JAM’S Indoor golf & Sporting Center

Golf Indoors Anytime!

Reasons for Indoor Golf

"Indoor Golf is REAL. When you play golf indoors you use clubs and balls, gloves and shoes. You wear your golf shirt. You can play rounds or practice. The emphasis is on making good course management decisions and executing good shots.

 

It would be highly improbable that indoor golf would ever replace outdoor golf. The most avid indoor golfers are the first to hit outdoor courses when they open. But indoor golf can make a strong contribution to the game overall through broader reach, the education of beginners, game improvements via teaching, club fitting, self-analysis, and increased access for golfers of all levels.

 

Golf, one must recognize, has not suffered from lack of new customers. In fact tens of millions of individuals have taken up the game over the last ten years in North America alone. The game of golf has been very successful in luring new players. Where golf has failed is in keeping players in the game.

 

Logic would seem to dictate that golf must apply the old adage that "your best new customer is an old one that you keep" in seeking ways to enable growth in not only participants, but also rounds. Golf hindsight has most recently focused on the need to return relevance in the game to its core players.

                 -[According to Cypress Golf Markets: "Avid golfers (25+ rounds annually) make up the smallest player segment (23%), but accounted for 63% of all golf-related spending in 2002."]

 

Data indicates that the biggest factor affecting golf and the loss of players and rounds is, simply, time. We have evolved culturally to a point where we live our lives in much shorter time increments than in the past. More activities compete for a share of these increments; extended work hours, longer commutes, greater involvement with our children's extra-curricular activities, and competing leisure activities with fewer impediments, lower time demands, and a more predictable outcome.

 

Other key factors fostering the loss of golfers include weather, pace of play, intimidation, structure, social impediments, and inability to improve.

 

Underneath the data is one very critical element that forms the root of why most players leave the game: fun. There is a great deal of evidence that shows that people who leave the game aren't enjoying it enough to justify staying in the game. Logic arguably supports this. We all have a limited amount of expendable time and income. Logically, we will generally invest our expendable time and money on things we choose, versus things we're forced or obligated to do, regardless of our level of enjoyment (work, family functions, and personal commitments). And, logically we will choose to do things that make us feel good - things that are fun.

 

If golf was more fun for more players, it is believed more players would invest the time and money and expand or maintain their participation in the sport. Presented here is the case for how indoor golf, and particularly the use of simulators, can aid the expansion of the game - including the increase of rounds on outside courses.

 

Overcoming golfers' objections:

► Time:

►The majority of players who leave golf say it's because there is not enough time to remain involved. Eighteen-hole rounds, including commute time, can take up to 6 hours or more. Nine-hole rounds, including commute time, can often take 4 hours or more. Many golfers say that is simply too long.

►Indoor golf enables the play of any number of holes for any length of time. If a golfer has two hours free, he/she can play for two hours. Indoor golfers can access the course after work and after dark. They can play for 30 minutes or all day.

 

► Weather:

►The highest number of golfers per-capita in the world is in Canada, where most players have access to golf courses less than six months per year. The four highest per-capita golf states in the U.S. are along the Canadian border. [According to Cypress Golf Markets, New York is in fifth place for the most golf facilities in the U.S. with 822.] The majority of golfers in North America live where courses are closed half of the year or more, not to mention the rainy days that occur during the "golf season".

►Indoor golf courses never experience inclement weather; cold, hot, rain, snow, high winds, lightning. Northern golfers can play year-round.

 

► Pace of Play:

►Slow play not only creates obstacles for many golfers relative to the time objection, but also many golfers simply don't like to wait to hit tee shots. Conversely, many golfers, including many beginners, are unable to keep up with the pace of play.

►With indoor golf there are no groups ahead or behind you. There are no marshals - no marshals are required. Golfers can spend an hour playing one hole or an entire round - as they choose.

 

► Intimidation:

►Many golfers are intimidated on multiple levels by many aspects of the golf experience. The game in many ways makes participation difficult for beginners, poor players, ladies, juniors, slow players, and even fast players. Many golfers are unfamiliar with golf etiquette, the Rules of Golf, and simply how to "get around the course". Many are not good at following their golf ball and hence have trouble finding it. Inexperienced golfers, ladies, and juniors can be easily intimidated by the "regulars" as well as the overall golf course environment.

►The factors of intimidation to indoor golfers are far fewer than outdoors. Slower players can play as slowly as they want. Beginners who don't know the rules or etiquette won't get into anyone's way while they learn at their own pace. Indoor golfers don't have to search for their ball. The "regulars" can play on a different simulator, and not feel like they are being bothered by those who are still learning their way around the course.

 

► Structure:

►Golf is a very structured game. Not all golfers, especially beginning golfers, enjoy the structure. Likely evidence to support this point is the fact that as many as 4 million "golfers" in the U.S. only participate in driving ranges.

►Indoor golf imposes far less structure. If players want, they can spend all their time holding long drive contests, closest to pin contests, disregarding the rules, or re-writing the rules. Golf traditionalists would shudder at the thought of a growing army of golf anarchists changing, for their purposes, how the game is played. But this can introduce more people to the game, and ultimately create more golf traditionalists. And it doesn't hurt anyone or affect how others play the game.

 

► Social Impediments:

►Many golfers don't have a compatible group of friends with which to play, or have trouble finding compatible friends available when they are.

►Because of greater access, it is more likely that indoor golfers can find compatible groups. But also, with indoor golf, it is totally acceptable for only one or even two players to play a round. Because of greater time and access, indoor golf makes it more feasible for compatible players to get together in the social golf atmosphere of their liking.

 

► Inability to Improve:

►One of largest reasons golfers leave the game is that they get frustrated - they fail to achieve their expectations - they fail to get better.

►Indoor Golf with the right simulator provides unprecedented technology in a neutral environment that has been proven to aid game improvement. The potential of indoor golf to aid player improvement should not be taken lightly - it can be a powerful stimulus to game improvement, which begets fun, which begets greater participation."

►[Golf Digest July 2008

                 "…one reason golfers quit the game is because it is too difficult."

                 Johnny Miller

                 Golf Commentator/PGA Tour Professional]

The following excerpt came from www.bunkershot.com and makes some extremely good points for indoor golf: