Serial entrepreneur Michael Williamson was having lunch in Atlanta a few years ago when a friend asked if he had played golf on a simulator. “Yeah,” he said. “I have one at home. I never go to the driving range anymore.”
In that reply came the idea for Intown Golf Club, a private golf and social club that seeks to be just like a traditional golf club—only indoors.
“In Atlanta, like a lot of other cities, we’ve got five or six really nice private golf clubs,” Williamson says, “but they have five- to seven-year waiting lists and cost $100,000 for initiation.” This has created what he calls “a gap in golf,” one that’s filled by municipal facilities and popular entertainment venues like TopGolf—“which isn’t really golf,” he says.
Intown Golf Club has expanded to Charlotte with plans to open locations in Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia next year. It’s just one of several brands trying to win over urban professionals with a luxury concept emphasizing the social aspect of the game.
As with any country club, Intown features a head pro, a shop with Intown-branded merchandise, and even a steam room.
But instead of a golf course outside, there are several simulator bays that can hold 15 people, as well as an upscale restaurant and bar. Intown has added such humorous touches as yardage markers in the floor telling you how far away the bar is. “We love golf club experiences. So we wanted to create something that is similar to that in urban areas—and much more accessible and attainable to a wider group of people,” says Williamson.
T-Squared Social, a restaurant and bar that opened in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 21, likewise has a golf emphasis but not a golf focus. The 22,000-square-foot space has a bowling alley, dart boards, and golf simulators with several lounge areas and televisions including a 200-inch flat screen. It was founded by Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake with the Nexus Luxury Collection, a global real estate development and hospitality management company, and 8AM Golf, which owns Golf Magazine and True Spec Clubfitters.
Anyone can walk in and order meals and drinks, but memberships are available also: They cost $250 per quarter and bring a 50% discount on golf bays, dart boards and bowling lanes every weekday before 4 p.m., according to the T-Squared website. Members also receive priority seating as well as first dibs on venue reservations.
“There’s a lot of miniature golf and there’s a lot of driving ranges, but no one is bringing golf together with other sports,” says Hoyt McGarity, president of 8AM Golf. “Tiger and Justin thought that would be the difference—to bring people a variety of different games so that those who don’t play golf can still enjoy it.”
The idea draws on the success of spaces like X-Golf, which has more than 80 locations across the U.S., and Five Iron Golf, which serve serious golfers with teaching pros, showers and club fittings while allowing less serious players to feel at home with flexible event spaces, ping pong, shuffleboard and televisions to catch their favorite games.
Whereas those brands are geared toward helping golfers improve their games, though, T-Squared functions more like a fancy sports bar where co-workers can get together during happy hour, network and hit a few balls in one of its simulator bays. Says Christopher Anand, chief executive officer and managing partner of Nexus: “Our view of everything we do is to be family friendly—typically not skewing male or female. We tend to try to create environments that are very balanced.”
Golfzon, which has more than 6,200 simulator locations in 62 countries, is also expanding its North American footprint with a similar concept. It now has two locations of Golfzon Social just north of New York City in partnership with golf management company Troon, offering well-designed spaces, elevated pub food, craft cocktails and high-tech simulators. Entry-level memberships come to $500 per month.
A confluence of factors spurred the growth. For one, the record numbers of new and returning golfers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic have not ebbed. In 2020, 500,000 new golfers came into the game, according to the National Golf Foundation.
The growth of these venues also intersects with an explosion in the in-home simulator market. “Our business dramatically changed with Covid and has continued to expand ever since,” says Jeff Wood of the Indoor Golf Shop simulator superstore outside Dallas. “In 2020 and 2021 we saw a hockey stick sales spike of over 500%, compared to pre-Covid years.” The market has normalized in the last year, he says, but “we are still approximately at 20% growth versus prior years.”
Williamson says that as Intown began the process of building membership in Atlanta, it embarked on a discovery campaign that entailed breakfasts and lunches with “300 or 400 people for months on end, asking them: ‘If we were to build something like this, how would you use it?’”
Intown discovered that people wanted the social aspects of the club as much as—in some cases, more than—the golf. Food and beverage became focal points. “Our food is upscale Americana,” Williamson says, “and we let simplicity and seasonality guide us.” That translates to Neapolitan pizzas; roasted half-chicken with a simple salad; steak frites; and sharable plates that are built for simulator golf such as charcuterie boards, street tacos and dips.
Memberships, too, are curated, with a vetting process to obtain diversity in membership. “We are very intentional about professions, backgrounds, age,” Williamson says, including ensuring that “over 10% of our members are women.”
Each club features eight to 10 hitting bays and a footprint of about 15,000 square feet. Williamson declined to specify how many members each Intown club has—or specific membership fees—but says prices in general are much lower than at other private country clubs. “Our model is more similar to Soho House,” he says, “with a goal to create a high-end club experience at a very good value to ensure a membership community that is attainable and inclusive.”
The club hosts watch parties for golf’s four majors and highlights foods representing each club or city. For the British Open played in Liverpool, Williamson says, “we imported bottles of Old Speckled Hen and served up bacon rolls and fish and chips and did an all-Beatles playlist on the hi-fi.” For the U.S. Open, played at the Los Angeles Country Club, Intown served the “Juannie”—the renowned Bloody Mary served in the club’s locker room. “Can’t tell you how we got this recipe,” Williamson adds.
Like Intown, T-Squared has focused on high-quality food and cocktails, though not exclusively. “I think we reflect society,” Anand says, “Wealthy people don’t need to dress up to show they’ve got money. And just because you dress up doesn’t mean you don’t want something casual. Our food and beverage menu reflects that. We’ve got everything from seafood platters to burgers and salads, beers to Dom Perignon. We think that’s the world today.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.