Stinger’s Golf Club with its indoor golf simulators opens in Arizona

CHANDLER, Ariz. — A growing segment of golf is the entertainment side of things. Topgolf springs to mind, as does the Tiger Woods-backed Popstroke. There are also places like Putting World.

Now Golfzon wants to get a bigger piece of the pie in the USA.

The manufacturer of high-quality golf simulators, which is extremely popular in Asia, is now also making inroads in the USA. It entered the market there around six years ago. Stinger’s Golf Club in the golf capital of Arizona is one of the newest companies to offer Golfzon products.

The indoor golf facility, which owner Tyler Wilson likes to call a “golf bar,” recently had its grand opening in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. Wilson had previously worked in the logistics freight brokerage business, but something told him to try a more fun concept. And fun is guaranteed here.

Stinger’s Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)

“I always had a desire to go out and play more golf and turn my passion more and more into a career,” said the former college baseball player.

Inspired by a visit to Golf the Green in Chicago, Wilson sensed that this concept of on-screen golf was something special. It led him to an empty storefront in a strip mall that had once housed an AutoZone, where he opened a Stinger’s store.

On his first day in business, a man stopped by for a round. He had just taken his wife to the hairdresser, typed “golf near me” into Google and discovered that Stinger’s was just around the corner.

Using Golfzon simulators, golfers can tee off at six tee boxes and play on up to 200 simulated courses, including Pebble Beach and PGA West. A tee box costs $50 per hour, and Stinger’s offers several membership options.

If you haven’t played this type of on-screen golf yet, it might only be a matter of time before you do. Golfzon is already a major player in the trend, especially in Korea, where golfers crave every opportunity to hit a little white ball.

To get a sense of Golfzon’s scale, the company offers the following data sample from 2023:

• Holes played on Golfzon simulators: 1,746,790,758
• Rounds played: 99,965,162
• Hits: 7,246,686,086
• Countries with Golfzon simulators: 41
• Golfzon simulators worldwide: Almost 10,000
• Facilities in the USA with Golfzon simulators: Almost 200
• Of the approximately 500 Golfzon simulators in the United States, about 200 are installed in residential buildings.

When Golfzon first launched in the U.S., nearly 90 percent of sales went to golfers at home. That has reversed: 90 percent of the screens are now installed in places like Stinger’s.

In the bays there are different hitting surfaces that simulate fairways, roughs in two thicknesses and sand bunkers.

A synthetic surface that imitates a sand bunker at Stinger’s Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)

The ground moves to give golfers side slopes and other angles. There’s an app that records your best shots and sends you video replays, so you can brag to all your friends when you hit a birdie out of a greenside bunker on hole 7 at Pebble Beach Golf Links, for example.

It’s all about having fun.

“I always try to think of us as a golf bar,” Wilson said. “It’s something you can go and watch the game if you want to, if you just want to hang out and hang out with your buddies, have some food and watch the game, make some bets, whatever you want to do.”

He expects big crowds at NFL games. He can also imagine fantasy football players arguing about the order of the draft on the large putting green in front of the bar. The whole place can be rented out for corporate events, bachelor parties, whatever. They’ll even extend their hours past normal closing time if needed.

In addition, Arizona golfers can enjoy themselves here in temperatures of over 38 degrees Celsius.

“We believe it will be a great summer alternative that allows you to play quickly and cheaply and avoid the heat,” Wilson said.

Check out some photos from Stinger’s Golf Club.