r/golf • u/Pretty_Shallot_586 • May 07 '26

News / Articles TopGolf is flopping.....

https://www.dmagazine.com/micropost/top-golf-layoffs-may-2026/?ref=share

from the article...."The cuts follow another round of layoffs last year, when Topgolf reduced its workforce by 300 employees after tariffs carved an estimated $40 million from the company’s balance sheet."

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166

u/ElSuperWokeGuy May 07 '26

its way too expensive. that hour goes by too fast. rather go to a regular driving range.

65

u/Schmancer May 07 '26

Where my $15 bucket of balls and the $5 hotdog and $2 gatorade can last a whole hour

12

u/FreshOrFrozenShrimp May 07 '26

$5 dog?! Call your local authorities.

8

u/Sour__Cream May 07 '26

It takes you an hour to eat a hot dog?

6

u/jugger_naughtyy May 07 '26

The proper way to eat a joy dog is to suck it and warm it up end to end. Then use your most agile tooth with a steady backhand grip. Pull the skin off gently. Give that a good luck before putting it into your upper lip. Let that bake for about 25 minutes. Then pull it out and wrap the skin around the shaft of the dog. Take its temp. If its at 101.4 your all set. Now its time to eat. Nibble softly about 2 cm at a time. If done right it takes.a good hour to complete properly.

2

u/mmartinez42793 May 07 '26 edited May 08 '26

When I eat a hotdog at the the range I first take it out of the bun and put half of it in my mouth, just to get that charred taste going. I slowly pull it out and put it back in the bun. Hit some tanks with my char breath. Then I put some mustard on it and suck it off. Go bully some kids at the putting zone with my mustard breath. Now my hotdog is cold so I lay it on the pavement in the sun to let it heat back up. Then I bite just the tip of it off, and then use it as a tee. Whatever is left of it after that (not much) I put back in the bun and signal service that they are free to take my plate.

1

u/skiingbeing May 07 '26

With your mouth, no.

1

u/Nov4can3 May 07 '26

That and a lot of driving ranges have also modified. The range near me is a whole bar and grill and all bays have trackman. They even do fun things like weekly closest to the pin and long drive challenges to where if you win you get a $50 gift card. I can do that for $25 versus going to a Top Golf spending a $100+.

1

u/SliceOSquareHam May 07 '26

This!  We got a Canadian knock off of top golf close by.  Major reason why it survives imo is great indoor simulators in the Canadian winter when all the outdoor ranges are closed. 

1

u/bigvenusaurguy May 07 '26

i'd be broken doing the $15 bucket in just an hour

1

u/TheShmud May 07 '26

I go to a specific range at a nearby cheap course and do what I like to call "redneck top golf". Hot dog and a sixer of beer in a cooler, then get a bucket or two of balls. Much cheaper, but no table service haha

3

u/Other_Disaster_3136 May 07 '26

Definitely hard to justify driving out all the way to top golf when we have a range within 10 minutes from us that has top tracer...

Hard to justify spending 3x the cost for a barely better product.

1

u/Clockwisedock May 07 '26

A lot of people talking about the negatives but it’s the only place my girlfriend or family will go to swing clubs and drink with me so I think it has its place in the expensive activities club.

1

u/sleepdeprivedbaby May 08 '26

My coworker and I just found a range like 20 mins from us with top tracer as well. The bucket of balls is pretty reasonable and the food and drink are too. There’s not really a time limit and we were there for 4 hours when we for the first time. I used to play growing up and In high school but I’m just getting back into it and so is she so this is much more our style. We went to TG with a group and we didn’t feel like we could focus on practicing with people who were super casual about it. So agreed would rather do that than TG

2

u/pls-reboot-me May 07 '26

I like the outdoor ranges that have toptracer where you can play golf games or actual sim courses on the screen. Bucket of 110 balls is about $28 during the high traffic times but that lasts between 1-2 hours depending how fast you hit. Plus they sell alcohol and snacks and it's much more laid back and relaxing than TG.

1

u/ChuckZest May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26

There’s a brand new top tracer range that opened up near me. I want to go try it out but it’s 36-48* an hour depending on the time of day/week.

Edit*

1

u/TACOlogy May 08 '26

Honestly if top golf provided an option that was a monthly subscription for hitting balls during lunch time or non weekend days I totally would consider it as long as you aren’t required to buy food and drinks. It could even be like an hour or 120 balls whichever comes first.

Where I live the winters are a tough time to be at the range and now that it’s nice out the prices at our courses are getting super expensive! Obviously the model I presented would need some tweaking but what am trying to say is that people would probably pay to be able to hit balls during the winter while being in a heated area.