Listening to Topgolf Chief Brand Officer Geoff Cottrill explain the impetus behind the creation of the Sure Thing club, I couldn’t help but notice my girlfriend happily swinging away out of the corner of my eye.
“You really got a hold of that one,” I said as we shifted our attention to her, a novice player who has taken the occasional hack or two when accompanying me at a driving range or indoor simulator.
Like a child excitedly showing off an accomplishment to a parent, she giddily swung away again and again, demanding my attention each time. She had just experienced shot euphoria and it was now coursing through her veins.
Later that night as she proudly shared her earlier experiences with the new modified driver from Topgolf, a friend said people like her are the reason Topgolf created the club. And it was true.
As Topgolf and other golf-entertainment brands continue to lower the game’s barrier to entry while diversifying the sport, hitting a good golf shot is still difficult, especially for beginners and novices.
That’s why Topgolf developed the Sure Thing club—a non-conforming club with a larger face for increased contact, a shorter shaft for more control and 20 degrees of loft to get the ball in the air easier. Designed in collaboration with Callaway engineers, the club, now available in adult and youth sizes at all Topgolf locations around the globe, intends to make golf less hard.
“We’re just trying to have fun,” Cottrill said. “The more fun we can have, the more things like this we can do and the more fun it can be for more people, which is a good thing for the industry, for us and the game of golf.”
That’s been Topgolf’s modus operandi since it was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000. Sure, some go to Topgolf to utilize the Toptracer technology to work on their target practice and aim but for every serious golfer, there’s a family of four, group of 10 friends or a couple playing games like Angry Birds and Block Party for fun. Many of them are swinging a club for the first time.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, you know golf is more popular than ever. An estimated 45 million Americans age 6 and older played both on- and off-course golf in 2023, according to the National Golf Foundation. Within the game’s largest customer age segment (18-34), 6.3 million Americans played on-course golf last year while another 5.8 million were off-course-only participants.
After a surge in popularity at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, golf became the go-to sport and activity for everyone from your grandfather to former pro athletes, celebrities, rappers, your brother… you name it. But the game can still be intimidating and costly. That’s where venues like Topgolf, Five Iron, Drive Shack, PopStroke and PuttShack have been invaluable by not only bringing the sport to millions who didn’t have the access but, more importantly, by making it fun.
Ultimately, that’s the name of the game. While golf is frustrating as we try to best every single shot every single round—all the while knowing that certainly won’t happen—we wouldn’t be sadistic gluttons for punishment if we didn’t actually find golf fun and entertaining.
As someone who has gotten back into the game recently and is struggling to break old habits, hitting the Sure Thing even made me giddy knowing I could smash the ball long and straight more consistently, even off the deck. While the club isn’t available for retail, I’ll definitely be using it each time I visit a Topgolf venue because it’s fun and empowering.
By giving new and novice golfers the opportunity to experience shot euphoria and grow their confidence and excitement around a difficult and intimidating game, Topgolf has exponentially grown (and diversified) golf, a win-win situation for anyone associated with the game.
“We’re genuinely making golf more accessible and the face of the game is going to change, too,” Cottrill said. “It’s such a great game and it should be enjoyed by more people.”
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