6 minute read
Business is booming at a place where golfers are at the top of their game
Tribune News Service Topgolf features hitting bays with high-tech driving ranges for players of all skill levels, young and old, where they aim at dartboard-like targets on an outfield and microchipped golf balls score themselves.
At the Top of their game
A growing number of golfers – casual and professional – are teeing up for the hottest new trend to hit the sport in years
BY EDGAR THOMPSON Tribune News Service
ORLANDO, Fla. – As Drake plays in the background and laughter fills the air on a Friday night, Vince Edwards addresses the golf ball, carefully checks his grip and alignment, and then swings.
A flashing brown circle 125 yards away soon signals success. But don’t let the carnival-like atmosphere fool you, this is serious stuff for Edwards.
The 60-year-old from Jacksonville is a newcomer to golf, but he quickly has become a fixture at Topgolf.
“I’ve gotten real hooked on it, bordering on an obsession,” Edwards said. “I’m literally here 6 days a week.”
Edwards is not the only non-golfer who has become an avid Topgolf-er, enjoying the competition, camaraderie and ambiance found at 48 locations nationwide.
People who rarely would have touched a golf club or would never have ventured out onto a golf course have found a non-traditional path to the game.
Founded in 2000 London and launched in the U.S. in 2005, Topgolf combines elements of a bowling alley, an arcade, a driving range and a sports bar. It offers high-tech driving ranges for players of all skill levels, young and old, where players aim at dartboard-like targets on a 215- yard outfield and microchipped golf balls score themselves, giving players instant feedback on shots’ accuracy and distance. The bays are climatecontrolled for year-round play. The venues also feature food and drink, music, TVs, golf lessons, leagues, tournaments, concerts, and corporate and social events.
The golf industry – after years of struggling to stem declining participation brought on by the 2008 recession and the time and expense golf demands – has reaped some benefits. Meanwhile, Topgolf is booming, with no end in sight.
Tampa Topgolf, the first location in Florida, opened in early 2014. The plan was to recoup the investment in 3 years, according to one employee. Instead, it took just 6 months.
The powers-that-be at Topgolf, a privately owned company, do not discuss the specifics of the company’s financial success. The wildfirelike expansion, however, is indication enough of a robust bottom line.
Topgolf plans to open around 10 locations each of the next few years, said Adrienne Chance, the director of corporate communications in the Dallas home office.
Finding the right spot can be challenging.
Each 65,000-square-foot, three-level Topgolf facility is Putt-Putt on ste3 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29
roids, costing tens of millions to build and requiring 10 to 14 acres of land located near a large population base. The Topgolf locations nearest the Sauk Valley are in Naperville, Wood Dale and Schaumburg. Go to topgolf. com for more information.
“We have a lot of expansion coming and we’re very strategic about it making sure we’re going to densely populated areas where people are looking for entertainment,” Chance said.
“We say that Topgolf is everyone’s game,” said Chance, a Florida graduate. “If you walk down the tee line at any given moment you will literally see women barefoot or in high heels. You’ll see older people with their grandkids. You’ll see really young children, even toddlers picking up their little junior clubs.
The child-like enthusiasm of Beth Borca when one of her shots illuminates a target offers a glimpse of Topgolf’s appeal to the non-golfing masses.
“I know I’m looking like an idiot,” the 24-year-old from Melbourne said. “But it’s fun. I’m excited. I’d never really driven a ball before and I made contact. It went up in the air, so that was a good sign.”
Some of golf’s most powerful entities also have warmed to Topgolf based on its impact and influence on the sport.
Topgolf, which served 13 million guests in 2017, now has partnerships with the PGA of America and the PGA and LPGA tours. In April, Golf Channel began a show called, “Shotmakers,” a 3-week competition staged at Topgolf Las Vegas.
It’s not a stretch to say Topgolf’s reach has been staggering. A National Golf Foundation survey last fall found 23 percent of new golfers, those playing 3 years or fewer, started the game following their first Topgolf experience.
Tribune News Service Topgolf combines elements of a bowling alley, an arcade, a driving range and a sports bar. In addition to driving ranges, they also feature food and drink, music, TVs, golf lessons, leagues, tournaments, concerts, and corporate and social events.
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Some of the best golfers in the world are Topgolf fans, too.
Greg Norman, Matt Kuchar, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler have played Topgolf. Marc Leishman, the 2017 Arnold Palmer Invitational winner, practices at the one near his Virginia Beach home.
“To be able to hang out, have some drinks or food and hit balls, laugh at your friends, there’s not really any expectations,” Fowler said at the Players Championship in May. “It’s a very free-loving environment in a way. I don’t think it discourages anyone from going ahead and hitting a ball, versus if you go to the driving range and you feel like you’ve got people that are good golfers next to you and you feel like you should be hitting it better or you should be better to show up at a driving range.
“I feel like they’ve done a good job of making kind of that entry level (player) to feel like you’re accepted no matter what. Just go hit the ball, have fun, enjoy it.”
Millennials have flocked in droves to Topgolf.
Mary LeBlanc, the lead marketing champion at Topgolf Orlando, has taken the pulse of the 20-something clientele and come to realize why Topgolf has become such a phenomenon.
“Millennials like it because it’s kind of revamping something old,” she said. “I know that might not sound good to a golfer. But it’s making golf cool again – that’s what I hear.” n
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