Zip- lines on a golf course?
It sounds crazy, but a couple Vancouver entrepreneurs think there is a market for ‘ extreme’ golf.
It is still golf, but is nothing like you’ve seen or heard. Cover your eyes. Plug your ears. The game is about to change, if a couple of Vancouverites with a different view get their way. Imagine … You are walking down a beachwalk boulevard on a summer evening in Southern California, or out for stroll in a trendy mountain resort, and are introduced to pulsating sounds coming from inside temporary scaffolding for a stadium bowl.
Looking skyward, you see helmeted contestants hitting a wedge or short iron off a raised mat, then taking a zip- line ride down to a green 150 yards away. An hour later, the televised event is over. The stadium is torn down and is off to the next tour site.
Yes, it’s an idea hatched in a bistro all right, and the two Vancouver architects who went well past brainstorming one night, Colin Weston and Philip Davis, have quit their jobs and done about everything short of taking out a second mortgage to launch their plan.
In a sport that is a magnet to gimmickry, it’s happened a time or two before. Weston and Davis have a business plan. They have a catchy name.
Ripped Links will literally take off, they hope.
The pair has had the ear of at least one of golf’s biggest companies, TaylorMade/ Adidas, which is looking to grow its business.
And if they do nothing else in taking their first few steps as golf entrepreneurs, the Vancouver pair has at least found one major manufacturer who shares a similar view.
Golf, they claim, is too boring.
“People inside what we call the golf box think in traditional ways of playing, broadcasting and growing the product,” said Davis, who worked on venue design for the 2010 Winter Olympics. “They’re losing numbers.”
If the numbers are accurate, the losses are staggering. According to the Florida- based National Golf Foundation, the loss of players is estimated at five million over the last decade, a drop of 25 per cent.
To a heavyweight like TaylorMade, that could spell trouble. And a chance meeting of TaylorMade CEO Mark King and a couple of Vancouver joes at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., may be the eventual spark for change.
From scratching out the idea for Ripped Links at the bistro now known as the Coppertank Grill in Kitsilano, Weston and Davis set out to Orlando in an effort to drum up interest.
In a place where the latest in colourful polyester and moistureproof clothing is on display, the two walked in looking a little like snowboarder Shaun White, representative in part of the direction they hope to take the game.
“We thought we were going to get kicked out a couple of times,” said Davis. “We showed up wearing T- shirts and hats on backwards. Mark King said ‘ you two looked like you snuck in the back door.’ He said he had to talk to us.” They looked a lot more presentable sitting before TaylorMade execs at their next meeting.
King had been aware of the participation numbers and has committed to changing a mindset. Currently, the push by the manufacturer is in the form of $ 5 million in research, and a website which primarily is asking golfers a simple question: What is wrong with the experience?
There’s no shortage of responses on the website run by the firm, Hackgolf. org. Weston and Davis have their share of fixes. A number of them stem from a Tuesday night at their Kits bistro a little over a year ago.
“We’re watching sports on TV overhead and there’s all the typical sports. It’s all fast and good to watch and we’re watching golf and it’s like watching paint dry,” said Davis.
“We thought purely from a broadcast perspective, why can’t it be more fun and faster? That was our starting point. We looked at each other and said let’s think about ways to strip away the things that make golf boring.”
The two began to construct a made- for- TV formula that can be taken away from golf course settings. The idea is not to attract Rickie Fowler, they say, because the prize money won’t be enough. The two talk about a 27- person amateur field, developing Survivor or American Idol storylines of the contestants, and a modest prize pool.
The plan went sideways in late April when TaylorMade backed away because of corporate restructuring. Weston and Davis are currently looking at staging a smaller event in the Lower Mainland in late summer, convinced they can still replicate the same kind of energy for the small screen to reach the 18- to 36- year- old skateboarding crowd.
“We’re not trying to close golf courses. We’re here to grow the game,” said Weston, a semi- regular at UBC and Northlands, who had worked on venue design for the 2015 Pan- Am Games committee.
The two are aware there’s a TV show, Dragon’s Den, that caters to guys with a dream looking for money, but they say they’ve done well on their own so far. There’s also a cause that’s just as big, saving the game from itself, they say.
“The reason people aren’t playing is because people aren’t watching and the reason people aren’t watching is because it’s boring,” Davis said. “To use Mark King’s own words ( golf) basically has lost its fun factor. It’s stuffy. It’s all about being quiet. There’s hushed tones. You go to a baseball game. Nobody puts up a sign saying ‘ Quiet, please.’ Why is golf not immersed in music, and fun and noise and part of that 16th- hole type of experience? Golf has never really evolved.”
Ripped Links isn’t the only radical approach. The PGA of America is co- sponsoring an event in May to promote Footgolf, an attempt to pollinate soccer interest by using a larger ball to kick into a 21- inch cup. A Footgolf event took place at the Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna in April.
At this rate, Frisbee golf may make it yet, but Weston says there will be no windmills and minigolf concepts at their events if they get off the ground.
There may be millions who still see the game as a good walk unspoiled but these two see the need for change and feel they have something that will help.
They nod when it is suggested to them a redeeming quality of watching Rogers Sportsnet’s top baseball property is their condensed highlight show, Blue Jays in 30. It’s not just two guys with an idea. They say others believe. All they need is their money, and if they don’t get it now, they’ll try a bit longer.
“A lot of people are saying ‘ come back when you’re successful,’ ” said Weston. “If the chief marketing officer’s job is to sell golf clubs, and all of a sudden he has to focus of something long- term and ambiguous, where’s the incentive?
“The reality is they like to talk about it but Monday morning comes and they go back to selling clubs and it never goes anywhere.”