5th Golf Innovation Symposium: Urban Golf

Brian Horgan, University of Minnesota (Presentation slides: English l Japanese)

Golf courses provides many benefits to its community. It is a place for its residents to engage in a recreational activity. In cities, golf courses provide greenspace within highly developed areas.
Brian Horgan will outline how the Natural Capital Project has evaluated factors such as air quality, surface temperatures and stormwater management in the urban area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, to determine the value of golf courses to the local community.
In addition, Horgan will apply the model to a neighborhood in Japan to provide a high-level evaluation of golf’s natural capital in that area.

Benjamin Warren, Artisan Golf Design (Presentation slides: English l Japanese)

Forrest Richardson, Forrest Richardson & Associates (Presentation slides: English l Japanese)

Robert Roussille, Golf Up (Presentation slides: English l Japanese)

A full-size 18-hole golf course can take up as much as 200 acres. In an urban area, finding a smaller plot of land for a short course may be easier and cheaper to develop.
However, there is a perception that short courses (a course composed primarily of par 3s) are not as financially successful or provide as good an experience as full-size courses.
The presentations in this session will examine several aspects of short courses: finances, experience, satisfaction, and opportunities.
Course designer Forrest Richardson will explore the finances of operating a short course with a new metric that he has applied to courses he has designed.
Japan-based course designer Benjamin Warren will show how short courses can provide opportunities in cities around the world.
Finally, a member of the French golf community will explain how the building of short courses in urban areas around the country has helped to increase participation.

Bruce Lucker, The Signature Group

Tommy Lim, GOLFZON America

Akihiro Konno, GOLFZON Japan

Golf simulators are bringing the golf experiences to high-density areas where people live. Whether used as a social opportunity, a training device or for competition, simulators have been able to provide a popular complement to the on-course golf experience.
In this session, executives from GOLFZON will demonstrate the data and technology used by the company to engage new customers and introduce them to the game.
In order to supplement the presentation, a GOLFZON simulator will be available for attendees to use during breaks in the symposium schedule.

Erik Anders Lang (moderator)

Edwin Roald, Eureka Golf

Rand Jerris, USGA

Nobuya “Mike” Ishizaka, Golf Digest Online

Federico Valdez Adame, Mexican Golf Federation

For most of the history of golf, a golf facility typically has consisted of 18 holes played on grass. As more and more people are living farther and farther away from a golf course and technology is able to provide new experiences to customers, there are more opportunities to hit a golf ball with a club, from smart golf ranges to simulators to flexible course designs.
This panel brings together a diverse group of golf industry insiders who will discuss and debate the present and the future of golf. Their discussion will inspire and challenge while they ponder questions such the definition of a golfer, the role of alternate golf experiences, and how technology can supplement the experiences provided at a traditional golf course.
The panel discussion will be moderated by symposium emcee Erik Anders Lang, who has played golf – both on traditional courses and also wherever he has been able to find people who have hit a ball with a club – around the world, from Iceland to India to Dubai to Nepal.