Ohio Golf Journal September 2017

treats from the grill. Don’t forget a fully stocked bar and merchandise area, just in case you need a new hat, glove or t-shirt. The first order of business is to sign up for a Topgolf Membership Card. This card is the only way to access the ball machine, once inside you must use the membership card to pay for time in the hitting bay. This is the 21 st Century, with mobile credit card acceptance everywhere, this seems a bit burdensome. Especially, when trying to leave as small a balance as possible on your Topgolf card. However, once, you are in the hitting bay or in the bar area, personal credit cards can be used for purchases of food and beverages. From a simple concept of wanting to garner digital information from a golf ball after it was struck, the Topgolf idea was born. According to theTopgolf website, it requires between $15-$18 million to open a new Topgolf facility. That’s a lot of golf balls! Investors in Las Vegas are spending nearly $50 million to get that facility open. Are they going to have LIVE Shows with scantily-clad Dancing Girls and slot machines? When you enter a Topgolf facility, you are greeted at the door and must choose which counter to visit, left or right. your assigned hitting bay. Once you load money, from your credit card onto your membership card, you are kept in the system to log scores, or earn various perks. There are four membership levels, Lifetime, 3-Month, 6-Month and Platinum, which range from $5.00 to $250.00/month, with a small initiation fee. It is a bit confusing at first, but there are several young smiling employees standing about, to help guide you through the process. The first complaint lodged against Topgolf is the fact that The hitting bays are all automatic. Touching a computer screen allows you to choose what game you want and how many golf balls you require. Simply by waving your golf club over a sensor on the ball machine, each golf ball rolls onto the hitting mat for you to hack, chop, slice and hook. The field of play, surrounded by a 75-foot high net, consists of several large holes resembling missile silos, that give you something at which to aim. These targets are set strategically at 50-100-125- 150-175 and 200 yards, each Ohio Golf Journal