Visit one of the near-200 golf simulator venues around Australia and the differences between this new kind of sporting venue and a traditional club are numerous. There’s the technology, tracking swing biomechanics and ball rotation hundreds of times a second. There are beers, soft drinks and food, available metres away. There are groups chatting while rotating quickly through a round.
Then there is the lack of collared shirts. “Our coaches wear leggings and runners, we don’t mind if people have bare feet,” says Big Swing Golf Kew co-franchisee Tracey Ellett. “It helps to break down barriers and be less perceived as a ‘prestigious’ sport, it invites the common person. You know, anyone can do it.”
Advertisement
Golf is undergoing a monumental change. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have developed a simulator-based league known as TGL, which debuted in March in partnership with the PGA Tour. The concept gave unprecedented attention to the increasingly sophisticated technology, but its popularity has been building for at least a decade.
There are now more simulator venues known to Golf Australia – like Big Swing Golf, or X-Golf – than putt-putt courses, and the tally will soon surpass the traditional staple of golf practice, the driving range. Whereas the governing body of the game in Australia might have once considered this new segment a threat or an inferior form of the game, it now sees an opportunity.
Damien de Bohun, general manager of clubs, facilities and places to play at Golf Australia, says simulators are a key plank of their growth strategy. “Technology has become our friend in a very meaningful way, because we’re seeing people engage and connect with golf, through simulators, through technology-enabled driving ranges,” he says.
Related: Jim Dent, Augusta caddie turned pioneering Black golfer, dies aged 85
Advertisement
A round on a simulator takes around an hour, approximately one quarter of what it would outdoors. Cameras track ball speed and rotation to replicate the distance, loft, fade and draw in every stroke. There are online competitions between different venues, with playoffs and prizes for the winners. Dozens of courses from around the world have been recreated virtually. And players watch, share and discuss every shot, never leaving earshot of their playing group.
“Particularly younger people, and certainly people who are time-poor, are finding that it’s a fantastic way to become introduced to the game,” De Bohun says. “We are also seeing people connect with the game then start to come into the more traditional formats in the game as well.”
The Bellarine Peninsula, southwest of Melbourne, is home to one of Victoria’s oldest clubs in Barwon Heads, as well as five other outdoor courses. So when Peter Nolan and his fellow investors set up a franchise of X-Golf – another leading simulator chain – in nearby Geelong in 2018, they anticipated this traditional local golfing community would provide the bulk of their clientele.
“We realised really quickly that the customer was a bit more of the tradie knocking off at three o’clock and then coming down with friends, and having the quick nine holes, and less so the golfer who’s already playing on a Wednesday,” he said.
Advertisement
“That was part of the evolution for X-Golf as a brand, but even here in Geelong, we realised, ‘hey, our customer is actually not the golf member, it’s the golf-interested person who has a set of clubs in the garage and wants to play more but doesn’t have the capacity for it time-wise or dollars-wise’,” he says.
Whereas the average age of a golf club member in Australia is around 55, two-thirds of X-Golf Geelong’s customers are aged 25-40. In Kew, in Melbourne’s well-to-do eastern suburbs, Ellett sees a more traditional golfing demographic of players wanting somewhere convenient to work on their game.
But one segment has become her focus for growth. “We’re seeing more women beginners come here to start their journey and want to play outdoors,” she says. “They’re seeing this as a logical pathway to gain confidence before going out on a course, which can be very intimidating when you’re new to golf.”
She has developed several initiatives to grow the share of female players, including women’s golf day promotions, sessions with mothers doing school pick-ups, and even speed dating.
Advertisement
51% of golfers who never set foot on a golf course are women, according to Golf Australia, compared to 30% for those who only play on-course golf. The off-course group – which is increasingly driven by simulator users – also skews younger.
The governing body is developing a new national strategy for increasing the number of women players and plans its release later this year or early in 2026. “A lot more women and younger people are coming into the game because of things like simulators, no question about it,” De Bohun says. “And in parallel to that, we’re working with our existing traditional clubs to make sure that they’re prepared, ready, willing and able to really embrace this new wave of different golfer that’s coming into the game.”
Ellett’s daughter Clo Brenac picked up a club after Big Swing Golf Kew opened in 2016, after initially feeling uncomfortable at traditional courses and driving ranges. “I didn’t enjoy it, I felt very awkward, so the simulator gave me a certain amount of privacy to build on my skill set,” she says.
The 35-year-old is now an instructor and accomplished outdoor golfer, but says she prefers the indoor form of the game. “I’ve never been massive on the need to go and play 18 holes,” she says. “You’re also not looking for a ball in the shrubbery. You lose a lot less things.”
Read the full article here
