Indoor golf concept shoots past the rough with tech driver, hooking franchise success across US

Lenexa-based indoor golf concept GolfTRK is teeing off into the world of franchising, said Matt Williams, scoring big wins from coast to coast as demand to expand access to “golf light” soars.

The modern training and performance facility — a Trackman Preferred Franchise Partner with locations in Lenexa and Overland Park — now has 11 franchises and roughly 30 in the pipeline, explained Williams. 

“When we started the first location, we didn’t know if it would be a single unit,” said Williams, who launched GolfTRK in August 2023 with co-founders Alex Reed, Sam Collins, and Paul Buonopane. “I’ve joked about this in the past: we weren’t sure if we were tricking our wives into buying ourselves our own TrackMan units, disguised as a business. And then if it doesn’t go well, then we each get our own unit to bring home.”

“But obviously, it went well,” he added. “We got a lot of people with unsolicited requests that said, ‘Hey, is this a franchise? Are you franchising?’ And that gave us the idea that this actually has more legs than just one or two units owned by us.”

What followed as basic outreach on LinkedIn — the co-founders are handling all their own lead generation and sales — quickly turned into franchise locations in Dallas; San Antonio; Tampa, Florida; Eugene, Oregon; and Omaha, Nebraska; plus plans for locations in St. Louis and more in the Kansas City metro area.

“We made the investment thinking, if we sold a couple of these, it would pan out,” Williams said. “It’s turned out indoor golf is honestly one of the fastest-growing franchise brands right now. So it’s a good space to be in.”

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GolfTRK co-founders: Matt Williams, Alex Reed, and Sam Collins; Not pictured, Paul Buonopane; photo courtesy of GolfTRK, Albatross Golf

GolfTRK locations also serve as an incubator space for tech from Kansas City-built Noonan — a patent-pending digital caddie platform that uses simulator data to deliver intelligent shot recommendations and help golfers lower their scores. The GolfTRK co-founders launched the tech piece to complement their performance facilities, Williams shared.

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“It creates a really nice flywheel,” he said of the Noonan and GolfTRK, sibling brands under their Albatross Golf company. “Noonan helps create safety nets for the franchise. The franchise is generating leads for Noonan.”

RELATED: Golftech startup raises $675K seed round, swinging for franchise expansion and commercial tech launch

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A GolfTRK takes advantage of the indoor golf concept in Overland Park; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Inside GolfTRK's Overland Park facility; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Golf is seeing a 40-percent increase in participation right now, he continued, but it’s expensive, golf course supply is stagnant, 65 percent of golf courses operate at capacity, and players can’t just hit the green whenever they want. 

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Innovation swing

On top of franchising, the GolfTRK co-founders are also working with the Kansas State University Technology Development Institute to develop a new long-lasting screen prototype as their current facility screens — which sustain golf ball hits — only last three months, Matt Williams said. The K-State team has finished the design and is working on building out the MVP.

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“All of that demand has to go somewhere and facilities like ours are bridging the gap,” Williams explained. “There’s a concept people are talking about right now: ‘golf light,’ which is not hardcore golf but not entertainment. It sits in the middle. It appeals to more of those avid golfers. That’s definitely where we sit.”

GolfTRK offers memberships, lessons, and club fittings, which — offered all in one unit — is unique, Williams noted. Each location has a PGA instructor on staff as either the owner or general manager.

“If they’re struggling, they have somebody they can talk to, as opposed to just banging balls and trying to guess,” he added. “So I think that’s really powerful.”

Franchising opportunities through GolfTRK are catered to PGA instructors, who are often capped in their earning potential, Williams said. 

“They’re locked into a facility,” he explained. “We’re giving these PGA instructors a way to spend more time with their kids, while also having kind of more control over the future through revenue sharing and opening a real career path.”

If an instructor also is the owner and operator, Williams continued, they won’t have much overhead since they can do all the onboarding and lessons themselves, plus they often have instant revenue with their current lesson list.

“The unit economics are really, really attractive,” he added.