A decade ago, twin brothers in England discovered what most golfers already knew — practice is boring.
The driving range is a monotonous place of repetitive motions, most of which are grossly errant and devastating to the possibility of any real improvement.
The brothers, inventors by trade, developed a microchip to place inside a golf ball, without affecting its weight or trajectory, which could determine exactly how far it is hit.
Steve and Dave Jolliffe’s ingenuity spawned a new way to practice and play the sport loved by so many. It’s called Top Golf, and by next year it’s likely that micro-chipped balls will be zipping through Toronto.
Top Golf takes the practice aspect of a driving range and makes it competitive, while adding the good times of your local pub.
“Our view is that it’s a new category in the sport of golf,” says Joe Vrankin, CEO of Top Golf. “It’s really golf entertainment.”
“The vast majority of people go for fun,” he says. “It’s for the social side of it — they decide if they want to go to Top Golf, or to a high-end bowling alley, or to a movie, or to a bar. That’s what our competition is.”
So what exactly is Top Golf?
New York Times sportswriter Bill Pennington described it as a “cross between the ambience of a 1950s bowling alley and an episode of ‘The Jetsons’.”
The basic idea is to turn the driving range experience into a social activity. It turns the country-club traditions of golf into an accessible night of entertainment, without the dress code.
Friends gather in a hub, complete with sofas, tables, televisions and a touch-screen monitor. The players take turns shooting golf balls at targets scattered at different spots across a 250-yard open fairway. As many as six people can play at a time.
“It’s kind of like high-end bowling meets darts,” Vrankin says.
The interactive touch screen keeps track of how far each ball is hit, and awards points for accuracy and shot difficulty.
The monitors can also order up some pints and bar food, brought directly to your party by waiters known as caddies. Each facility is more than 50,000 square feet, with a restaurant and two bars. It costs about $6 per person to play a game at peak hours.
While the serious golfer in you is groaning, consider the appeal to the rest of us hacks.
Close to half of the Top Golf patrons are not golfers, Vrankin says. They’ve either never picked up a club before, or might get out to a range or course once or twice a year.
And there’s still room for the serious, solo practice session — complete with computer technology to track your shot distance, and specialized games to focus on accuracy.
Each of the micro-chipped balls is produced by Callaway Golf, which was an early investor in the company. There are plans to eventually create a Top Golf tournament circuit.
There are currently four Top Golf locations in the United States and three in the U.K., and the company plans to expand heavily over the next couple of years.
The facilities average about 200,000 visitors a year, with each visitor spending about $35. In the U.S., there is a Top Golf near Washington, one just outside Chicago and two in Dallas.
Top Golf will open up three new locations in the southern U.S. through the next year, and are about 12 months away from expanding further into the north, including Canada. The company plans to have up to 50 locations running in the next six years, Vrankin says.
Heating methods have been perfected at the Chicago location, where people play the game in the open with a -10 C wind-chill. Snow is removed quickly from the fairways, allowing it to remain an open-air game, free from the dreary confines of a dome.
That year-round appeal might even lure some of the traditional polo shirt-sporting, handicap-counting crowd in the winter months.
“Toronto would be a fantastic market for us,” says Vrankin. “Canada is a great market for golf.”
Monday, July 4, 2011
Colin Montgomerie questioning Rory McIlroy's Open prep
Colin Montgomerie yesterday questioned Rory McIlroy's build-up for the Open Championship. Does this mean the Ulsterman's honeymoon period is already over or is his Ryder Cup captain simply concerned that the experience might be overwhelming for the US Open champion when he eventually turns up at Royal St George's next week?
Undoubtedly the latter. Montgomerie remains a huge fan of the 22-year-old and declares "he will contend". But he also believes it would have been wiser for McIlroy to play an event in the three-week gap between Congressional and Sandwich.
"I can understand having two out of three weeks off, but I would like to have seen Rory play a competitive tournament between the two majors," Montgomerie said.
Since the eight-shot victory which established him as golf's new superstar, McIlroy has attended a number of sponsors' days, made two trips to Wimbledon and travelled to Hamburg for the world heavyweight title fight. Originally, McIlroy had been due to play in last week's French Open and Montgomerie thinks he should have stuck to that plan or at least entered this week's Scottish Open. Yet Montgomerie is not worried about any rust in McIlroy's game.
"Rory's so natural I don't think there are any fears about his game," said Montgomerie. "But it's the locker room. There will be so many people wanting to congratulate him, wanting to talk to him. That's bloody tiring. Whether it was the French or the Scottish Open he could have got that out of his system, so he could start the Open afresh. Now he's got all that ahead of him and by the time he gets to the first tee, I think he will be mentally tired. But who am I to say?"
After two days' reconnaissance on the Kent links this week, McIlroy will stay away from the course until the Tuesday afternoon – and does not plan to play until Wednesday. Padraig Harrington agreed with Montgomerie in believing McIlory might be in for a hectic time. "Whenever you win and you go to the next tournament there are 155 other players and 155 other caddies who want to say 'well done'," said the three-times major winner. "Everyone will want a conversation. That will be an issue for him."
Montgomerie and Harrington were talking at the launch of the "HSBC Ultimate Open 18" (the duo's choice of the perfect Open course pulled from the nine courses on the current Open roster). They arrive in Inverness today to prepare for this week's Scottish Open, with Montgomerie needing a top-five finish to stand a chance of qualifying for Sandwich. "I haven't missed an Open in 22 years. I'm in the last chance saloon," he said.
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