Near Milton Keynes, iPlayGolfUK opened UK’s largest indoor golf simulator complex outside London. iPlayGolfUK has six huge screens on which you can play over 70 of the world’s most famous golf courses, in a Sports Bar environment including a large lounge area with sofas and a 60” TV with PlayStation 4 and Sky Sports, plus a VIP Room for private golf and sports parties.
Its 6 Foresight GC2 simulators, each with additional Smart Camera system, pack awesome graphical power to produce stunningly-clear and fluid images, but it’s not all about playing the world-famous courses (of which there are dozens, including Pebble Beach and 2016 Ryder Cup venue Hazletine).
The licensed bar has Costa Coffee, wines, cocktails, a selection of beers and soft drinks, and free Wi-Fi, and its Café provides a wide range of hot and cold snacks.
Creating the ultimate atmosphere for late-night events (iPlayGolfUK has a 3am licence) is a banging Monacar sound system with nightclub-effect speakers and variable lighting throughout.
I think indoor golf services and golf simulators can be a good answer to our accelerated life. Especially for people under the age of 35. Other advantage of these solutions is that there are no dress codes that you have to abide to. Simulators became really affordable (e.g. TruGolf's simulator) for personal ("residential") usage. Needless to say that this is not the only indoor golf service in the UK. UK's largest indoor golf operator Urban Golf was founded in 2004.
Just to understand the business potential of simulators, let me share you Entertainment Software Association's stats (2015) about American video game users. I think there are similarities between simulator users and video game players:
- 42% of Americans play video games regularly, or at least 3 hours per week.
- The average game player is 35 years old;
- The most frequent female game player is on average 43 years old;
- Consumers spent more than $22.41 billion on game content, hardware and accessories in 2014.
So my question to golf club are:
- what is your offer to Generation Y and Z??
- what will be the destiny of driving ranges?
- Can we replace driving rage with simulators?