Ten of the companies locations around the country have re-opened, including popular spots in Atlanta, Dallas and Scottsdale.
Topgolf is coming back online.
Eight of the company’s locations around the country have re-opened, including popular spots in Atlanta, Dallas and Scottsdale.
According to the Topgolf website, these are the eight spots that have re-opened after previously closing due to the global coronavirus pandemic: Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Rogers (Arkansas) and Scottsdale.
In addition, the Topgolf website shows four others locations are set to re-open on Monday, June 1: Cleveland, Columbus, Nashville and Tampa.
Topgolf’s site has this message about safety:
When our venues reopen, we’ll be ready to safely welcome you back into our outdoor hitting bays with 11 feet from tee to tee. We have new guidelines around social distancing, protocols to help keep our Guests and Associates healthy and safe, and enhanced disinfecting measures throughout the venue.
Topgolf’s CEO also posted a message on Youtube titled “Commitment to play safely”.
On March 18, Topgolf closed all 56 of its U.S. locations.
There are plans to open 10 more, including Augusta, Georgia, as well as Albuquerque, Omaha, Chattanooga and St. Petersburg, Florida.
Nelly and Jessica. Korda sister kick off the LPGA eTour Live series, a match-play competition streamed on LPGA and Topgolf digital platforms
It’s not traditional tournament golf, but it’s a chance to watch some of your favorite LPGA stars (and perhaps a future star) take part in head-to-head competition.
The first match is a doozie.
On Wednesday, sisters Jessica and Nelly Korda will launch the start of the LPGA eTour Live, a match-play competition in partnership with World Golf Tour (WGT) by Topgolf. The Kordas will kick off a series of seven nine-hole online matches twice a week, with the final match taking place June 3. Each match will take place at 2 p.m. ET and will stream live on LPGA and Topgolf digital platforms.
Lucy Li is the only Symetra Tour player in the field. The Kordas will compete on Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course, host of the 2022 and 2027 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Other familiar tracks players can choose from include the Old Course at St Andrews (host of the 2007 and 2013 AIG Women’s British Open), Oakmont Country Club (1992 and 2010 U.S. Women’s Open) and Pinehurst No. 2 (2014 U.S. Women’s Open), as well as future U.S. Women’s Open venues Erin Hills (2025), the Lake Course at The Olympic Club (2021) and Pebble Beach Golf Links (2023).
GOLFTV’s Henni Zuel and Golf Channel’s Tom Abbott will add commentary during Wednesday matches, with Golf Channel’s Karen Stupples commentating on Fridays.
• • •
Here’s the lineup:
Wednesday, May 13: Match 1 – Jessica Korda vs. Nelly Korda
Friday, May 15: Match 2 – Angel Yin vs. Lizette Salas
Wednesday, May 20: Match 3 – Tiffany Joh vs. Jenny Shin
Friday, May 22: Match 4 – Jane Park vs. Lucy Li
Wednesday, May 27: Match 5 – Semifinal: winners of Matches 1 and 2
Friday, May 29: Match 6 – Semifinal: winners of Matches 3 and 4
Wednesday, June 3: Match 7 – Championship: winners of Matches 5 and 6
JuliaKate Culpepper recaps the week’s top golf stories including all the latest event cancelations and postponements due to COVID-19.
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Tiger Woods says “play inside”, the IOC makes a decision about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a dad-daughter duo helps golf fans miss Augusta National a little less.
Take a look at the week’s top stories on the latest episode of Golfweek Rewind.
Top stories
Tiger Woods was one of many professional athletes encouraging fans to play inside in an effort to combat COVID-19 by posting a Nike sponsored message on Saturday. As of March, avoiding contact with other people and shared surfaces is the only known weapon against the virus.
Lou Stagner and his 9-year-old daughter, Abby, are named our Person(s) of the Week because they’re making golf fans miss the Masters a little less. Since December, the duo has been building a replica of the 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club with Legos in their basement. After over 60 hours of planning and building and perfectly placing over 20,000 pieces, the replica is complete. You have to check it out.
Professional golf
All events on the PGA Tour schedule through the PGA Championship have been canceled or postponed. Scheduled for May 14-17 at Harding Park in San Francisco, the PGA of America postponed the PGA Championship last week with hopes of rescheduling later this summer.
The LPGA has canceled or postponed nine total events including the ANA Inspiration. That event was rescheduled for September.
The U.S. Open and Women’s Open are still on, but the USGA has canceled local qualifying and is keeping an eye on the spread of COVID-19. Both events are scheduled for June. The USGA also canceled all U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.
More information on these top stories, the status of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and all the latest cancellations and postponements can be found in the latest edition of Golfweek Rewind, featured above.
The coronavirus is also affecting some Topgolf facilities in the U.S.
The coronavirus pandemic has wiped out pro golf tournaments and closed some public golf courses.
It’s also affecting some Topgolf facilities in the U.S.
On the company’s website, there are 25 Topgolf locations in 16 states that are listed as shut down until further notice.
Topgolf locations that are closed, as of March 17:
Alabama: Birmingham
Colorado: Centennial, Thornton
Florida: Jacksonville
Illinois: Naperville, Schaumburg
Indiana: Fishers
Kansas: Overland Park
Louisiana: Baton Rouge
Maryland: Germantown, Oxon Hill
Michigan: Auburn Hills
New Jersey: Edison, Mount Laurel
Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus, West Chester
Oregon: Hillsboro
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh
Tennessee: The Cowan
Texas: Dallas, Houston, Spring, Webster
Washington: Kirkland
Washington, D.C.: National Harbor
For those venues that are remaining open, Topgolf management is implementing “enhanced protocols for cleaning and sanitizing our equipment and locations, including”:
Conducting regular and frequent disinfecting of high-touch areas (including golf clubs, screen surfaces and countertops)
Supplying hand sanitizer, as available, throughout the venue
Providing disinfectant wipes, as available, to guests upon request
Topgolf operates 56 facilities in all in the U.S. (with 10 more opening soon).
These locations remain open for now:
Alabama: Huntsville
Arizona: Scottsdale, Gilbert, Glendale, Marana
California: Sacramento
Florida: Miami, Miami Gardens, Orlando, Tampa
Georgia: Alpharetta, Atlanta
Missouri: Chesterfield
Minnesota: Minneapolis
Nevada: Las Vegas
New Mexico: Albuquerque
North Carolina: Charlotte
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City
South Carolina: Greenville, Myrtle Beach
Texas: Allen, Austin, The Colony, El Paso, Ft. Worth, Katy, McAllen-Pharr, San Antonio
Utah: Salt Lake City
Virginia: Loudon, Richmond, Virginia Beach
Editor’s note: These lists are as of March 17, 2020. Be sure to contact your local Topgolf for more information.
Mike Trout is crushes a drive at Topgolf and it’s a viral video sensation.
Wanna see Mike Trout launch a golf ball to the moon?
What about Dodgers rising star Cody Bellinger?
The two Major League Baseball stars were among several players swinging for the fences at a Scottsdale, Arizona, Topgolf facility on Sunday.
They were all there for an event sponsored by The Pujols Family Foundation, a non-profit run by Angels’ slugger Albert Pujols and his wife which, according to their site, “focuses on Faith, Family and Others.”
Trout, a five-tool player on the diamond, proves that he can crank a driver as well. His reaction to the moonshot is pretty solid, too: A little flex followed by a huge ear-to-ear smile.
Trout and the Angels hold spring training in Tempe, while Bellinger and the Dodgers share a facility in Glendale with the White Sox.
With three more weeks of spring training, there’s a better than good chance Trout will be somewhere in Arizona sending golf balls, and baseballs, off into the distance.
A Topgolf executive says the venue is intended to provide a sense of community in Augusta and will welcome people of all ages.
Topgolf has released details on its new Augusta entertainment venue, a first-of-its-kind prototype that is expected to be open by the Masters Tournament.
Craig Kessler, chief operating officer for the Dallas-based company, said the venue under construction at the Village at Riverwatch shopping center will have a mini-golf course, outdoor yard games and fire pits in addition to the company’s signature climate-controlled driving range.
Kessler said the open-air Augusta facility is designed specifically for non-golfers and people of all ages – including families with young children.
“This is not a traditional, larger Topgolf shrunk down,” Kessler said during a visit to the construction site. “This is a special venue, the first of its kind that was made with intentionality, with love, with purpose for Augusta.”
The new-style venue features a backyard-style outdoor area behind the tee-line – which uses the company’s proprietary ball-tracing technology to score hits – that will feature attractions such as a bean bag toss and a life-sized Jenga game.
The company’s plans include seating areas with fire pits, picnic-style dining tables and a party patio that will have more than 50 big screen TVs, a 13-foot programmable video wall and a live music stage.
The outdoor area also will have Augusta-specific pop art and wall murals to create a “sense of place,” Kessler said.
“We’re obviously incredibly proud to be launching this new prototype in a city that has done so much for the game of golf,” Kessler said. “One of the things we wanted to create here in Augusta is a sense of community with the venue.”
The company operates 58 entertainment venues, mainly in large metro areas. A similar concept is planned for the future Topgolfs in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Waco, Texas, Kessler said.
“Our excitement levels are already so high that we’ve got plans to continue doing this across the country,” he said.
The Augusta venue will have Americana-inspired menu items found at the company’s other locations, including the company’s signature chicken sandwiches and “Boozy Milkshakes.”
According to published reports, the average Topgolf venue is a $15 million investment. Kessler declined to disclose the investment the company is making in the Augusta facility.
Topgolf has reportedly hired four banks to assist in an initial public offering that could value the company at close to $4 billion.
Topgolf, the Dallas-based entertainment company that marries the traditional driving range experience with cutting edge technology at nearly 60 multi-tiered venues around the world, has selected Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Bank of America, to assist in a potential initial public offering that could value the company at close to $4 billion, Bloomberg reported.
In October, Reuters reported the privately-held sports and entertainment giant had been in talks with underwriters about a possible IPO in 2020.
The four lead investors in Topgolf International are WestRiver Group, Callaway Golf Company, which owns a 14 % share, Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon, and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, according to the company’s website.
Topgolf has $525 million in outstanding debt, according to Bloomberg data.
A two-deck range bay used at Topgolf.
Casey Alexander, a longtime industry observer and senior vice president and research analyst at Compass Point, gives Topgolf an equity valuation that equates to $5 per Callaway share, which would require a market cap of $3.57 billion.
“By all accounts that we have seen going back to presentations from Entertainment Property Trust, the average Topgolf store does $6-8 million in EBITDA, so the valuation of $5/Callaway (ELY) share for the value of ELY’s 14 % stake in Topgolf seems well justified if not too low,” Alexander wrote in a recent report to investors.
Front Office Sports recently wrote about Swing Suite, an offshoot of Topgolf that is described as “like having your own virtual driving range/video game center/sports bar,” and quoted Susan Anderson, an analyst at B. Riley FBR, who estimated Topgolf’s valuation at over $3 billion and said, “Should Topgolf continue on its current growth path, this could prove conservative.”
In an October note to investors, KeyBanc estimated Topgolf could be worth more than $5 billion.
Topgolf already has locations in the United Kingdom and Australia and has plans to open in Canada, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, and expects continued growth in the U.S. In 2018, more than 17 million people visited a Topgolf venue.
A 2018 National Golf Foundation study proclaimed that Topgolf could be the most important feeder system to the game since the caddie program.
TaylorMade returned to the winner’s circle at the annual Golfweek Industry Cup presented by Topgolf Swing Suite held at La Costa Resort.
CARLSBAD, Calif. – Bolstered by strong performances in the four-ball and scramble formats, TaylorMade returned to the winner’s circle at the annual Golfweek Industry Cup presented by Topgolf Swing Suite held at La Costa Resort.
TaylorMade finished the 27-hole, 4-person team competition at 23 under par. Titleist, which had its best success in the individual aggregate format and was the reigning champion, finished in second at 21 under. Adidas took third at 15 under, while Callaway shot 14 under for fourth.
The competition is an annual showdown among representatives of the game’s top manufacturers. The winning TaylorMade team was represented by Juan Yumar, Bucky Coe, Joe Ryon and captain Patrick Baxter.
The 2019 Golfweek Industry Cup presented by Topgolf Swing Suite at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California. Photo: Topgolf
On the eve of the event, which was sponsored by Topgolf Swing Suite, Baxter expressed to his entire contingent how important the event is with pride on the line. This year was especially of focus after Titleist ended TaylorMade’s streak of four straight wins in 2018.
“There will be lots of eyes on our performance tomorrow,” Baxter told his team. “This tournament serves as a shining reminder that TaylorMade produces the best-performing equipment made by the game’s brightest minds and strongest players. Let’s play smart and be the best representatives of the brand we can.”
After the morning session in which TaylorMade built a comfortable lead, things heated up down the stretch in afternoon aggregate play, in which three of four scores per team count.
“It was close all the way to the end,” Baxter said. “However, our team never let up. All four of us closed out the aggregate session with birdies on the par-5 17th of the Legends Course. The talent on the other teams was extremely strong, but we earned this one. Especially Juan Yumar, our MVP. He was our club champion this year and fired 2 under par in the last session, proving as the difference maker in this two-shot victory.”
The annual long-drive competition, held at Full Swing Golf’s headquarters and additionally presented by Topgolf Swing Suite, saw TaylorMade’s Chris Rollins defeat Fujikura’s Marshall Thompson in the finale. Rollins’ winning drive of 326.8 yards was propelled by his TaylorMade M5 and Fujikura Ventus 6X shaft.
Top-Four Leaderboard
1. TaylorMade Team 1 (-23)
Players: Juan Yumar, Bucky Coe, Joe Ryon, Patrick Baxter
2. Titleist Team 1 (-21)
Players: Price Ferchill, Grant Martens, Kevin Tassistro, Nick Geyer
3. adidas Team 1 (-15)
Players: Scott Parkin, Matt Blackey, Robbie Ziegler, Kristen Muirhead
4. Callaway Team 1 (-14)
Players: Kevin DeHuff, Marc Zien, Joe Toulon, Jonathan Sanders
