In September I went to Top Golf for the very first time in Las Vegas. In addition to the four-story hitting bay I was shocked to see all the other areas the venue included. The two things that stood out the most were the live music venue and the two-story pool. The interior is a cross between a sports bar and night club.
The setup looked like they could host a pool party, DJ’s and bands. And that is exactly what they are doing. The most notable bands coming through is Sublime with Rome and in April they will be hosting the Academy of Country Music Lifting Lives event featuring Darius Rucker and Rascal Flatts. In addition to that, the Vegas location also has a comedy club.
The second Top Golf location with a live music venue is Nashville. The Nashville location has a dedicated 600-person venue called “The Cowan”. Most shows are standing room only (the VIP area in the balcony has some seating options). There isn’t a bad sightline in the house, and with one main bar and two satellite bars, the drinks flow fast.
Since opening the venue has hosted a wide range of talent from Sir-Mix-A-Lot, Los Lobos, Charles Kelle and George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars. In addition to these the venue hosts local talent weekly as well.
I’m a big fan of what Top Golf is doing to grow the game of golf. Not with just the music venues’ but getting casual and new people to get exposed to the game. They are attracting people through corporate events, and their expansion into baseball and football stadiums are exposing new players to the game. Sure, it’s not the best pricing for someone looking to go hit a bucket of balls. But the fact that they are able to effectively monetize driving ranges and create a new concept is incredible.
I have also used their technology at the Del Mar Golf Center. At the driving range they have a covered area where you can use their tracer technology and see where your shots are going. They have an area where you can play against your friends, but I only used it to track how far my shots were going. I’ve seen the Top Golf tracer at several other driving ranges as well.
One of our goals at Golf BPM is to include our music into the Top Golf eco-system. That way when you are practicing at a range that include Top Golf you could play our original music and time your swing up to the beats in our music.
We have a several product development ideas in the works to gamify your practice by combining music with yardage targets and then tracking all the areas you need to focus on for improvement.
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