Teeing Off: Local golf ventures look to tap into sport’s growing popularity

As golf grows in popularity, so too is the interest in launching businesses in the Springfield area centered around the sport, even as they take customers off-course.

A record-setting 47.2 million Americans 6 years and older played golf last year, according to the National Golf Foundation. Of that total, 19.1 million exclusively participated in off-course golf activities, which includes golfing entertainment venues, miniature golf and ventures focused on indoor golf simulators. That’s up from around 4 million in 2019.

That latter category describes X-Golf Springfield, which opened in March 2024 at 225 E. Primrose St., near Campbell Avenue. It includes seven golf simulator bays equipped with 16-foot screens and proprietary technology that X-Golf officials say is “second to none.”

Jason Digirolamo, co-owner of the Springfield franchise with friend James Grier, said they both are avid golfers and after visiting an X-Golf franchise in St. Louis, they were ready to bring the concept to the Queen City.

“Once we left there, we got in contact with the franchise and one thing led to another. And nearly three years later, here we are,” he said. “We were hoping to get open about six months earlier than what we did, but finding a good location was tough because we had to have a specific ceiling height. It was a long road, but we’re really glad that we ended up here.”

Digirolamo said there were only a little over 100 X-Golf locations across the country when they opened their 6,200-square-foot venue, which also has a full bar and food menu. The X-Golf website currently lists 139 locations in 38 states and the District of Columbia, including six in Missouri.

Startup costs for the Springfield venture were roughly $330,000, which included a $30,000 franchise fee, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Digirolamo said a third partner in the local franchise, Carl Boyer, exited in December.

While declining to disclose 2024 revenue, Grier said the owners are pleased with the response for the first year. However, he said nicer weather such as the recent warmer sunny days signal a slower period for the business.

“Anytime it rains, we’re super busy,” he said. “We found out what it was like to really be busy in the winter, and that was a little bit of November, but then December, January, February and even the first half of March.”

Aside from daily tee times, X-Golf also includes leagues, tournaments and private lessons in a back room that has its own simulator. Devin Ryan, who is an instructor at X-Golf, estimated he’s held around 115 lessons since the venue’s opening.

“It’s geared more towards golfers,” Digirolamo said. “Don’t get me wrong, people can come in here and still have fun that don’t know how to play golf, but real golfers are going to come in here. You’d be surprised how many people come in here and say, ‘Oh, this is exactly like what I do in real life.’ That’s kind of nice to see that too.”

X-Golf is capitalizing on a rapidly growing simulator golf market, which has jumped worldwide to a value of $1.9 billion in 2024 from $694 million in 2021, according to a report from India-based Straits Research. Additionally, roughly 6.2 million Americans in 2023 hit golf balls using a simulator – a 73% increase from prepandemic levels in 2019.

Off-course interest also has come to the professional game, as an indoor golf league in partnership with the PGA Tour launched in January. The venture, dubbed Tomorrow’s Golf League, and founded, in part, by pro golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, had matches for its first season air on ESPN.

Wide appeal
While frequent golfers are a typical sight at X-Golf, another golf entertainment venture on Springfield’s north side, BigShots, has an appeal that’s more for the mildly interested golfer or those who have little to no experience with the sport, says one of its owners.

“It’s a pretty wide appeal. It caters more to nongolfers,” said Tim O’Reilly, who co-owns the 12-acre center that opened in 2021 at 1930 E. Kearney St. “It’s a great segue into golf and there’s a lot of people who have come to BigShots and really liked golf and then taken up playing it.”

Aside from the Queen City location, Springfield-based O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC also owns a BigShots franchise in Fort Worth, Texas. The Springfield location includes 56 driving range bays across the two-story, 37,000-square-foot building, a combined 3,500 square feet of meeting space, a six-hole outdoor putting course and a full-service restaurant and bar.

“We’ve added a great activity to Springfield. We get a lot of compliments,” O’Reilly said, declining to disclose annual revenue. “Every day, we have some corporate group of some sort. Some days, we have full floor buyouts and some full facility buyouts too.”

O’Reilly said Russell Cellular Inc., AGFinancial and O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: ORLY) are among companies that regularly purchase floors or large blocks of bays for events. Lost & Found Grief Center and Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield Inc. are among numerous nonprofits that have hosted fundraisers, meetings and other events, officials say.

“We cater to a lot of business groups. They have golf outings and it’s a great chance at some exercise and friendly competition,” he said.

Into the woods
Prior to BigShots swinging into Springfield, a similar concept took flight in Republic with the May 2020 opening of Backwoods Golf LLC. The $4 million golf driving range development includes nearly 30 driving bays, an indoor golf simulator and a full-service restaurant and bar.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the original launch date by several weeks, said Backwoods Golf co-owner Austin Cloud, who also is the venture’s general manager. However, he said the pandemic served as a boost to outdoor activities such as golf.

“It’s a variety of everything,” Cloud said of customers at Backwoods Golf. “We get people that are very interested in golf. We get people that are brand new to the game and honestly, I would prefer somebody that’s new to the game. It allows them to figure out if golf is for them, which is great. We see just about every walk of life you can see with golf.”

For those looking to learn the sport, Cloud said Backwoods has a couple of instructors available, including Golf Manager Darin Garouette.

The venue also sells memberships, which cost $125-$325 per month or $900-$2,750 annually for personal memberships, while corporate options are $575 a month and $3,850 per year for up to eight people. Cloud said members vary by the season, as most choose monthly memberships. They typically have 20-50 memberships in the winter and 100-250 memberships in the summer.

“They just want their space, and they want their time to work on their craft, which is completely understandable,” he said.

While he declined to disclose revenues, Cloud said competition from other venues such as BigShots is a challenge. However, he said expanding Backwoods is still a goal sometime in the next few years. That would involve adding a second level to the driving bay area, doubling the capacity to 56 bays.

“It’s something that we’ve wanted to do,” he said. “That’s realistic if we can meet our goals in the next couple of years. That’s more from a revenue standpoint.”

At X-Golf, Grier and Digirolamo said they are content with the single location, as they look to attract more people to a sport they both love.

“It’s not necessarily that we target just golfers in general, but people that want to learn,” Digirolamo said. “Devin’s had first-timers to people that have had 100 lessons. It’s a pretty wide range. They don’t have to chase the ball; they don’t have to be in the elements. It’s just a controlled environment for somebody to come in and get as close as they can to real golf.”