim.

I’ve seen folks dig existing basements deeper, knock down walls, expand basements and jam sims in tragically short or narrow spaces, sometimes eliminating left-handed play.

One guy put his sim in his living room. Another really rich guy made the sacrifice of a giant beam passing through the center of the top of the screen.

My favorite was the guy who crammed his sim into a 12’ wide space in a dark

corner of his basement where his pool room had two oversized tables and a massive bar and a home theater bigger than some nice theaters. It was a five-minute walk from the refrigerator to the sink in his kitchen.

A great standard sim area is 15-16’ wide, 10-12’ high, and 25-30’ deep.  Going up to 25 feet deep enables real excitement with a super wide curved screen–maybe up to 180 degrees. And, getting that ceiling as high as you can–at least 10 feet–makes a big difference.

My latest company offers free expertise

in golf sim planning. We can help you plan your ultimate sim, but we can also apply our Nano Science to designing a simulator you can have in a room 14’ long by 10’ wide by 8’ high.

Bill Bales works with Home Golf Lifestyle Media and provides free expertise to readers. His team can assist any homeowner on how to optimize their simulator plan–and how to avoid the egregious mistakes they see every day. Email anytime: BillBales@Clarity.Golf

S I M U L A T O R S

on specifications, designs, and planning.

We have on every key product.

Optional from design to installation.

The absolute optimal system for the We're serious about caring for our customers.

Clarity.Golf's founder has previously founded or co-founded four world leaders in golf simulation software, golf simulators, and sports imaging.