Indoor golf venues take off with serious, casual players

Lonnie Elie and three friends went out to golf on a recent Friday in Noblesville, but the 45 mph wind gusts outside were no problem.

On a less blustery day, they might have gone to Harbour Trees Golf and Beach Club, where Elie is a member. But on this windy day, they went to X-Golf Noblesville, one of an increasing number of indoor golf clubs in the metropolitan area that provide food, drinks and golf simulators that allow users to play full rounds or just take some hacks on dozens of golf courses from around the world.

“It’s just something to do during the winter,” Elie said. “Being a member at a country club, in the summer, I don’t come here. So, for me, if it’s winter or a rainy day out, you want to get some swings, you come here. It’s a good time with the buddies.”

Golf has experienced a renaissance in recent years, and the definition of what it means to be a golfer has changed, as well. The National Golf Foundation found that 26.6 million Americans played on a traditional golf course in 2023—the highest participation since 2009—and that an additional 18.4 million people played at a location with a simulator or at an off-course venue like Topgolf, a socially focused chain of driving ranges that opened a location in Fishers in 2017.

An estimated 6.2 million people hit golf balls in a simulator in 2023, an increase of 73% over 2019, according to the NGF. The figure includes people who used golf simulators at home and in commercial venues. Golf simulators use sensors and cameras to track a user’s swing and ball flight on a virtual course after the golfer hits the ball into a screen.

“I think the more opportunities there are to introduce people to the game, then the more possibility there is that they’re going to take an interest and want to play and move on to a golf course,” Indiana Golf Office Executive Director Mike David said.

Los Angeles-based X-Golf, a chain with 138 locations in 37 states, plus Washington, D.C., has indoor golf clubs that opened in Carmel in 2019, Plainfield in 2021 and Noblesville in 2023.

The company was the first indoor golf club to enter the Indianapolis area when it opened in Carmel. Since then, at least eight more have opened, most of those in the past two years. Another will open this spring, and more are on the way.

“[We’re] trying to kick some of the stigma around golf. You have to dress a certain way and look a certain way and behave a certain way,” said Jared Perras, who owns the area’s three X-Golf locations. “And in these places, we kind of loosen all of that.”

Indoor golf clubs in the area range from national brands like X-Golf and New York City-based Five Iron Golf, which opened in 2023 in downtown Indianapolis, to locally owned clubs like Stick & Hack in Fishers and Five Wood Flats Golf Club in Carmel. The owners of Stick & Hack and Five Wood Flats both said they plan to open more locations in the next year.

Last month, Carmel-based Pedcor Cos. announced that St. George, Utah-based The Back Nine Golf will open an indoor golf club this spring at Carmel City Center.

“When X-Golf first came to Carmel, there wasn’t an option,” said Nate Hunter, one of Elie’s friends who played at X-Golf Noblesville. “There wasn’t a place that plays music, serves beer, serves food, so that part is awesome. I think people are finding out there’s a big market for it.”

Perras said Topgolf was an innovator in off-course golf in that it introduced a place for both serious golfers and people looking for entertainment. X-Golf relies on both kinds of players to keep business moving.

“We lose a lot of the serious golfers once the spring rolls around, and we’ll see them back when the weather is bad,” he said. “But the entertainment golfers are still looking for something to do.”

Growing interest

Owners of indoor golf clubs said they are not worried about the increasing competition. After all, there are also more than 80 traditional public and private golf courses in the metropolitan area, plus Topgolf and a similar driving range and entertainment venue in Indianapolis, Back 9 Golf and Entertainment.

Stick & Hack owner Adam Grubb compared the different indoor golf clubs to public municipal golf courses and private country clubs, with each serving a different audience. Grubb described Stick & Hack, which opened in December, as “a club without the dues” that has the feel of “a rich guy’s basement” with “top-of-the-level tech.”

“I don’t think we’re oversaturated at all,” Grubb said. “There’s still plenty of golfers, so I don’t think there’s any reason to freak out or be like, ‘Oh my God, there’s an oversaturation.’ Every one of us has a different spin on this, and I think that’s cool.”

Perras said he initially had to overcome negative opinions about simulator golf when his first venue opened in Carmel, but that changed quickly.

“The legitimacy and acceptability of playing simulator golf has gone through the roof,” he said. “If you would have said that to somebody 10 years ago, they would have told you to go fly a kite.”

Now, simulator golf is even receiving time on ESPN thanks to the emergence of Tomorrow’s Golf League, a 3-on-3 league founded by golf legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and former NBC golf executive Mike McCarley, that takes place in a custom-built venue in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

“I’m not here to say simulated golf is better than real golf. It isn’t. I’m a real golfer. I love real golf,” Grubb said. “But I also just like to swing, and I like to hit the ball, and I like to work on stuff, and I like to be with my buddies. And if I can’t do that outside, and I can’t spend four hours, I’m going to come to the simulator.”

Simulators give players the opportunity to check out a course they plan to visit, such as Augusta National Golf Club or Pebble Beach Golf Club. Club owners said some golfers will play along with the PGA Tour and play that week’s course.

“There are so many different ways people can learn about and experience golf, that is good for the game,” said Coleman Gerstner, who is working to open The Back Nine Golf Carmel. “It’s why so much growth is projected, because there are so many ways to learn to love golf and have the chance to practice and play on their own terms.”

Most indoor golf clubs offer memberships with walk-up tee times that can range from $40 to $65 per hour. While some offer walk-up sales, others like Five Wood Flats are completely private. Five Woods Flats owner Rick Christiansen said he designed the business as a “digital country club.”

“Everything from the scent when you walk in to the jazz music playing in the background to the wood trim and overstuffed leather club chairs,” he said. “Everything is kind of that look and feel of a country club, but a little bit more approachable and obviously indoor and without all the acreage.”

Improving technology

Perras said golfers have become more accepting of simulator golf as the technology has improved. The technology 10 years ago “was not good,” but he said the play has become more realistic, and simulators provide nearly every stat and data point a golfer could want to improve their game.

“I feel like if you had a curve, golf sim technology grew exponentially over the last three or four years, and now you’re kind of capped out, like, what are they going to do next?” Perras said. “What’s the next thing? I feel like there’s maybe a little pause there now. It feels like we made really quick gains really fast.”

Grubb said modern golf simulator technology has become more accurate and responsive than ever before. It allows people to play in the Simulator Golf Tour, a tournament that allows golfers from around the world to compete.

Simulator brand names like Denmark-based Trackman and Carlsbad, California-based Full Swing Golf Inc. have become synonymous with the game, he added. Trackman, for example, uses artificial intelligence and biomechanical tracking to analyze a user’s golf swing.

“It has evolved in that now there’s brands that people know immediately when they hear it, and it’s the Kleenex mentality or the Coke mentality,” Grubb said. “You hear Trackman, and you think immediately, that’s the best software out there because that’s what the PGA players are using out on a range.”•