Swapping night clubs for golf clubs

As well as being deterred by the high cost of club entry and expensive drinks, it seems that people are continuing to turn away from nightclubs and looking for more unusual and unique experiences when they go out for the night. Including golf...

We are now a year on from the controversial and highly publicised closure of one of the UK’s most iconic nightclubs, Fabric. There was a lot of coverage at the time concerning the fact that nightclub attendance had declined significantly and some studies claimed a drop of as much as 34 million in 5 years.

An evening spent in the trendier parts of any town will confirm the popularity of quirky alternatives to the traditional nightclub – from bars where revellers sip their drinks and compete around ping pong tables, to high-octane, alcohol-fuelled bingo nights that would probably shock more traditional players. One of the most interesting of these up and coming venues is the Lets Golf simulator centre in Horley, Surrey.

Riding the wave of growing popularity of golf among younger generations – with a 20% increase in young people playing golf between 2010 and 2015 – Lets Golf embraces the influx of groups looking to do more with their nights than simply drink overpriced cocktails and dance to music they don’t enjoy.

Ben Stephenson, General Manager at Lets Golf commented, “Golf is cool; it’s no longer just played by middle-aged businessmen on a Saturday morning. But despite the prominence of young players in the professional sport there are concerns among the top organisations that golf clubs are too strict and stuffy to attract the younger demographic - they are simply not attracting the millennial market.

“At Lets Golf we’ve always tended to be popular among people looking to improve their game, and we’ve seen a definite increase in a number of areas, from kids’ parties to first dates, but probably the most significant area of growth recently is groups looking to spend their Friday or Saturday nights with us.

“The benefit to the simulators is that, similar to Top Golf’s concept, players can actually start to enjoy the lighter side of the sport and play games rather than just serious rounds of golf. You don’t have to be able to play golf properly to enjoy it so it’s opened the door to a whole new market.”

Lets Golf offers private booths for groups of up to 6, in which the players can enjoy anything from target games to 18 holes on some of the world’s most famous courses, all with a cold beer in hand, while the onsite burger restaurant means all bases are covered.

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