CHANDLER, Ariz. – A burgeoning segment of golf is on the entertainment side of things. Topgolf comes to mind, as does the Tiger Woods-backed Popstroke. There are places like Putting World, too.
Now Golfzon is looking to get a larger piece of the action in the United States.
Hugely popular in Asia, the high-end golf simulator manufacturer is making inroads in the U.S., having entered the market here about six years ago. Stinger’s Golf Club, in the golf hotbed of Arizona, is one of newest businesses to feature Golfzon’s products.
The indoor golf facility, which owner Tyler Wilson likes to call a “golf bar,” recently held a grand opening in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. Wilson was previously in the logistics freight brokerage business, but something told him to take a chance with a concept that’s a little more fun. And fun is to be had here.
“I was always finding myself wanting to get out and play some more golf and turn my passion into a business a little more,” said the former college baseball player.
Inspired by a visit to Golf the Green in Chicago, Wilson sensed there was something to this screen golf concept. It led him to an empty storefront in a strip mall that used to be an AutoZone, where he set up shop for Stinger’s.
On his first day of business, a man popped in for a round. He had just dropped his wife off for a hair appointment, punched “golf near me” into Google and discovered Stinger’s was right around the corner.
Powered by simulators made by Golfzon, golfers can hit in six bays and play up to 200 simulated golf courses including Pebble Beach and PGA West. A hitting bay costs $50 an hour, and Stinger’s offers several membership options.
If you haven’t played this kind of screen golf, it may only be a matter of time until you do. Golfzon already is a major player in the trend, especially in Korea, where golfers are starved for any chance to wack a little white ball.
For a sense of Golfzon’s scale, the company offers the following sample of data from 2023:
- Holes played on Golfzon simulators: 1,746,790,758
- Rounds played: 99,965,162
- Shots hit: 7,246,686,086
- Countries with Golfzon simulators: 41
- Golfzon simulators worldwide: Close to 10,000
- Facilities in the U.S. with Golfzon simulators: Almost 200
- Of the 500 or so Golfzon simulators in the U.S., about 200 are residential installations.
When Golfzon first arrived in the U.S., close to 90 percent of sales were to golfer’s homes. That has flipped, with 90 percent of screens now being installed in places like Stinger’s.
The bays have a variety of surfaces to hit from that simulate fairways, two thicknesses of rough and sand traps.
The floor moves to present golfers with sidehill and other angled lies. There’s an app that captures your best shots and sends you video replays, so you can brag to all your friends when you birdie from a greenside bunker on No. 7 at Pebble Beach Golf Links, for example.
Mostly, it’s about fun.
“I always try to refer to us as a golf bar,” Wilson said. “It’s something that you can go and watch the game if you want to, if you just want to hang out and meet up with your buddies, grab some food and watch the game, throw some bets down, whatever you want to do.”
He envisions big crowds for NFL games. He says he can also see fantasy football players settling disputes over draft order on the large putting green in front of the bar. The whole place can be rented out for corporate functions, bachelor parties, you name it. They’ll even extend hours past normal closing time if need be.
It’s also a place for Arizona’s golfers to scratch that itch without dealing with temperatures of more than 100 degrees.
“We feel like, obviously, in the summer, it’s going to be a great alternative, where you can play quickly, play cheaply and dodge the heat,” Wilson said.
Check out some photos from Stinger’s Golf Club.
