The Pitch: City centre golf - Murray, Best and Madigan invest in game's richest trend
Via Pitch Photo Golf
With more than 270 Ireland caps between them, Conor Murray, Rory Best and Ian Madigan know all about spotting opportunity and exploiting it.
The three are on the cusp of driving fresh sporting success through perhaps one of the shrewdest investments in sport by kickstarting a new urban golfing venture which global trends show will change the way the game is played here.
They are the highest profile shareholders in a €2.6m venture - which has raised additional funding through private equity - to create Ireland’s first exclusive city centre golf club.
Pitch has already achieved significant membership targets before even opening for business on Dublin’s Dawson Street this week, where early forecasts predict revenues could be as high as €4m for year one.
And that’s before you even consider the already strong membership take-up from corporates for packages which cost around €6,000, for what is Pitch’s first venue outside of the UK.
The prestigious club is expected to be the first of up to three more venues planned around the country – including Cork – with early phase expansion plans already being discussed by its UK parent and Irish franchise partners.
Leading the business in Ireland is chief executive - Chris Best – a rugby agent with Frontier Sports, and a cousin of Rory.
Best has been incredibly efficient in moving the business from an initial conversation with London-based Pitch in April 2023, to identifying a site 14 months ago (out of four potential high-end Dublin locations), to opening for business this week.
In that time, Best has generated enough investment through his considerable rugby and business contacts, along with attracting those valuable corporate members, for a venture which has not only identified a gap in the market, but one which fully intends to exploit it.
While Pitch Dublin is open from early morning to late night, it is already expected to operate on a 75% capacity all year round, demonstrating a demand for a sporting, social and entertainment phenomenon which is growing enormously overseas.
Indoor golf is already a gamechanger in the US and Asian markets, and indications from its two London venues in Soho and Canary Wharf are that the concept will only surge, with further locations in Manchester and Birmingham set to open in the coming months, and Melbourne sometime next year.
Ireland is a critical piece of Pitch’s global growth plan. Co-founder and CEO Chris Ingham described the Dawson Street opening as “a big deal for us as it’s our first international venue”.
“The concept of a centrally located golf club has become so advanced and so real that for a generation of people (in the US and Asia) this is what they see golf as, and Dublin as such an exciting and vibrant city it seems like the logical place to go,” says Ingham.
Considerable international data points to a version of the sport which is becoming even more popular than the ‘real thing’, with analysis from the USA earlier this year pointing to what is a culture and operational shift for golf.
Indoor golfers in America now outnumber their outdoor counterparts, according to a report by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) in America.
The NGF revealed earlier this year, that the number of people playing golf using simulators and virtual technologies in bespoke golf entertainment venues and at indoor ranges is growing rapidly, particularly amongst younger players.
NGF looked at three participation groups to better understand the modern golf consumer base: on-course only (12.1 million in 2023), off-course only (18.5 million), and those who engage on both fronts (14.5 million).
This breaks down to a combined total of those who play on- and off-course golf, as well as a combination of the two, to 26.6m total on-course, to 32.9m total for the off-course game.
Significant also are the demographics of those who play off-course golf, a pursuit which is not only more attractive to younger players, but to females and a far more diverse range of player, based on race and ethnicity.
The NGF points to this “cool factor, as celebrities, athletes, and content creators with sizeable followings are boosting golf’s positive visibility, especially among non-golfers”.
While the concept of indoor, social golf is not new in Ireland – the K Club has had its ‘K Golf World’ running for some time, the idea of a venue within the centre of a city is something which Pitch knows will bring in the numbers.
As well as looking after its strategic development here, Chris Best said that for him it is equally important for the game to be “modern and progressive, to encourage non-golfers and beginners, and to provide fun for all in an inclusive environment”.
While attracting the likes of Conor Murray and Rory Best, as well as deep pocketed equity investors, a key business element for the success of the business has been to bring in global golf brands as partners.
The technology is provided by Trackman while Callaway provides the clubs, with Heineken on board as the beer partner for Dublin – further deals are expected through apparel providers, ball manufacturers and others as the business gets off the ground.
The layout of the Club features a social area where DJs provide the sounds, and where food and beverages can be consumed, as well as 10 simulator bays allowing for a home cinema environment where groups can play some of the world’s top courses, from Pebble Beach to St Andrews.
While vital pre-opening income has been provided through corporate memberships, enormous revenue will come through food and drink, with what Pitch analyses should reach approximately €300k to €400k per month.
While most of the activity will come in the early evening right through to late night, the venue will operate from early morning, where members and paying punters can get some practice in at the city centre location.
PGA Professionals are on hand at all times to offer lessons and tips, no matter what the skill level, or the time of day, which Pitch expects will achieve full capacity during peak times and weekends.
While the strategy for Pitch globally is rapid expansion, the Irish side of the business is based on growth into other cities and urban locations, despite what Chris Best describes as an “immature market”.
For a Cork Pitch, the scale of the venue may be slightly adjusted, featuring six or seven bays on site, in a city centre location as yet to be confirmed.
While the Irish audience is expected to fully embrace the concept, the potential for the business is something which excites Best and his early investors.
That investment by those forward looking rugby stars already looks extremely positive for a social and sporting facility which has become the norm around the world, and looks set to follow here.
Horse Racing Ireland has moved the meeting scheduled for Thursday to November 14.
The event was cancelled due to a dry spell which had made racing conditions unsuitable due to the small volume of rain which fell on the course over the recent past.
As a result fresh entries for the new meeting will be accepted up until noon on Thursday November 7, with declarations made by 10am on Tuesday November 12.
HRI said that race programme details will be published on the RAS website “in due course”.
A range of sporting camps for chidren from five years to 17 years has been announced by Sport Ireland.
The camps, which will run from Tuesday October 29 to Friday November 1, will include the following:
- Multi-Sport Camp (for 5 - 12 year-olds.) *Includes a special AquaZone trip for kids over 9, & optional pool swims for under 9s
- Gymnastics Camp (for 5 - 12 year-olds.)
- Diving Camp (for 8 - 12 year-olds.)
- New Triathlon Camp (for 12 - 15 year-olds.)
- Athletic Development Teen Camp (for 13 - 17 year olds.)
Further details are on the Sport Ireland website.