Hot off captaining Crushers GC to the 2023 LIV Golf Team Championship, Bryson DeChambeau is already eyeing up his next big move.
DeChambeau is part of the investment group launching UnderPar Life — a golf experience described as a competitor to Topgolf, according to D Magazine.
“Expense is a barrier to most things in life. It is an unusually high barrier to experience the joy of golf,” DeChambeau says. “Our initiatives are geared toward making golf more affordable, approachable, and enjoyable for everyone. Our approach, partnering with municipally owned golf courses, removes significant financial obstacles and allows us to grow the community of golfers.”
UnderPar Life’s first planned location will be through a 99-year lease on the municipal Hawks Creek Golf Course in Westworth Village, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. The company expects to break ground on the facility before the end of the year and open 12 to 18 months after that.
The Hawks Creek venue is planned to be two stories tall and 16,000 square feet, with 42 hitting bays, a 500-yard driving range, a golf instruction academy, a fitness center, and a “Tour-level” practice area for short game. Each hitting station will be equipped with a Trackman unit, and DeChambeau is reportedly working on getting a manufacturer on board to supply course-quality clubs.
For hospitality, the building will feature three bars and a food menu constructed by local celebrity chef Christian Lehrmann
“We believe that our total addressable market is much larger than Topgolf,” says co-founder David Deering. “Topgolf’s business model doesn’t support the appeal to the avid golfer. We’re targeting the low handicappers with our world-class practice facility while also stealing market share from Topgolf with our golf gamification and our celebrity chef-led food and beverage offerings.”
DeChambeau isn’t the first professional golfer to get in on the golf experience economy: Tiger Woods co-owns mini golf venture PopStroke and golf simulator bar T-Squared, while Rory McIlroy is invested in mini golf chain Puttery.
