Changes in the Golf World

Monday, March 02, 2026
By Matt Sutter, Chief Executive Officer
In Design, Community

The golf industry is bringing in more people with new, creative, and less formal venues, while the clothing industry is mirroring this thinking with more casual approaches to the game. The game has become more mainstream and more available to the general public, with less costly and less time consuming options for playing the game.

I recently attended the PGA Show in Orlando, Florida, and also had the opportunity to visit the new PGA Headquarters in Frisco, Texas. Both trips emphasized new non-traditional approaches to the game.

Highlights from the PGA Show:

Golf technology has exploded. Simulators are working their way into most clubs, and many retail venues, but the simulators have a huge weakness. They just focus on drives and iron play into the green. This still leaves 50% of the strokes, the putts, to be determined by the computer. The TGR indoor golf league that was founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy has a full size green complete with slopes and bunkers to compliment their simulator, but a typical simulator determines the putts for you by a random algorithm based on length of the putt. The technology that was on display at the PGA show is attempting to add putting to the indoor simulator. Multiple companies have developed putting technology that allows the putting surface to change slope. The technology ranges from very simple manual air bladders to very sophisticated, where the slope of the putting surface will change to replicate the slope of the green that the golfer is playing on with the simulator.

The new apparel at the PGA show showcased many popular YouTube influencer brands. These influencers have brought a more casual brand of golf into the mainstream. Influencers are showcasing several non-professionals on their channels, which portrays the skill level of golf to which most regular players can relate.

Visit to the PGA Headquarters in Frisco, Texas:

Non-traditional golf is also the theme of the centerpiece of the new PGA Headquarters in Frisco, Texas. The PGA Headquarters has been established right next to a non-traditional golf entertainment hotspot in a growing area of Frisco. There is a 200 yard putting green encircled by a jumboscreen, restaurants and retail. Next to the putting green is a ten hole short course that can be played in 45 minutes. This has become an entertainment space where families gather during the evenings to watch a movie, putt on the putting green, eat outside, shop and play the short course. This venue is a great place to introduce all members of a family to golf in a very casual way.

« back to listing