Golf is one of the most popular sports in South Korea. But most of the golf courses are far from the city, and a lot of them are pretty expensive.
Once considered an exclusive hobby for rich elites, golf has now become much more affordable and accessible, thanks to “screen golf,” or golf simulator rooms.
"Screen golf has now become a sport of its own in South Korea."
According to a survey, 85.5 percent of the beginners who have played for less than two years have experience using screen golf lounges, while 59.1 percent of them have never played on actual golf range.
The screen golf revolution. In South Korea, more rounds of golf are completed indoors than outdoors.
Golfzon, operator of the state-of-the-art simulators on which screen golf punters play, offer almost 6,000 indoor locations in the country – a novel approach to tackling the extortionate costs and far flung loci of the traditional ‘field golf’ courses.
Golfzon is now ranked No. 1 in the indoor golf industry, with a 70 percent market share and 130,000 daily users. It recorded an operating profit of 45.4 billion won ($41.3 million) and a revenue of 224.5 billion won in 2020.