City Golf, which covers the equivalent of two football pitches, combines virtual and real play.
Courtesy of GolfZon
No one can say for sure what tomorrow will bring, but it doesn’t hurt to take an educated guess.
As golfers, we can look into the crystal ball and ask ourselves: Is this the future of? course design?
The image in question comes from Tianjin, a booming municipality in northern China, where the ribbon was just cut on a place called City Golf: a sprawling, indoor course that combines virtual and real play.
If this sounds a bit like SoFi CenterPalm Beach Gardens, Fla., custom-built facility for The golf league led by Tiger WoodsTGL, yeah, well, sort of. The difference is that City Golf is designed for public play. And while the SoFi Center will boast a single, giant screen and a single, modular green, City Golf features 18 screens for 18 holes with 18 synthetic greens, spread over 106,000 square feet (nearly the equivalent of two football fields). , inside a giant convention center.
It is a complete and high-tech in-house course.
The company behind it Golf areathe South Korea-based screen golf giant, whose honchos have hailed the project as no-nonsense and environmentally conscious: all the high-tech pleasures of the game, with a smaller footprint.
GolfZon chairman Kim Young-Chan has described it as “the most ideal urban golf course”, offering “a new and unique golf experience similar to playing on a real course right in the middle of the city”.
Simulators are by no means new to golf, but their use in alt-golf-as-entertainment venues has been on the rise, evident in concepts ranging from TGL to Fairway Social, Topgolf Swing Suites, X-Golf and Five Iron Golf . Like those other locations, City Golf aims to further tap into the lifestyle golf market by offering additional services and amenities, including golf lessons, merchandise, fitness classes and dining. (He also hosted a $700,000 on-screen golf tournament last month.)
Nor is it intended to be the only one of its kind. If you’re looking to the future, consider this: GolfZon says it envisions expanding City Golf to major cities around the world.
