This is the time of year where golf courses in Florida used to be packed to the hilt.
Better have a tee time or you wouldn’t get to play.
Nowdays, not so much.
But go by the Top Golf here in Tampa and the place is packed.
Which begs the question: Is Top Golf The Future Of Golf?
Golf claims it is working on its problems and they still remain: takes too long to play, it’s too expensive.
The club industry is doing nothing about the “expensive” part. Every year, make that every 9-10 months, it seems TaylorMade battles Callaway to see how’s got the best $500 driver. It’s gotten to the point where they don’t introduce totally new clubs, they simply “modifiy” the ones from the previous year and try to convince you to fork out that $400-$500 to pick up the new “modified” driver.
Putters are even worse. You should be able to buy a nice putter for $75 but instead, they’re now pushing the limits, going for $250 and up.
We are not even going to talk about Parsons Extreme Golf.
Ridiculous. Where’s the used club barrel?
The time element is still there as well with rounds still pushing close to five hours, it’s a day-long commitment. This problem is leading to more “short courses” coming to life as well as some places building six-hole courses that can be played as six par threes or three holes that includes a par four and par five.
Which brings us back to Top Golf.
Top Golf is really a giant bar-restaurant with a range attached. That’s it. There’s music, laughter — not the traditional “quiet” of a golf course.
It’s full of young people, a lot you can tell have never played golf. With it’s multi-story setup, you can basically top the ball and it’s still air born. Doesn’t matter, flub your shots then go sit on the comfy luxury sofas and down a beer.
For those unaware, Top Golf has a dirty little secret — the golf balls are limited flight balls. Have to be, the facility in Tampa is only about 220 yards in length, they put up extremely high netting. If the balls were real, we figured Rory McIlroy could hoist a four-iron over the end of the range.
The microchip technology does allow for competition. There are “greens” and the computers will measure how close a ball is hit to any of the greens.
But if you watch most of the people there, they’re just wacking balls.
There’s a lot of families with smaller children, lots of high school and college age kids.
The college kids seem to enjoy the beer more than the golf. Shocker!
It’s certainly not cheap. Food and beverages are pretty expensive and the balls are as well.
Still, apparently, it’s drawing people like flies to a picnic.
That’s because it is a lot of things golf is not.
It’s louder, it’s a party atmosphere.
Which goes back to this holiday time of the year.
Where would you rather go: A Party or the Golf Course?
At Top Golf you can do both.
Which is probably why we’re looking at the future of golf.
4 Comments
beege
Hi Tom,
happy days after christmas! i am very familiar with top golf–in the suburbs of atlanta where my kids live there is one and i have been–it is golf’s version of a bowling center–the “lanes” are set up as you know for anyone to play–food and beverage are more important than the ball striking and finally it is expensive–when my son and family go–its a 200 evening–with the kids or just friends–and he is a real golfer so its just a night out…….and packed as you say. if this is the future of golf the game is in real trouble but they are very expensive to build and run so every city will have one or two but golf is not threatened. just another mouse trap that works with proper funding.
Tom Edrington
Bob, the one here is located right off Interstate 75 at Brandon exit, you can see it as you drive past it…..typical cost to open one of these is $35 million, and guess what? Callaway is one of the investors. Yes, it’s not cheap but beats taking the family to an NFL game, much more fun.
beege
smart on callaway’s part even if its not a major blast for them they are a player and who knows maybe the trumpster will buy the whole thing when he gets done with the country. (a commentary is in there somewhere)
.NFL game–no way a friend asked me if i wanted to go to the bills/dolphins game this sunday and before i could say no, i said no–tix 42, parking 25 refreshments 35 and fighting traffic and lousy football–yes that’s for me!!!! instead i can stay home watch the red channel, see every interesting play from every game and it cost me ZERO. tough choice.
Tom Edrington
Or go play a quick nine.