LaunchPad Golf, Calgary AB – Making A Memorable Field
We Pulled Out All The Stops
The building of the new LaunchPad Golf in Calgary AB was a design experience. A first on several levels both visible to the customers’ eye and other innovations under the hood. From the start, our stated mission over a year ago was to pull out all the stops and create a course that would out-do the biggest players in the golf entertainment space. On the sizzle side, to satisfy the customers’ need for newness and a compelling fun time, we began by designing a field with 50ft interactive targets. This had not been attempted before. We also incorporated a color fringe that gives daytime Toptracer gamers a color-coded field that lines up with their online program. So many venues in the past were afraid of colors and justifiably so. They didn’t want their venues to be turned into an arcade. Truth be told, they were terrified to lose their day-to-day range rats. So anything that might offend them is taboo.
With our new synturf target skins we now give the range rats something they can respect and enjoy hitting shots to while transforming the venue’s business because when the lights go down and the targets turn on, customers’ are compelled to memorialize their epic experience with an epic glowing photo, that was composed for them a year before they ever arrived. Yes, having all your customers post their evening is critical to your business and the painful truth is that no one Instagrams a kiosk scoring screen at the tee and tries to sell it as a good evening.
With Smart Target Golf’s patented interactive permanent targets any range can now turn into a golf entertainment center. By offering your customers a complete ‘Tee box to target’ gaming and practice experience, they stay longer, have more fun, party harder and spend more. That means targets take your range from automated practice to full-on enjoyment day and night.
Maintenance Free Target
When looking under the Smart Target hood and kicking the tires, the engineering of our targets took a leap forward. Our mission was to make a maintenance-free target that can handle all the stresses a driving range can throw at it. The primary culprit we’ve been able to defeat has been all forms of moisture. Sounds obvious but moisture comes from all directions and is caused by everything from weather, rain, snow, the ground, and in our case, the internal lighting system causing condensation and funky micro-climate. From this, we’ve designed an internal ventilation system that integrates all moisture and keeps the target’s key components dry and working for years. This system is both passive and allows a range of targets to be on/off day in, day out maintenance-free.
Now Focus On The Customer
In closing, let’s cover ‘maintenance free’ and what that really means to a venue owner. When you decide to go ‘golf entertainment’ and sign up for 10-20 bays of tee line scoring, the field becomes super important. But the day you open you will never go out on the field again. You will be overwhelmed by customer issues, as you should. As a result, the field becomes a second or even third thought. We once took offense to this and wanted venues to maintain their targets. The truth is we had to make maintenance-free, ‘forget me’ targets. That was the spec and LaunchPad, Shooters, and Golf Center of CT are living proof it works. We look forward to sharing more stories from the trenches and hopefully some tips and tricks about the world of Golf Entertainment.