Austin Indoor Driving Range – TopgolfAustin

Imagine this – the largest sports bar in Austin, good food, superb friendly service, cold drinks, music on the weekends, free pool and shuffleboard, and a three level covered driving range with misters to keep you cool on hot days! Whether you like golf or not, TopGolf can be a lot of fun for everyone – golfers or non golfers, senior citizens or young kids, men or women. We spent a couple hours at Topgolfwith the grand kids, 3 of them under 7, and all of us had a blast. Some of the highlights of our trip to Topgolfincluded:

• some of the best and friendliest service we have ever encountered
• my 8 year old grandson out drove me – 185 yards and straight as an arrow
• my wife outscored me in total points on a game called TopGolf
• Topgolfis really affordable and a real bargain
• the youngest granddaughter (2) hit the ball into the first target for 7 points – I tried and missed
• the food was very good and reasonably priced
• on a 100 degree day it was very pleasant – I’d never go to the range when it’s that hot
• and since I wasn’t hitting the ball well, I downed two frozen margaritas and subsequently lost our next game of TopScore – but who cares, the margaritas were fantastic

You’ve got to round up some friends and give Topgolfin Dallas, Allen, The Colony, Houston, or Austin a try. The Austin location opened in early 2013 and it has taken off and averages over 300,000 golf balls hit a month! But it never seems crowded because it’s 65,000 square feet of “awesomeness” that includes:

• 3 levels for golf with 34 golf bays per level – each bay has a table and six chairs, a 32″ LCD TV, a computer to keep your scores, a ball dispenser, and a hitting area with a tee
• a huge full service bar and restaurant
• a rooftop terrace with a fire pit, cabanas,and full service bar
• 2900 square feet of meeting space with state of the art AV equipment
• a game room with two free pool tables and a shuffleboard and X-box
• a room with a fooseball table and another X-box
• plus beer pong, bean bag toss, a dance floor, and a six hole putting green!

Topgolf’s claim to be the largest Sports Bar in Austin is based on all of the above plus 320 flat screen TVs! A couple other interesting facts about Topgolfin Austin is that: they can help you plan as well as cater corporate events or reunions, birthday parties or socials, and even a wedding; on most weekends there is a live band on one night and a DJ on the other night; 70% of the people who visit Topgolfdon’t play golf and still have a great time at Topgolf- it’s a great way to have fun, stay cool, and start to learn the game. If you really want to learn how to play golf, then sign up for a lesson with the TopgolfGolf Pro.

Topgolfdoesn’t have a cart lady but they do have what seems like a very high ratio of friendly and attentive wait staff for guests and they can serve you some really good food (90% of it is made from scratch) and cold drinks – and you don’t have to wait nine holes before you see them again. The menu is quite extensive with lots of choices – appetizers, flat bread pizzas, sliders, giant burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, desserts, and kid stuff. Show me a driving range where you can take a few golf swings, munch on a burger, watch your favorite sports on a flat screen, sip a cold drink, and then bring out the big dog and go for the longest drive or shake your bootie on the dance floor, play a game of pool, or sip a margarita around the fire pit under a full moon.

In addition to all of that, what makes Topgolffun and separates it from a driving range are the addictive golf games that anyone from 5 to 95 can play. From your golf bay you look out over a 215 yard outfield that has 10 targets from 25 to 215 yards out that look similar to dartboard targets. Each player is entered into the computer in their bay and when it’s their turn, they wave their personal golf club or one of the free Callaway Clubs (or you can rent a full set of new Callaway Clubs) over a box that dispenses a Callaway Golf ball that has a computer chip in it that is registered to you. Swing away and the closer you get to the bulls eye on one of the seven targets, the more points you get – and the farther out the target is, the more points you get! And the computer screen displays how far you hit it and the total points for that shot as well as your cumulative points. I was so bad at the games I had to buy the kids an ice cream cone and the wife a Pina Colada!

When you start you pick which game you want to play (you can change games at any time) from any of the following:

• Topgolf- the farther the target you hit and the closer you get to the center flag, the more points you’ll receive
• TopScore – the farther the target you hit and the closer you get to the center flag, the more points you’ll receive
• TopChip – using wedges you get five shots at the red target and yellow target, and 10 shots at the green target. Hit the correct target and you’ll score points, but hit the wrong target and watch your points disappear.
• TopPressure -your goal is to hit all nine sections within the yellow target and when you close that out there are two more levels with points worth 2X and 10X the section amount – hit the same section twice in these levels and you’ll lose points.
• TopShot – you need to hit the targets at four consecutive distances with five shots each and the starting point you choose (red, yellow, green or brown target) determines the game’s level of difficulty – reach the correct target and you’ll score points, but hit the wrong target and say goodbye to those points.
• TopDrive – bring out the big dog, aim at the pink and black target, and let-er-rip

Bottom line – you and your friends can have a lot of fun at top golf whether you’re a competitive golfer, a hacker, or never played golf. It’s reasonably priced and offers lots of fun things to do.