Lantern Parade

60,000 took part in this year’s kickoff for Art on the Beltline �

By Collin Kelley

The INtown and Reporter Newspaper staff regularly has an office outing: bowling or taking the streetcar for lunch at Sweet Auburn Curb Market, for example. Last month, we loaded up and headed to West Midtown to check out Top Golf, and it didn’t matter that most of our staff had never stepped foot on a greenway.

You see Top Golf before you actually arrive. The giant fence that encircles the green is visible above the tree line on Chattahoochee Avenue. The Top Golf facility itself is on Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard and resembles a futuristic office building from the ample parking lot. But once inside, the entire mood changes.

Smiling staff welcome and check you in, high energy music is playing from the sound system and there’s an upscale sports bar vibe happening. We’re led out onto the three-story game play area that overlooks the massive “course.”

Playing at Top Golf is a strange hybrid of traditional golf, putt-putt and bowling. Each putting green has comfortable banquettes and bar-top seating where we enjoyed lunch from Top Golf’s extensive menu of burgers, wraps, flatbreads, salads and more.

As we ate, we were shown how to play. You assign yourself and teammates a number on the touchscreen score-keeper, pick a club from an extensive rack (there are clubs for lefties, too) and wave it over a sensor which releases a ball on to the green. The ball has a microchip inside that tracks your swing and whether you hit one of the targets. The more accurate your shot and the farther the distance, the more points you earn.

If golf isn’t your game, there are pool tables, video games and giant Jenga in the Kid Zone.

Top Golf is great for all ages and skill levels, even a total amateur like me. If you’re looking for a unique place to hold a birthday party, bachelor party, teambuilding event or just to spend an afternoon with friends, Top Golf fits the bill.

For more information, visit topgolf.com/us/Atlanta.