As the pandemic descended on the world in 2020,
people needed some outlet to get out of the house.
To be around friends,
maybe even get in some light exercise
while not risking spreading Covid.
One sport checks all of those boxes
and that is golf
and to call it a resurgence would be an understatement.
As we went through 2020 and the world shut down,
we went from concerned about solvency
and when we're gonna open
and if people are gonna be playing golf,
to the largest golf boom that I've ever been a part of.
According to the National Golf Foundation, in 2020,
there were 24.8 million golfers in the United States.
An increase of about 500,000 and 2% over 2019,
the largest net increase in 17 years.
Golf's popularity right now
has only one comparison in the past.
For Tiger Woods for the first time.
Tiger, who was amazing, but his star burned very bright
and then it didn't have as strong a lasting power.
But that's normal for a unique athlete, right?
They go through those phases,
as opposed to what we're seeing right now,
which is some structural change
along with what is candidly a Covid dividend.
But it's more than just the pandemic
that has made golf's popularity.
It's also sweeping changes to the game itself.
There are cultural aspects of golf
that I would say historically did not make it friendly.
I would say I think that is changing dramatically now.
It is becoming inclusive
in the sense that everybody's welcome.
Golf is becoming cooler.
The mystique of like, what is a golfer,
is becoming more and more of, a golfer is me.
A golfer could be anyone.
In addition, there are companies and technologies
emerging both on and off the course
that are making the game more accessible,
making players better
and diversifying who decides to play the sport.
Yeah. Good contact.
There's 80 million golfers in the world.
Of that, I would say probably 50 to 60 million
are looking to get better.
For anybody who's looking to get better, it's for you
and they've created features within there
that help you target it.
But can this popularity be sustained for the long haul?
That's what I'm about to find out.
This is the future of golf
and the question on the minds of stakeholders
around the globe is one of reinvention and momentum.
Can the age-old game of golf convert its momentary success
into permanent gains?
So here's the thing about golf.
It's hard, it's expensive, and it's intimidating
and in a place like New York City,
it's really hard to find a real course
that you can actually get access to.
But there is one place that's starting to figure out
a couple of those challenges.
First, the space, and second, the intimidation factor
and you don't have to worry about being
as terrible as someone like me.
You may have seen this pop up
on your TikTok or Instagram feeds,
people taking videos of themselves here.
It's a place called Topgolf.
Topgolf is the avenue for most of the world
to experience golf and get into golf
and it never existed back in the early 2000s.
That's Chip Brewer, the CEO of Callaway,
which bought Topgolf in March of 2021.
Topgolf is like if a driving range, an arcade,
and a bowling alley had a baby
and it's the leading off-course golf experience
in the world.
Well, on-course golf is what you think traditional golf.
So there's 24 million people in the U.S.
that play golf on a golf course per year.
But most of those play one round.
Okay so, and then off-course golf means that
you experience golf not on a green grass golf course.
So that is you're going to a Topgolf or a driving range.
There are currently 70 Topgolf locations
around the world today and it's growing fast,
with the biggest Topgolf ever slated to open in China.
So we don't hand you a rule book.
We hand you immediate pathway to fun
and having a good time with people you care about.
This is Artie Starrs, the CEO of Topgolf.
Artie, tell me about your customer,
because as they come through Topgolf,
it's not just folks who look like you and me.
So when we look at our venue business,
we think everyone is a potential guest,
a potential customer.
Since traditional golf skews old and white,
Topgolf's gamification of the driving range appeals to
a younger, more diverse crowd.
People who might not otherwise even think about
picking up a club.
You would see families, you would see different ages.
You would see different backgrounds,
different income brackets.
People who have never played golf before
and people who play a lot.
If you came to one of our venues, you would see that.
People with all sorts of backgrounds,
all sorts of golf experience, non-golf experience.
We have over 70 venues in the U.S. right now,
approximately 500,000 guests per venue,
so 35 million experiences that we have every year.
However, there are aspects to Topgolf
that appeal to more serious golfers
and that's its technology called Toptracer,
which gives the customer more information
on the distance, height, and speed of their drives.
Our Toptracer business,
that tends to cater a bit more to people
who are trying to get better at golf,
and might spend a couple hours at a driving range
and stay engaged in our app.
When I grew up taking golf lessons,
it was very much a,
lick your finger, okay, make your swing a little bit better.
Now we give you an app.
We tell you how far and high and fast your ball is going.
We give you exercises and actual things to do.
We do this at Topgolf as well.
When it comes to the popularity of Topgolf,
it's a rising tide that lifts all boats
for both Topgolf and Callaway.
I think for people that are coming in and playing
for their first time or for their first time in a while,
we're a place that can remind guests
of the thrill of hitting a ball
and having fun with a golf club in your hand.
Topgolf is changing the world of golf
and it's creating access to players of all types.
By merging the two, we have a competitive advantage
in overall reach to golfers of all abilities
and you think about growth of the sport,
but then growth of our business.
One of the biggest reasons people don't stick to golf
is because it's hard.
As the famous quote goes, golf is a good walk spoiled.
But Sal Syed, the CEO of Arccos, is out to change that.
So now we're on like a short par 4.
For the reward that you're looking for.
So you're a data guy, analytics, go to business school.
You get this idea, and the idea turns out to be
a golf tech company.
How, why?
Tell me the story.
We realized that there was literally
nobody touching data in golf
and golf's a huge industry,
like 90, a hundred billion dollars spent every year on golf
and the entire reason for existence of a golfer
is to get better at golf
and that improvement ends up showing as your score.
But that score is composed of so many different things.
So many different shots that are taken, how they're taken
and we realized that we need to track
every shot that's being taken on the golf course,
to then analyze correctly
where your strengths and weaknesses lie.
Wind is kind of coming this way, eight miles an hour,
actual is 86, playing like 87.
So that's what we're gonna do.
In the most basic terms, how does it work?
The way it works is
there's a one-time pairing process.
So these sensors, think of them as impact detection sensors.
So they're detecting whenever you make impact
with the golf ball.
When it's paired with your smartphone,
so we're basically dropping pins, every shot you take
and we're recording a bunch of information around it,
what club was used, what was the terrain.
Was it, you started at the tee, ended up in the left rough.
How far in the left rough was it?
What were the weather conditions?
What direction was the wind going?
Was it sunny or not?
Was it cloudy or not?
Like all those different things factor in
and then we're able to analyze your game.
But very simply, we're recording every shot
and then giving you insights about
what your strengths and weaknesses are.
So use this to help me understand
how this technology would help me as a putter.
This is one of the widest greens in golf.
It has a five foot swale that you gotta traverse
and I have, looking at like a 55 foot putt
and for me to get better at this course,
I knew I was gonna have enough 50 plus foot putts
that I need to improve that part of my game.
So the app highlighted, you know, my 0 to 10 feet's good.
I'm grading a lot of those.
10 to 25, 25 to 50, no problem.
It's 50 plus, that whenever I'm getting there,
I was in trouble.
So I started practicing lag putts,
like look at this putt, this is like 60 feet.
It helped me target my putting practice
to the exact area which was my weakness,
which was 50 plus feet.
Prior to that, you just knew,
I'm three-putting a lot, or I'm-
Yeah, exactly.
And if you know you're three-putting a lot,
it could be that you're,
like, you don't know what range you're three-putting from.
That's really, really important context
and so when we track that,
we're able to then take all that data,
over the course of a round or five rounds
and really show you that this is not an anomaly.
This is really where your issue lies
and that's really, really important.
Do you wanna take it or do you want me to take it?
I'm gonna take it.
Yeah, let's see it.
You wanna go just a hair left of it,
like a foot left of it.
This is like, this is the craziest,
this is almost like miniature golf on steroids.
Right?
I don't even know what to do here.
This is from like a famous hole in France.
It was called the Chasm Hole in Biarritz.
That's good.
Go in the cup!
Ooh.
There's a way to look at this interestingly
and I want you to break this down for me,
where you look at this like,
well, this is really only for really good golfers.
Like who can understand the data,
who can sort of take this in.
But then I can make the case, this notion of like,
actually this is for really crappy golfers.
I mean, it's a fair question.
In fact, it seems like it's for everybody,
but I want you to help me understand like,
who gets what from this?
Yeah, we cater to every type of golfer.
It'll take your dispersion patterns into account,
it'll take the hazards into account, the wind conditions
and tell you for each shot, what your optimal club is.
What Arccos does is it takes that cognitive bias away
and it's able to, for the average golfer out there,
really help them understand how far their clubs go.
So give me the numbers here, like in terms of growth
and this is all about data
and ever bigger numbers mean better data, right?
I mean-
To date, we've recorded 500 million shots.
Like in the future, playing without Arccos
or a technology like it, as a golfer,
will be akin to playing without a putter.
You'll literally be leaving strokes on the table
and so I think this will become like, a mainstay.
I think that's the evolution of this
sport and any sport, and any industry, honestly.
Ultimately, in order for golf to maintain its momentum,
it needs companies like Callaway, Arccos, Topgolf,
and even the PGA itself,
to continue to emphasize the importance
of including a younger, more diverse demographic
to play the game.
Golf has needed, I dare say, for a number of years,
a little bit of a reboot or a recasting of itself,
literally and figuratively,
because this is a demographic
that the traditional demographic golf,
is getting older year by year.
Do you feel that happening?
I would say the racial barriers of golf
are withering away.
I think the economic barriers are still there.
Golf as an industry is realizing that
it's important to be inclusive.
But we need to, every single year,
open it up a little bit more.
Making the game easier to play,
making the rules on green grass
simpler and simpler to understand.
Providing more forums for competition.
We always think that we are going,
we are pushing the envelope forward,
in terms of making golf more accessible.
Because this technology is designed for beginners as well.
There are a bunch of people who,
when you're starting golf, it's a little scary.
You don't know what club to hit, what to do
and so we make it easier.
We make it easier
and then a huge win, not just for the sport,
but for the people that it'll be accessible to,
'cause I do believe that it's the greatest sport.