Active socialising in London is becoming rather harder to ignore, and Five Iron Golf has found a neat way of attaching it to one of Britain’s less active traditions: watching football.
Its new 90 + 90 experience at Broadgate gives groups 90 minutes of virtual golf before the same simulator bay becomes a private screen for 90 minutes of Premier League action.
There is food and a pint involved, so nobody is pretending this is altitude training. The more interesting idea is behavioural. Instead of spending the entire pre-match build-up planted in a chair, groups are encouraged to play, compete, laugh at one another’s technique and generally move around before settling down for the football.
Active socialising without the Lycra
The phrase “active socialising” can sound suspiciously like something invented during a strategy meeting involving three whiteboards and an oat-milk flat white. In practice, the concept is much simpler: meet friends and do something.
Bowling has understood it for decades. Padel has turned it into a minor social phenomenon. Indoor golf now occupies similar territory, particularly because simulator venues remove many of the formalities associated with the traditional game.
Five Iron’s version costs £60 per person, with a minimum group of three. Guests get their own Trackman simulator bay, access to more than 300 virtual courses and complimentary Callaway clubs.
At kick-off, the screen switches from golf to football. A pizza or NYC smash burger and a pint per person are included.
This is not fitness dressed up as entertainment. It is entertainment with more movement built into it.
Why movement makes social occasions more interesting
The appeal is not difficult to understand. Much of adult social life defaults to sitting: restaurants, pubs, cafés, cinemas, stadium seats. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those, but adding an activity changes the texture of an evening.
Conversation becomes less forced. Competition provides its own entertainment. People move around rather than staying in one position for hours. Most importantly, the activity gives a group something to do together rather than leaving everyone to stare intermittently at their phones until something happens.
Golf simulators are particularly well suited to that formula because ability is almost beside the point. A competent player can chase numbers and distances; somebody holding a club for the first time can enjoy the uniquely democratic experience of sending a ball somewhere no course architect intended.
UK CEO Eric Parker said:“Matchday has always been about getting your friends together, and we wanted to create a new way to spend that time together that starts well before kick-off.
“Five Iron is built around making golf social, accessible and fun, whether you play every week or have never picked up a club. 90 + 90 brings that idea to football fans, you can compete with your friends, have some food and drinks and then settle in for the match, all in the same place.
“It’s a completely different alternative to heading straight to the pub, and you definitely don’t need to be a golfer to enjoy it. In fact, half the fun might be finding out which of your mates is absolutely terrible at it!”
You do not need to be a golfer
That last point is central to the concept.
Five Iron is not asking football supporters to become golfers before they arrive. The equipment is supplied, the courses exist on a screen and nobody has to worry about dress codes, lost balls or holding up the group behind.
For newcomers, that makes the sport considerably less intimidating. For established golfers, Trackman still provides enough information and realism to turn a casual hit into a proper contest.
The venue itself covers 6,900 square feet at 1 Finsbury Avenue in Broadgate, close to Liverpool Street Station. It has eight Trackman simulators alongside a full-service bar and restaurant, with live sport shown throughout the venue.
A different way to build a matchday
Five Iron has timed 90 + 90 around the return of Premier League football, giving the package an obvious social occasion to latch onto.
A shorter option, Bay, Burger, Beer, costs £40 per person and includes an hour in a simulator bay, a burger and a pint. The football can then be watched elsewhere in the venue.
Neither package should be confused with exercise programming, nor would Five Iron claim it as such. The attraction for a health and lifestyle audience is subtler: it replaces part of a sedentary social occasion with something participatory.
That might sound like a small distinction. Often, those are the habits that stick.
Five Iron sees social golf as bigger than golf
Five Iron began in New York in 2017 and now has more than 40 locations internationally. Broadgate, which opened in July, is its first UK venue, with plans for 10 locations across the country.
Its wider opportunity may depend less on persuading committed golfers to practise indoors and more on reaching people who simply enjoy doing something with their friends.
That is where 90 + 90 becomes more interesting than another football promotion. It takes an afternoon that might otherwise begin and end in a chair and inserts 90 minutes of movement, competition and mild public humiliation before kick-off.
No gym kit required. No personal best necessary.
Just try not to shank one into the virtual hospitality tent before Arsenal come out.
