James Davis ’18

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Top Golf is a popular new attraction all over the country, including several locations in Houston, and many more all over Texas. Top Golf offers a kid-friendly environment for playing a game of golf that involves driving a golf ball to a series of targets to score points.

The “Top” stands for Target Oriented Practice. This form of golf is becoming popular among regular golfers and people just starting to play.

Once you arrive at the facility, you go to the front desk and create a membership card. Then you can enjoy the attractions–such as the bar for adults or maybe a game of pool–besides golfing until a golfing station opens. When it opens you will receive a text on your phone with the station number.

You then go to the station and choose the game you want to play and the number of balls that you want to use. Then you pay for the game at the station with a credit card. Once you pay you can swipe your club in front of the machine and begin your game.

As you golf, waiters will come and take drink and food orders, and you can enjoy all of their delicious food. Top Golf has an extensive menu and talented chefs that can prepare almost anything.

Top Golf has 48 golfing stations per facility. At the facility there is a range about 350 yards long with round targets scattered all over. Each ball has microchip at its core, and when you drive a ball into the target, it will register on the computer that you have at your station. The more golf balls hit the the target, the more points you score. Each target is worth a different amount of points, increasing with the range of the shots.

Top Golf has been visited by many Pro golfers including Niall Horan, Rupert Grint, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Pollyanna Woodward and Chris Stark.

The Top Golf concept was created in 2000, and the first top golf was opened at Watford, England. Last year top golf was visited about 252,819 times, about 657,752 games were played, and 13.6 million balls were hit. In the years to come Top Golf will surely grow as its popularity skyrockets.