By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Talk to most private club owners, golf professionals or members and they’ll tell you that the driving range at their facilities has become a hub for social activity, competition and engagement. At the public course level, the driving range is where many golfers get their start in the game. They go out with friends and family, grab a bucket of balls, and start swinging for the first time.
The game of golf has seen millions of new golfers over the past three or four years, with a million new women taking up the game, thanks to limited options during the pandemic and the many benefits that the game provides health-wise, socially and competitively.
Today’s stellar golf technology has also added a new spin to time spent on the range with ball tracking platforms like Toptracer Range allowing golfers to play a round of golf in an hour or two on the range rather than four hours on the course. With time and cost being long-time barriers to entry in golf, the golf driving range is clearing the way for a new demographic of golfers to enjoy the game for a lifetime.
At Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, PGA of America Vice President Don Rea, Jr., the Association’s latest Master Professional, welcomes new golfers every day, as they join his many core golfers who enjoyed the game long before the COVID infusion of new players changed the landscape of the industry.
Rea and his partner, Curt Hudek, a Quarter Century PGA Member, installed Toptracer on the range at Augusta Ranch in November of 2022 – 21 bays (six of which are expanded to comfortably accommodate small groups of 6-8 people) all lit for night play. The six expanded bays have patio furniture so guests can relax and enjoy the golf, as well as the food and beverage services currently offered through the facility’s restaurant, Scratch Pub & Grill, and later this summer by a new F&B amenity called Buckets, aptly names as it will predominantly serve the course’s driving range customers with a convenient location adjacent to the covered range.
“These gamified ranges with Toptracer are the future of the driving range,” Rea says. “It’s bringing out new people every day and contributing to the growth we’ve seen in the game in recent years.”
The course at Augusta Ranch is an 18-hole Par 61 layout, already welcoming to new golfers, juniors, seniors, women and anyone who’s felt stymied by those barriers cited earlier – time and cost.
The Augusta Ranch range was once like many others – grass tees, mats used during inclement weather and seeding, no lights – a necessary amenity for existing golfers that didn’t really draw in new ones. With the implementation of Toptracer Range, the practice range has become a focal point of the facility. Of course, its lush 18 holes will always draw your core golfers and beginners. But many golfers AND non-golfers want more, and technology is very often the answer.
With limited funds available for expansion pre-COVID, the boom we saw during the pandemic and the increased revenue gave Rea and Hudek the opportunity to invest in their facility feeling it was the right thing to do to grow their business.
“In addition to it being the right time financially, Toptracer contacted us to let us know they had some go-to vendors who have made installation and build-out easier than ever,” Rea added. “Cover The Tees does all the protective awnings and the Toptracer folks cited an electrician who does the lighting and ensures the necessary power exists within the structure to support the Toptracer Range monitors, TV flat screens and required data lines.”
Rea and Hudek did a few unique things during the Toptracer Range installation. With lighting at many driving ranges being rather dim, they ensured brighter lighting so patrons can enjoy their food, keep an eye on their kids and have an overall better experience. They also installed the mats on artificial turf, rather than concrete, to make it aesthetically more appealing and easier on the golfer’s body.
Hudek says, “The Toptracer range has provided a unique learning environment for lessons and school programs. Our favorite is using it to introduce veterans to the game of golf through the PGA HOPE programming.”
Rea (and many other range owners I’ve spoken with) sees the installation of this technology as a bit of an insurance policy if and when rounds of golf wane a bit. He asks the question many range owners have posed: “How do we become our own funnel and create new golfers?” His response to that is to make it attractive and inviting to the non-golfer. Make it family-friendly, inclusive and fun, and you’ll turn new customers into long-time golfers.
“We wanted to make our space as much like Topgolf as we could and slowly convert people from the restaurant to the Toptracer Range to the putting green to the golf course,” Rea explains. “We did the installation in 2022 and it’s been crazy ever since. In fact, our range revenue has increased fivefold in that short period of time.”
What is often considered an individual sport is now fostering shared experiences and forging memories among families and friends. The game is not just about the Saturday or Sunday morning tee time anymore. It’s about a couple of hours with a drink and the big game on the adjacent flatscreen. It’s about team-building among co-workers, date night beyond dinner and a movie and sharing one’s passion for the game with your children, playing Go Fish on Toptracer Range.
Rea says he and his team are welcoming people they haven’t seen before, and they’re turning them into golfers. He highlighted the power of the driving range in being a vital conduit between golf entertainment and more traditional on-course play. Toptracer Range technology magnifies that impact exponentially.
