FAQs About SmartTarget.Golf
We’ve put together a few Frequently Asked Questions on the value/benefits of implementing SmartTarget.Golf’s permanent interactive targets system for driving ranges.
What is the value of interactive targets on a driving range?
A driving range without responsive targets or greens is like a bowling alley without crashing pins. Field targets and greens that respond when hit give players immediate and real feedback and a real-world goal like knocking down the bowling pins. With just kiosk scoring and no targets, you are offering augmented practice and a video simulation that only gets the customer halfway from practice to play. But with targets and gaming, you now can move into evening entertainment and evening date night opportunities.
- Intelligent driving range targets are like giant bowling pins that give the customer a visual and visceral impact and feedback
- Targets are the first thing customers Instagram when they arrive
- Targets give a real-world light and sound response that completes the experience and creates critical mass where customers stay longer
How do Smart driving range targets augment today’s tee line scoring systems?
By giving the customer live targets in the field that are mapped in the scoring games on Toptracer, Inrange, or Trackman customers are now getting a complete ‘bowling alley’ experience where they actually see the ‘bowling pins fall’ when the target is hit and goes off.
Live targets also give the customer a double feedback loop when hit. Our interactive targets are measured and placed on the field so that they are the real-world anchors for the tee-line target games. Targets are placed at 25yds increments. We do this so that the virtual game scoring zone is 100ft. As a result, the virtual game-scoring zones touch one another. So when a customer hits a target they are scored and the target goes off with sound at the tee line. When they miss the target, the 100ft round virtual target zone ensures a very good chance the player scores. This is key to wanting to play more.
By having a real-world game on the field that the virtual kiosk can emulate, customers have a more complete experience vs. coming to an empty range with only a kiosk scoring system. The kiosk cannot entertain enough to keep groups of customers playing into the evening. It’s simply not fun enough. Combine the two technologies and you get critical mass and customers stay longer.
What features make a great Golf Entertainment venue?
Besides offering up an awesome tee line and epic targets, you need plenty of parking and lots of non-golf social areas for games like ping pong, bag toss, and putt putt. This goes for a stand-alone driving range or a retrofit in the middle of a golf course. The more ways you can entertain the family, the more customers garnered in the early evening and into the evening date-night crowd.
Key municipal issues will be sound and light pollution. As a result, it’s not a good idea to build a golf entertainment facility on a range that has homes overlooking it. Per light pollution, there are radar scoring systems that go with SmartTargets for which venues do not need overhead lighting. Combine this with modern, focused sound design and you can have a fully interactive range in places that will not allow overhead lighting.
