How Topgolf Gives Back to the Community

Erik Anderson, Co-chairman & CEO of Topgolf Entertainment Group, shares a unique way to play golf, and how Topgolf gives back to the community by encouraging leadership and mentorship.

8/12/17 #3022

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to be joined by Mister Erik Anderson, Co-Chairman and CEO of a fascinating operation called Topgolf Entertainment Group. How you doing? Good. Nice to be here. What's Topgolf? Topgolf's a social sport community, built around obviously golf, and then our technology that enables us to just create a great game and experience with our fantastic associates, bringing great fun and service to our guests. You know, actually, we're gonna show some video as we're taking a look at this. So Erik help me on this. So as a regular golfer who struggles like most others, how is this different from my being out on the course and struggling with my... as I told you, my crappy 13 handicap? Well you can still struggle here. That you don't have to... You can still struggle at your place? [laughter] The... Where's the fun? The fun is you're gonna hit the targets. We put the... What targets? There's targets out in the outfield, and we have RFID chips in the golf ball. What? What kind of...? Yeah, the chip's in the golfball, radio frequency ID chips. What does it tell you? It tells you how far you hit it, and how close you got to the pin. Really? Yeah. So it allows you to keep score, and in that regard, it's just a lot of fun. Yeah. There you go. Who goes there? Everybody. Everybody? Come on! Millennials. We have a large majority, 50%, are 18-34. But Topgolf is for everyone. If... as you go there, you'll see moms, kids, grandparents with kids, people on date nights, corporate events, parties... Well hold on, it's a good date? It's a great date. I take my wife Jennifer... She'll love you. ...who has never really loved being out on the golf course. Yes. She would love this because? She doesn't have to watch you struggle all the time. [laughter] Or complain! She has some great food. She has some great drinks. She'll be able to participate... What do you mean drinks? We have, you know, nice bar service. Both alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. We have a great kitchen, which is 80% fresh. So we have really high quality food. You can enjoy the TV while you're there, and of course, everyone today likes to create their own social media. Hmm. So they take pictures of themselves, and post 'em all around the world. Which of course we love... Where did you get the idea for this? It was two brothers in England, the Jolliffe Brothers, who had the idea of being able to track their golf balls and figure out you could, with a chip in a ball, work. And then they brought it over to the U.S. and I was one...."