Dallas-based UnderPar Life, a venture backed by professional golfer and two-time major champion Bryson DeChambeau, is rolling out its Topgolf-style venues across the country with a goal to have 30 locations under contract in the near future. After coming out in October with its first venue at Hawks Creek Golf Course just west of Fort Worth, on July 11 the company signed a 99-year lease to build its second venue in El Paso.
UnderPar Life is currently in discussions with golf courses across the country. Locations in Tyler, Texas, Aiken, South Carolina, as well as sites in Florida, Oklahoma, Indiana, West Virginia, and Louisiana are all in the pipeline for the company. “We want to sign as many leases as quickly as possible,” Co-Founder David Deering told D CEO.
The startup partners with municipally-owned golf courses to build hitting bay structures and F&B offerings on the properties. Its first location is slated to open a presale of $99/month memberships within the next 30 days.
Its latest structure in El Paso, a two-story, 12,000-square-foot venue, will be constructed on Horizon Golf Course—a municipal course that boasts 50,000 rounds played per year. So, an existing customer base is already present. “It’s a perfect location for us,” said Deering, who formerly worked for Adams Golf and various Silicon Valley startups. “Our thesis is proving out to be correct. The municipalities are loving our idea. They are willing to give us these favorable 99-year leases in exchange for us building on their golf course. One of the challenges of a startup is, ‘Can they do things over and over again?’ Well, I’m starting to feel this is a repeatable process at scale where we don’t have to drop $20 million on a piece of land.”
The Horizon Golf Course venue will feature a 300-yard driving range, a golf instruction academy, tour-level short game and practice area, and bars and restaurants. The number of bays is still to be determined. A groundbreaking date is also still TBD, but construction is slated to take between 18 and 24 months. Kin to Hawks Creek, UnderPar Life will offer subscriptions at Horizon.
“Growing the game of golf is an essential component of Horizon Golf Club’s mission,” said Luis Delgadillo, head pro at Horizon Golf Club. “Partnering with UnderPar Life provides us an opportunity to expand our free youth programs and expose our top players to world-class practice facilities. Our partnership with UnderPar Life increases opportunities to inspire the next generation of golfers and create a lasting impact on the sport.”
The idea for UnderPar Life was sparked by Mike Flynn, a former professional golfer and TCU alum, who started to notice just how underutilized and undercapitalized many driving ranges and golf practice facilities are. So, Flynn partnered with Deering to formalize the idea. DeChambeau came on as an investor and has his hand in developing the properties. Rogers Healy’s Dallas-based Morrison Seger Venture Capital is also an investor. “We’re also talking to three of the largest check writers in golf, so we’re hopeful that something from one of these strategic discussions will bear very significant fruit,” Deering said.
The concept is a competitor to Topgolf, but UnderPar Life is also targeting the avid golfer to utilize its facility as a training center. The bays, which feature Trackman technology, will be outfitted with tour-quality golf balls and clubs. The short game practice area will be on par with courses that host tour events. Additionally, UnderPar Life believes the restaurants and bars on property will be enough to sway the non-golfer to forego Topgolf in favor of UnderPar Life.
“We think we will have regular customers who never hit a golf ball,” Deering said. “No one has ever said, ‘Hey let’s go to the Topgolf for lunch,’ but people will do that at UnderPar Life.”
UnderPar Life is in discussions with some of the world’s largest golf club and golf ball manufacturers to supply its venues. “Additionally, there is a group that recently approached us that has a new ball they’re bringing to market, so we will be testing that soon,” Deering said.
Despite not breaking ground on a venue yet, Deering is bullish on the prospect of his startup as potential customers are approaching the company by the dozens. “We’re employing a Silicon Valley-type, high-growth, high-gross margin model that creates a significant enterprise valuation,” he said. “We believe that if we build it the right way, a strategic competitor to Callaway would be interested in us. We’re aiming to create an enterprise valuation that exceeds the multiple that Callaway paid for Topgolf. We think we can because we’re not spending any money to buy land—and that will help us grow at a very rapid clip with lower capital needs.” In 2021, Callaway purchased Topgolf for $2.6 billion.
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