The new Grand Central Station location of Five Iron Golf.
Five Iron Golf
Danny Meyer, the founder of Shake Shack, acknowledges that he hasn’t always been a golfer, but when he finally decided he wanted to start to play, he faced an issue many players have with the sport: a lack of time to play and difficultly finding a course to play on.
That led Meyer to take a lesson with a golf pro on an indoor simulator, an experience that eventually led him and his investment firm, Enlighted Hospitality Investments, to make a $20 million minority investment in Five Iron Golf, an indoor golf and entertainment company.
“What they’re doing with golf is what we’ve always tried to do with restaurants,” Meyer said, “which is to make something more accessible to more people with quality.”
Five Iron Golf, founded in 2017, has grown as it has looked to appeal to several types of golfers, according to CEO Jared Solomon. The company’s locations offer the same type of golf simulators used by professional players, in some cases opening in the morning for people to play before work, as well as leagues and lessons. The locations also feature food and drinks, and can be utilized for events and parties, areas of business Meyer and his team will help elevate, Solomon said.
“The core of Five Iron Golf is to be the best place for the serious golfer as well as the entertainment-type person,” Solomon said.
That blend of golf and entertainment is helping to fuel the sport’s growth. In 2023, an estimated 45 million people played golf in some form in the U.S., a new record and up roughly 9% from the previous year, according to data from the National Golf Foundation.
But the amount of people who are only playing golf on courses is decreasing, down 9% from the previous year. Instead, the growth is coming from people who are playing the sport only off the course, or some combination of the two, with those groups up 19% and 17% from 2022, respectively.
In fact, there are more players now playing at golf entertainment venues like Topgolf, standalone driving ranges, and businesses like Five Iron Golf with simulator and screen golf setups than there are players playing on a course, according to the NGF data.