Some ideas are so good you wonder why someone didn’t think of them sooner.
I’m not talking about the Sinclair C5 or the Boat Car – bit of a shame that one. No I am referring to a new golf tour that takes advantage of the fantastic golf simulator technology out there to stage tournaments that can be played on just about any course and at any time.
In northern Europe, Winters can drag on deep into March and beyond and courses are only at their best for three or four months of the year… if we’re lucky.
Particularly in Scandinavian countries, golf simulators have been something of a godsend and their growth over the last 20 years has been considerable. Of course it’s not as good as the real thing but something is better than nothing and Trackman’s NEXT Golf Tour is a lot more than something.
So hats off to the Danish company for coming up with a concept that, understandably, has quickly caught on, attracting hundreds of professionals and amateurs across Europe and beyond.
Sweden’s Rasmus Rosin was leading the Order of Merit after four of the five tournaments having won $38,532. There is also a season finale for the top 100 later this month.
Woburn-based full-time player Nick Cunningham is the UK’s leading light in 15th and for him, with the demise of the EuroPro Tour, being able to earn more than $6,500 in the off-season by playing four rounds of golf has been a huge shot in the arm.
The 29-year-old said: “I have to give all my credit to Ash (Ashley Mason), who works for Trackman, who is a great lad and said ‘have a look at this’.
“And then he reminded me to enter before the first one, which was fantastic because a lot of people I know, who wanted to enter, missed the first one.
“I think it is a really good concept, especially for us in England, because you have nothing to play in. It is muddy and freezing cold, the greens are not great and so it is nice for something to play in and focus on.
“And the prize money is mad.”
Trackman has thought of everything when it comes to ensuring nothing underhand goes on (you were thinking someone could play the course a few times and enter their best score).
When you start your round, Trackman are notified and they can see all the shot data. Also, to ensure it really is the person in question hitting the shots – and they haven’t asked their next-door neighbour Tiger to play on their behalf – you also have to video your round and upload it to Trackman. Each video is then assessed to ensure it marries up with the data.
Every tournament – rounds 2, 3 and 4 attracted a field of 500 – has a set amount of time in which entrants can play and because of the technology the conditions – wind speed, green speed etc – are identical. Trackman will also take into account fairway slopes so even though you are hitting off a flat lie every time, the slopes of the course are factored in, affecting the ball flight.
The purses for each of the five tournaments have risen to $150,000 with the winner of round 5 netting more than $19,000. It takes place at 2027 Ryder Cup venue Adare Manor and has to be completed on March 19. There are also four-figure sums up for grabs for hitting the longest drive, having the longest birdie streak and most GIRs.
The tour opened on January 4th at the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West and since then virtual events have been held at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club – home of this year’s Ryder Cup – Medinah, venue for last year’s US Open, The Concession Club (Florida) and then Adare. The Finale course has not been announced but the prize money has and those 100 lucky players will be battling it out for a $20,000 first prize. These are major sums for those pros fighting to make their way in the game.
Trackman also decided to remove putting as an element for a number of reasons – mostly logisitcal – so any approach shot within ten feet of the pin is classed as a one-putt and anything finishing on the green within 60 feet of hole is an automatic two putt. Outside of that is classed as a (dreaded) three putt.
It’s golf not as we know it but its success means this is bound to be just the start.
Of course not everyone can access a Trackman but that is gradually changing and this really could become huge. Indoor sports of the virtual kind have become big business and you feel golf is ready made to take advantage.
What’s NEXT?
I can only envisage a lot of more of the same.
TRACKMAN’S VIEW…
Why we started the tour?
We started NEXT based on two strong beliefs.
First, we believe that the game we love (golf), is going to be even better, even more exciting and much more inclusive and appealing to wider audiences. And we believe tech is going to be a key driver of this change. We can see that tech-fuelled golf experiences like playing golf in TrackMan simulators will help grow the game and we wanted to showcase this is in the best, most relevant and authentic way.
We also believe that the world of professional golf must move forward. There is a lot of exciting development in the professional world of golf right now and TrackMan is very much a part of this. TrackMan has been standing behind the best players in the world for the past 20 years and have seen many succeed and climb to the peak of the golf world.
But we have seen 10 if not 100 times more, who grinded like crazy and had incredible talent, but still didn’t make it. And while life in tour can look glamorous and you see the top stars on TV and flying private jets, we know that for thousands of golfers tour life is very different and equals more costs than earnings.
Therefore, TrackMan created NEXT Golf Tour to:
• Create a new way for elite and tour players to earn real paychecks and develop their brands as professional golfers.
• Deliver a tech-forward platform and environment for serious competition, entertainment and fan engagement.
• Be a supplement — not an alternative — to established pro golf tours.
How it’s going?
In year one, which is very much a proof-of-concept year, our key objective and focus was to ensure that this was seen as a real, serious and attractive competitive sports league for the golfers out there chasing the dream on the best tours in the world. It should be seen as a real way for the grinders out there to play more competitive golf and earn real pay cheques.
We had hoped to get up to 500 players into tournaments but started the first event with 250 field size cap, to ensure we delivered a great experience for players.
In this type of professional golf, we knew there would be player questions, we also had to receive and review all recordings of player rounds, and of course our state of the art virtual golf platform had to work flawlessly.
The 250 spots for the first round sold out in three days. And while we were confident in our platform, it was great to see the player experience and reactions coming in. The platform worked great, the recordings worked super well, and the player feedback was really positive.
As round 1 started we opened for sign-ups for round 2 – again with 250 spots and they were sold out in 3 hours. With the great experience and feedback we got early on we decided to open up to the 500-field size for round 2, which also sold out within a couple of days.
Since then, every round except round 4 – it had 486 players – have been sold out and we are truly honored and humbled to see the support and the excitement from the players.
How pleased are you with the feedback from players?
Until now we had more than 2,500 participants and +1000 unique players competing across the first 5 events from more than 40 different countries.
We are asking for feedback from the players for every round and the players are rating the experience very close to 10 on a 1-10 scale in terms of how much they like the concept, how realistic this is as a competitive experience etc.
We hear things like “I love that it provides a low cost opportunity for aspiring pros to try and earn some money” and “I love that it helps keep my competitive mindset sharp throughout the off-season, the competition is just as real and you get just as nervous”.
Some of the feedback we heard a lot of is around putting. In year 1 we chose to go with fixed putting (1-putt within 10 feet, 2-putts between 10 and 60 feet and 3-putts outside 60 feet) and many players hope we go to manual putting. Manual putting is possible and very accurate in TrackMan simulators, but for year 1 we chose fixed putting to lower entry barriers as people play from a lot of different set-ups.
Also, the recording of rounds is for a few players somewhat stressful, but the players do appreciate why we do it.
In the end we are super excited about this. The NEXT Golf Tour has already proven to really create a real competitive opportunity for the grinders out there.
And it is making a real difference for the players. Some grinders have quit their winter job to compete on NEXT. Some are giving their career another shot. And most of the players are truly simply enjoying playing real competitive golf in the off season and earn real and meaningful paychecks.
NEXT is not the loudest golf tour in the world. NEXT also clearly doesn’t have the biggest purses. But we offer something that truly makes a difference for many, many players and we are convinced NEXT will be the catalyst for many great things in the future.
