Five Iron: The Future of Indoor Golf
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Five Iron: The Future of Indoor Golf

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Five Iron: The Future of Indoor Golf

It’s not hyperbole to say golf is a major commitment. Not only does the sport cost a pretty penny for everything from equipment and apparel to green fees, it also takes up a lot of time. And, after all, time is money.

Both of these barriers to entry are magnified significantly when attempting to play in metropolitan markets like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Not only is actually playing more expensive, but just getting to a course can take up to an hour or more, which can tack on an extra couple of hours to your outing.

With golf more popular than ever (41.1 million Americans age six and older played in 2022 according to the National Golf Foundation), accessibility is a major key to not only continue to quench that thirst but provide opportunities for further growth in the game.

That’s where Five Iron comes in. Founded in 2017 in New York City, the technology-backed indoor urban golf experience brings the game to your backyard and other places it couldn’t otherwise exist.

“There are so many barriers to entry in golf—the time it takes, the cost and maybe it’s just intimidating,” says Five Iron Chief Marketing Officer Jed Lewis. “That’s why we’re trying to be in the most convenient locations—metropolitan areas—so that people have access to it and they can come on their lunch hour or before work.”

The facilities offer instruction, club fittings via PGA Tour Superstore, and the ability to play 200-plus virtual courses as well as a gamified golf experience to members and walk-ins who can book a simulator in 30-minute increments for up to four hours.

In 2023, Five Iron added 10 locations with three international franchises, including its first in India, while surpassing 50,000 followers on Instagram. With 16-foot-wide bays equipped with Trackman technology, in-sim ordering and Callaway clubs and balls, Five Iron has locations in New York City, Chicago, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Seattle, Atlanta and Detroit.

As of this month, there will be 24 corporate-owned locations, not including four international franchises opened between 2021-’23, with more to come this year. The brand’s recent expansion has been supported by Topgolf Callaway Brands which announced a $30-million investment in 2021.

On March 12, 2024, Five Iron announced a $20 million minority investment from Enlightened Hospitality Investments, growth equity fund of Shake Shack founder/chairman Danny Meyer.

“Five Iron aligns with our belief that the future of golf will continue to evolve from a sport that was traditionally played on-course to a sport that people engage with in many ways and different formats,” says Matt Kettles, Topgolf Callaway Brands Director of Corporate Development. “We see it in the growth of off-course golf, which is being driven by Topgolf, and we believe that off-course golf will continue to evolve and be a major driver of growth for the sport moving forward.”

According to the NGF, 15.5 million Americans participated exclusively in off-course golf in 2022 at places like driving ranges, indoor golf simulators or golf-entertainment venues including Topgolf and Drive Shack.

Working in Five Iron’s favor is the fact that it’s a one-stop shop for players across the sport’s spectrum, whether you’re a scratch golfer looking for a facility to grind and fine-tune your game or you are picking up a club for the first time. Similarly to Topgolf, Five Iron’s broad user base is helping lower the barrier to entry in golf.

“You can play a round in an hour,” says Five Iron Co-founder and CEO Jared Solomon. “It certainly provides access and it just keeps golf top of mind for a lot of people in our cities that just carries over to becoming consumers of the industry. I think that’s an underrated aspect in how we’ve grown the sport overall.”

While 2023 was a big year for expansion for Five Iron, Solomon says the goals this year are to improve the customer experience. That’s why Five Iron unveiled daily complimentary breakfast options for members, which includes high-end coffee machines and bagels. A soon-to-be-released app, which is currently in beta, will make booking easier and more efficient. Even Five Iron’s league, which they claim is the largest indoor golf league on the planet, will see tweaks and improvements.

The proof is in the pudding as Five Iron has seen lesson hours double from approximately 12,000 in 2021 to 23,500 last year while membership has increased 87 percent since 2022.

Even though it’s founded on golf, Five Iron is introducing Multisport to expand its offerings while encouraging non-golfers to visit and be more active and engaged. New games on the simulator include slapshot hockey, breakaway soccer, foot golf, bowl-a-rama, disc-go golf and zombie dodgeball.

“We’re bullish on both sides of the spectrum,” Solomon says. “Entertainment means so much to us but performance is a huge part of the lifeline of this company.”

Lewis concurs. 

“I think that’s part of the beauty of Five Iron is that we kind of exist on this spectrum or fader between golf and entertainment and, depending on the time of day or occasion, we’re able to deftly maneuver on that fader,” he says.

“In the mornings at 6 a.m., it’s really about golf and golf improvement—it’s that head-down grinding—but there’s all of these different occasions and use cases we can shift and cater to over the course of a day. 

“That’s what can be at the core of our access.”

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Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé is a freelance journalist (and very average golfer) based in New York City. With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, Michael has worked for daily newspapers, pro sports teams/leagues and online media startups. Bylines include: PGATOUR.com, GOLF.com, PGA Tour Essential Guide to Golf, AZ Golf Insider, Forbes SportsMoney, Robb Report, Boardroom, and Travel + Leisure.

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé

Michael LoRé





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      Will

      7 months ago

      The prices always seem too high for what you’re getting when I look into these x-golf type places, but given the space and hardware required I can’t think of a way to make it any cheaper. Not a fan of the bar atmosphere, either. With consumer grade simulators getting more accurate and more affordable, I suspect these types of places may go the way of the arcade, at least outside of dense urban areas where nobody has a basement or garage.

      Reply

      Clevelander

      7 months ago

      If you haven’t been to an X Golf location, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Their tech/experience blows 5 iron out of the water. I’d recommend visiting X Golf then sharing your experience compared to 5i.

      Reply

      James

      7 months ago

      I’d be interested to know why this is? 5i has the top of the range trackman simulators which in my professional opinion are the best.

      Reply

      PHDrunkards

      7 months ago

      It’s a perfect thing for the lazy bums. They don’t have to walk, they get a round done in an hour, and they can eat and drink as much as they want while they get fat doing it.
      It’s also perfect because they don’t have to worry about playing by the Rules, the game decides for them when to re-hit or not, doing penalties on the fly, they don’t lose any real balls, and they also don’t have to worry about getting stuck under trees and branches not being able to take a swing, nor worry about having a skill to hit bunker shots and tough chipping lies around greens, or having to putt on slick tricky greens.
      It’s exactly what the elites want, to keep the yahoos off the real golf courses.
      Hopefully we are able to find more tee times out on the real courses now that we got rid of the bums into theses indoor and TopGolf type places
      rofl

      Reply

      Michael LoRé

      7 months ago

      You completely missed how it’s lowered the barrier to entry for the costly/timely/intimidating sport, especially in metropolitan areas where simply traveling to a track can take close to an hour.

      Golf-entertainment venues like Topgolf, Drive Shake, Five Iron, etc make the game more convenient and less intimidating, especially for new players, which is how you grow the game … unlike elitist attitudes like yours.

      Reply

      PHDrunkards

      7 months ago

      What do you do, wrote copy for some magazine or promotional marketing company? Nice try. You can pitch that garbage talk all you want, makes logical sense to pitch it with such language, but it’s guaranteed that it’s not going to “grow” the game in the way you’re trying to pitch it – more than half of these yahoos won’t get out to the real course any more, but, I will give you this – their peaked interest does help generate traffic to their websites and TV channels, and a few bucks here and there for their gambling sites too, which is how they’re trying to capture their attention span. It’s not to get them to go play more golf outside.
      Me? Elite? Why thank you, but I’m far from that, I’m completely anti-old school establishment and would love to rewrite the entire global golf system for completions and erase the majors and realign it to match what other global sports like tennis or F1, even volleyball, rugby, cricket and football ⚽️ are doing already, pitting the best players in the world against each other

      Rush

      7 months ago

      Ha, I’ll be honest, I think you guys are kinda both missing the bigger point. A ton of people see golf as a boring sport that takes upwards of 5 hours. Top Golf alone has radically changed the type of people that go to driving ranges for fun, which I think is hugely beneficial. Also great for kids to start to get into the sport.

      I see these simulator places as a way to get people more excited about swinging a golf club, especially with the new simulator software that puts a bunch of targets on screen instead of a fairway – kinda like a funhouse/carnival experience. I don’t know if it’s going to change anything when it comes to people actually PLAYING golf, similar to how minigolf isn’t a typical starting point for a scratch golfer. But it may just make my wife a little more understanding about me spending half of my Saturday out of the house…

      Brian Foster

      7 months ago

      I agree having been behind these people on a few occasions. I am only a 18 handicap but it’s frustrating even for me

      Reply

      Midwestern Golfer

      7 months ago

      No different than the myriad of other sim lounges about. I count 6 within a 7 mile radius of my house. 5 Iron is nothing “new”.

      Reply

      Michael LoRé

      7 months ago

      It started in 2017, so no one is claiming it’s “new.”

      Reply

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