(06-02-2018, 07:31 AM)rfc17 Wrote:

(05-06-2018, 07:17 PM)homebiscuit Wrote: I played it with my sons and I enjoyed it. It's more challenging than it looks and there are several games with different strategies. It's a fun way to pass some time while having food and drinks, although there are some who take it pretty serious. There's a national tournament which the Golf Channel airs. My son tells me his boss even keeps a set of clubs at the facility because he's so into it.  

It's a tool to grow the game. Greg Norman, a former world #1 who only played 5 rounds last year because he is so occupied with his business interests, made a compelling argument for the importance of Top Golf. Of the 90 million people who played there last year, half had never set foot on a golf course. If the golfing industry can get a fraction of those people to visit a course, it would grow the game tremendously.

I'm mildly concerned with growth in the game but it takes too long to play rounds on public courses as is.  And if the game starts growing at any kind of increased pace, it'll only get worse.  I also have to think in some way, the amount of time it takes to play a round is what scares some people off. 

Top Golf is such a great idea.  Surprised it didnt come around sooner.  Great way to have fun even if you dont like golf.  Hitting off mats doesnt help my game(you dont get punished for hitting it fat) so I never go to work on my swing.  But a lot of fun to go with friends, have a few drinks, and screw around.

It's all about course management. Using starters and having a course marshal to make the rounds keeps things flowing nicely. Courses in other parts of the country, which have to capitalize during golf weather months, do a good job of maximizing course utilization. Florida tends to be complacent because we have year round playing weather. 

Hyde Park is a perfect example. If a bus load of Japanese beginner golf tourists sharing the same bag of clubs had just cleared the first green, the club house would gladly take your money and not say a word about it while watching you tee off. My son and I once had to cut a game short after the third hole because there were, I kid you not, 16, S-I-X-T-E-E-N players stacked up between the 4th and 5th tees. We motored back to the clubhouse to let them know and possibly get a rain check. They just shrugged while the 'manager' sat in the back office and picked his nose. I believe there's plenty of room to grow the game if managed correctly. Promoting 9 hole play and faster play, like Jack Nicklaus's Tee It Forward campaign, are good ways to get casual players out and spending.

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