PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA | On a picturesque December afternoon, PopStroke buzzes with sudden roars of long putts that find the bottom of the cup.
Labeling this game as “mini golf” would be a misnomer. There are no windmills, waterfalls or clown mouths here. The greens, made of visually stimulating synthetic turf, feature distinct shades of light green, dark green and white to match the look and feel of a real golf course. Putts can be read in traditional golf fashion, with skill separating outstanding putters from the rest. Everyone is using a new Bridgestone souvenir ball of the same standard color – which they get to take home with them – and not some plastic lime green ball that has gone through the wringer.
It could accurately be described as a golf lover’s playground, but it’s also a little bit of everything else to those who aren’t obsessed with the game. A massive TV facing the course is visible from everywhere around the 36 holes, and a patio with food and drink overlooks the participants. The games in the adjoining courtyard include cornhole, table tennis and foosball, all sitting next to an ice cream parlor offering 30 flavors.
Quite noticeably, the facility is not dominated by millennial customers, a departure from a place such as Topgolf that registers more than half of its traffic from the 18-34 age window. There are families with strollers and several young kids. There are retirees coming back to break the course record.
And that is the concept of PopStroke, a rapidly expanding golf entertainment company that is betting big on a pure, unintimidating putting experience with a sports bar environment. Current locations in Port St. Lucie and Fort Myers in Florida soon will be joined by enhanced versions throughout the Sunshine State: Sarasota (opening later this month), Orlando, Tampa and Delray Beach. There also will be new courses in Houston and the Phoenix suburbs of Scottsdale and Glendale, expanding PopStroke’s total from two to nine locations by the end of 2022. The early strategy is to follow areas of the country with expansive population growth. Projections call for 15-20 facilities to be open by the end of 2023, and eventually the plan is to be well beyond 100 locations, with an international presence possible in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions.
“Giving people a legitimate golf experience by virtue of the fact we are outside, we have a professional golf architecture team designing our putting courses … it makes us very different from an indoor, gamified experience where you might have a putter in your hand and a ball in your hand, but it’s not very ‘golfy,’ if you will.” – Greg Bartoli
That torrid pace is not just about the facilities. PopStroke is co-owned by Tiger Woods, and it meshes brilliantly into Woods’ growing catalog of laid-back golf experiences that emphasize enjoyment. That catalog includes events such as Tiger Jam and player-friendly course designs such as Bluejack National in Texas, The Hay at Pebble Beach and Payne’s Valley near Branson, Missouri.
The early feedback has been overwhelming, according to the company. PopStroke officials declined to offer financial information about their business, but there are ample online reports of packed courses and customers driving multiple hours just to experience a fresh take on the traditional mini-golf concept.
“We are all-inclusive and very progressive, but we are also trying to make golf the core of this entertainment experience,” PopStroke founder Greg Bartoli told GGP Biz. “Giving people a legitimate golf experience by virtue of the fact we are outside, we have a professional golf architecture team designing our putting courses … it makes us very different from an indoor, gamified experience where you might have a putter in your hand and a ball in your hand, but it’s not very ‘golfy,’ if you will.
“The idea is to figure out a way to introduce more people to the game of golf, but in a way that is fun, dynamic, engaging and competitive, with cocktails, drinks and food. Putting is the one universal thing people can do in a less intimidating environment.”
Ironically, the PopStroke idea formed out of regular mini golf as most know it.
Bartoli worked as a successful investment banker on Wall Street for 15 years, the last six at J.P. Morgan. During the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, he purchased commercial real estate along Alternate A1A in Jupiter, Florida, although he still lived in New York City at the time. In 2013, he decided to leave J.P. Morgan and New York to relocate his family to Jupiter.
That piece of commercial real estate he purchased was used to create Lighthouse Cove Adventure Golf, a traditional mini-golf facility with a sports bar and a children’s playground. There was a full bar, and customers had the ability to take buckets of beer out to the course.
“We created this really cool environment where it just became an iconic destination in Jupiter,” Bartoli said. “People of all ages were coming out of the woodwork to enjoy themselves.”
But before that all happened and Lighthouse Cove officially opened in 2013, the facility had, to say the least, an intriguing first customer: Tiger Woods.
Woods’ company, TGR, used to have offices across the street from Lighthouse Cove, prompting his team to call and ask to host its holiday corporate party at the facility before its official opening. Lighthouse Cove scrambled to obtain all of the proper certificates and licenses, narrowly making it in time for the party.
Around the same time, Bartoli became close with Chris Hubman, TGR’s chief financial officer, and in 2016 the wheels began to turn on the PopStroke concept. Bartoli’s vision was to re-create Lighthouse Cove but with a more authentic golf experience, and the first location at Port St. Lucie came online in 2019 as a test model of sorts. After some initial success, Woods’ camp came aboard.
Now, Bartoli owns 50 percent of PopStroke, and Woods owns 50 percent. Woods is heavily involved on the design side, where longtime friend Bryon Bell, the president of TGR Design, oversees the effort to build unique golf holes throughout the country.
“He doesn’t have boots on the ground as much as he would for a regular 18-hole course we are building, but we are constantly sending him videos and pictures of the design process to get his feedback,” Bell said of Woods’ involvement.
PopStroke is among a trend of modern mini-golf experiences that are taking advantage of getting closer to city centers by using less space than other golf entertainment options that need large parcels of land.
Rory McIlroy invested about $10 million into Puttery, which is described as an “over-the-top” putting experience in which participants – who must be at least 21 years old – wander amongst fanciful nine-hole courses while enjoying adult beverages. Puttery is owned by Drive Shack, with locations in Dallas and Charlotte and more planned in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington.
Puttshack, launched by the team that came up with Topgolf, recently had a $60 million infusion of cash and now has nine locations already launched or in the process of being built. They started in London back in 2018 with an indoor model that relies heavily on technology, and the golf portion of Puttshack’s business accounts for nearly half of the business’ revenue. That is higher than most in the growing “eatertainment” sector.
While similar in concept, PopStroke is far different from those two businesses. It’s outdoors, for one. The clientele is a wider age range, as Bartoli calls his target demographic “anyone from ages 4 to 84.” And the courses themselves are actually shaped and built much like a regular golf course rather than being laid on top of concrete, which is a common mode of construction for mini golf. TGR Design came into the process with no previous mini-golf design experience – this is the same team that builds Woods’ regular golf courses – but that turned into a benefit as the crew had extensive knowledge of proper drainage.
A course is built in just four to six months, with the entire facility sitting on only two to three acres of land.
“It’s very similar to what we were doing with a big golf course; it’s just the scale is so much smaller,” Bell said. “Instead of doing grading plans with 2-foot intervals, you are doing grading plans at 2 1/2-inch intervals. It is a fun challenge, but we’re still learning.”
Bartoli has long-term dreams for his short-game vision. New locations coming on board will feature playgrounds, multiple bars, multiple floors, golf simulators and more games. The hope is to open about 10 sites per year, continually evolving the product. In the next few years, Bartoli says the facility types will change as they begin to target Midwest and Northeast locations.
“We are going to be in cold-weather markets in a pretty big way in the near future,” Bartoli said.
If the response continues to be anything like it has been in Florida, PopStroke will be well on its way to being as ubiquitous as Topgolf.