After contracted growth in the game for much of the past two decades, it now is generally accepted that it will take some innovative thinking if the positive momentum golf has enjoyed since the onset of the pandemic is going to continue into the future.
That includes taking steps to grow the game at the grassroots level and competing head-to-head with other leisure and entertainment activities.
The City of El Segundo, California and Topgolf are teaming up to accomplish just that by building a beginner-friendly golf course and entertainment complex next to each other in Los Angeles County.
The renovated municipal Lakes Course at El Segundo and the adjacent Topgolf facility are scheduled to open in April about a mile south of Los Angeles International Airport. The 10-hole course will stretch just 950 yards, with the longest hole coming in at about 150 yards. Multiple teeing areas ensure the facility will accommodate players of all skill levels, said new Lakes Course superintendent Patrick Gertner.
We don't expect a stream of low handicappers in line at the first tee, but hopefully the people we do attract turn into regular golfers in due time.
"Every level of golfer and non-golfer can have fun here," Gertner said. "You can tee the ball at almost 50 yards out on every hole and almost nudge it up there with a putter."
Gertner is a longtime industry veteran, who cut his teeth at clubs on the East Coast before following his kids to the West Coast five years ago in the latter half of his career.
"I was an East Coast guy," he said. "Then, all my kids moved west, so I followed them."
A 1984 graduate of Penn State's two-year turf program, Gertner prepped at Pine Valley before spending the next 28 years at clubs in New York and Rhode Island. If Penn State professor Joe Duich, Ph.D., had told him he would spend the end of his career managing a 25-acre short course tied to a golf entertainment complex, well, the response would have been predictable.
"I never would have believed it. No way," Gertner said. "I thought I would take over a private club in my 20s or 30s and stay until retirement, but it never works out that way. My career has taken many turns. You have to be flexible, because you never know what's coming next."
The new Lakes Course and the Topgolf facility will have more in common than proximity.
"We're a mile from the airport, and there is a surfer atmosphere in El Segundo," Gertner said. "Music will be piped through all the time. There will be parking for 480 cars. I expect it will be a popular place to bring friends, girlfriends, wife and kids, eat chicken wings and have fun.
"We don't expect a stream of low handicappers in line at the first tee, but hopefully the people we do attract turn into regular golfers in due time."
According to the City of El Segundo website, The Lakes opened in 1994. The new course will have holes ranging from 60 to 150 yards. New, regulation-size greens were seeded in August with Pure Distinction creeping bentgrass and will be maintained at about a tenth of an inch. Tees and fairways will be maintained at about a half-inch and only 11 bunkers dot the layout. Both sides of the facility are scheduled to open in April.
"We were a little behind. We should have seeded a week earlier," Gertner said. "We could open now. It's ready.
"This is a fun job, and this should be a lot of fun when we open."
It's going to be fun, and it's different. We just want people to come and have fun. It's going to be a different experience than an 18-hole municipal golf course. This will be music, short holes, you'll have a putter in your hand much of the time. It will be dramatic.
For the past two years, golf courses everywhere have been busy. Really busy. But for most of the previous two decades, the game's popularity has been on a steep decline. The hope is that a short golf course that is fun and fast to play coupled with a state-of-the-art golf entertainment complex will complement each other and bring more people into the game. Golfers on the last hole will see their shot on the Toptracer shot-tracking system, just like the pros on tour. And guests at Topgolf will be able to watch players come in on the 10th hole courtesy of a camera on the tee.
"It's going to be fun, and it's different," Gertner said. "We just want people to come and have fun. It's going to be a different experience than an 18-hole municipal golf course. This will be music, short holes, you'll have a putter in your hand much of the time. It will be dramatic."
The project has not been without its challenges. The labor crunch has made it difficult to find help, supply chain issues have made finding equipment and parts a problem, and proximity to the airport has been a cause for extreme oversight. The site has many utilities run through it. There is a fuel line to LAX and there is an adjacent recycled water plant.
"We are the first customer off their pipeline," Gertner said. "There are a lot of easements running through the property. When we were digging, if we had hit that fuel line that goes to LAX, the whole world would have heard about this project by now."