Golf Grows When You Remove the Barriers to Walking In the Door

Today's episode features Jamie Arnold, PGA golfer and founder of the Golf House Academy. We dive deep into the fairways on golf's evolution, the swing of things at the academy, and how to putt your way to success in business and on the course. So grab your clubs, it's time to hit the links with the Marketing MadMen. They say marketing is a madman's game. So now we turn it over to the Marketing MadMen with Nick Constantino and Trip Jobe.

Welcome to the Marketing MadMen. Trip Jobe and Nick Constantino here, live on season 4 from The Battery. And you know, we're going to have a little fun today. One of my favorite topics.

Yeah, becoming one of mine, to be honest with you.

Yeah. You're hooked.

You know, as I said, I'm more Southern now. I tell them all the time, the difference is in New York, we used to beat the golf kids up because we were real athletes. But now all of a sudden I'm like, wait a second, this is much harder than I thought it was. Basketball, that's pretty easy. Hitting a freaking 9 iron 145 yards in the wind is not as easy. So we do have a guest today, Mr. Jamie Arnold. Jamie is a PGA golfer out of Australia and the founder of Golf House Academy. Jamie, how you doing, bud?

Doing great, guys. Thanks for having me. Good to be here.

We also had to hit a quota in season four of most accents in a season, so we're going all over the world. Okay, we're starting strong. We're going all over the world. Jamie and I had the pleasure of meeting at his location. I think I complimented and insulted him at the same time, and we had a really fun conversation, but we'll talk about that. We'll talk about Golf House. Let's start with a broad conversation. So I'm going to ask you a question, and we'll go off that. What do you think would surprise people most to learn about the life of a PGA player?

That you have to pay for everything. Everybody thinks it's free and you're on vacation every week, but.

You get to pay to get in tournaments too, don't you?

PGA Tour, you don't. Korn Ferry Tour, it's like $100 a week, which is not too bad. Most tours have a little fee. But if you're not on the PGA Tour, it's pretty much like being on vacation every week. So it's expensive.

Okay, so it's expensive. So you're paying to play, but you're playing great courses. You're competing. There's always a pot. So what do you enjoy the most about it? What part of it? How long have you been a member of the PGA now?

So I've been a member of the PGA of Australasia since 2007. I've been a member of PGA Tour China, OneAsia, the Asian Tour, played a little bit of European Tour, just a tiny bit, and mainly the Korn Ferry Tour from 2016 through 2022. So in answering your question, probably the best thing is the people you meet and the places you get to go see. I've been fortunate enough, I know more about America than Australia probably. I've traveled to pretty much every state in the States except for the Dakotas.

Yeah, you're not missing anything there.

There's probably 4 courses. So definitely the people you meet, the friendships, and you get to play some really nice golf courses too. So that's always been a real fun part of it too.

What's your favorite thing about America? So you've been here now, you've come over, you've seen a lot of it, probably more than I have, to be honest with you, from what you've seen. Does it surprise you how much America changes when you go from one coast to the other and one state to another? What surprises you the most about traveling around?

Yeah, you really just answered my question. It's unbelievable. It's almost like different countries, like New York to Louisiana to Utah, from Southern California up to Northern California, Florida. I mean, everywhere is completely different. I remember my first year we went to Louisiana. It was not bad. I'm trying to think where it was.

Louisiana is its own country.

I couldn't understand them talking. Their accent was that Cajun kind of southern. So that's what's unique. It's just very different where you go. I mean, you're from New York. I can pick New York out straight away. It's the same as a Georgian or a Floridian.

So what's your favorite course in the States that you've got a chance to play?

It's kind of a loaded question, I suppose. I mean, my favorite course in Atlanta is Druid Hills, as an everyday golf course to go and have fun with great people. That's my number one. Peachtree is obviously a treat when you get to go and play there, just because it's in great condition. It's never too busy. In the whole of the United States, I've probably got like 3. I really like, jeez Louise, in Indiana. I'm losing my mind here. So Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon is always a really, really great event. There's a great course, Diamond Creek in North Carolina, that is amazing. TPC Sawgrass is always a really fun time. And I'm losing my mind, but there's a course that we played in Indiana.

Not Crooked Stick.

No, it's not Crooked Stick. I'll think of it here in a second, but it's probably the hardest course that we play all year on tour.

So I got to play the semi-public side of Pumpkin Ridge. I guess there's two courses there. So I didn't get to play the other one, but I played it probably 10 years ago, and it's an absolutely spectacular course.

Yeah, it's beautiful. And the weather's so nice. There's real old trees. So you're not getting a 7 iron and banging it over a tree. If you're in the trees, you're chipping it out. It's just a real fun course.

And do you base that on the experience you had, the people you were with, or are there qualifications of a course? When you get out there, are you like, okay, this did this, did this, as a PGA guy I saw things that I really like? Or is it just, I had a blast with my buddies, that's why this is my favorite?

No, I think it's course condition. You kind of know golf courses that are kept up, that have got good greens, that have held events. Pumpkin Ridge is where Tiger won the U.S. Amateur, so they're built for tournaments. Some of the courses are built for events. So there's no problem getting accommodation. Flying in there is really easy. Parking: they've got not just a little car park for the members, they've got offsite overflow parking. So just kind of everything that rolls into it. And then obviously the people make it. Some of these towns that we're in are smaller towns than the PGA Tour. Lafayette was the one I was talking about in Louisiana earlier. But the people in the communities that get behind the events, like The Landings in Savannah, it's unbelievable there. They have over 200 volunteers, military appreciation days on Saturdays. So there's just a lot of really unique things. It's not just the golf course, it's also the community getting behind it and making us feel like, we want you guys to be here, and they enjoy watching the golf.

I bet you that's why you haven't named a course in New York or the Hamptons, because they don't do a good job of making you feel welcome up there. It's more like, get the hell out of here. If you're in the Hamptons or in Montauk, all those courses, they're like, no, we don't want you here.

Exactly. I think we just got our first event on the Korn Ferry Tour last year up in New York State. We used to have one up near Finlay Lake. That was the only event we had in New York State, which was fun. But that one was July 4th week. It's a really tricky one.

On the lake. Yeah, for sure.

So yeah.

So what do you think, since 2007? I know golf has changed. I've seen a change. I've seen the lifestyle come. What do you think has changed the most about it? Because that'll lead us into the next conversation, really, about Golf House and where the opportunity arose. But what do you think has changed the most about the sport, both lifestyle wise, publicity wise, and then actually playing wise?

I mean, the first thing that pops into my mind is these kids. When I say kids, they're getting so much better, so much younger. When I was growing up, if you were 22 or 23 and you burst on the scene, you were considered pretty young. Now you've got guys like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler. These guys have come out playing tour events when they're 16, 17, and they're major champions at 21, 22. I couldn't imagine.

It was one or two a decade that came out at 20, right? Until the last, what, 10 years or so?

Yeah, now it's just rinse and repeat. I feel like every week there's a headline like youngest player to make a cut in a major, like 16. We got youngest player to win a Korn Ferry event. It just keeps getting younger and younger.

Yeah, I heard for the Open last week that the guy who was leading, it was his first event ever. No one has won the first event they've ever played since like 1918, something like that.

He's already in the top 10 in the world. He was playing college this time last year.

And this is going to sound like an ignorant comment, and I don't care because I'm new to this: would you attribute that to the Tiger Woods effect? Was that the impact he made on golf, that makes all these kids at a young age say, oh my God, that's something I want to do?

I mean, that's definitely the parallel. When you start hearing everybody, they're like, Tiger was my mentor, I looked up to Tiger. So I think absolutely he's pushed golf into overdrive. Even now, at what is he, 47 or 48, he still absolutely moves the needle. His dominance was impressive. But also, on top of that, I think it pushed everybody to be like, hey, if we want to win, we can't be scared of other players. And I think that's where the correlation is with these younger kids now. They're not really intimidated by somebody that's been on tour for five years or 10 years. They're out there because they believe they're good enough, and they're like, hey, if I've got to win, I've got to beat all you guys. When Tiger was in his dominant period, there was only a handful of guys that really beat him. David Duval was competing with him week in, week out. He had Michael Campbell beat him down the stretch. But really, apart from a handful of those guys.

He had separated himself.

I mean, 9 times, 9 and a half times out of 10, if it was Tiger and someone else, Tiger was on top.

I find it fascinating nowadays, just the control these guys want. Bryson DeChambeau apparently is dipping his balls in Epsom salt to see the spin, to make sure he's hitting them at the right angle. I don't know the legality of it, not really up on the rules, but he's making custom 3D printed clubs. He's using long drive. He's doing everything in his power. Now the problem is that if he misses, he misses bad. But when he's good and he's on, that's what happens.

Well, and he actually changed the face of his driver on Sunday on the range before he played, and it almost cost him.

I don't know, though. It's funny you guys look at it that way, because he might have had, and you might think of it this way, he probably had his gamer off and he was hitting his practice one so he didn't damage his gamer. I'm assuming, I don't know this, but if it was me playing, I probably would have taken my gamer off and hit the other one and then put the gamer back on, because the last thing you want to do is crack the one that you've been using all week or for the last three months and then put something on you haven't used.

So the interview I heard was that he actually based it on some of the dispersion. He's got the kind of offset curvature instead of the normal curvature, and it was starting to flatten. So that's why he actually changed the face.

Yeah.

And it's crazy.

I mean, he's got managers.

I mean, he is, and he's thinking about everything. He's just the ultimate scientist.

That's what I said. When you're on, you're on, but when you're off and you're overthinking, he's missed cuts because he's not even been close. So that's the give and take of it. And remember, he also slimmed down. He was in those broad shoulders, and it's like, no, this isn't helping you at all. So he slimmed down. It was a good win. So when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about Golf House Academy. I've been out there. It is awesome. It's great for the community. It's great to see it in town also, because a lot of these facilities are really more suburban. So we're going to talk about that when we get back from the break. You've been listening to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3 with Jamie Arnold, member of the PGA and founder of Golf House Academy. We'll be right back.

Now back to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3 FM.

Welcome back to the Marketing MadMen. Trip Jobe and Nick Constantino here with Jamie Arnold, who's the founder of Golf House Academy. We talked a little bit about Jamie's background in the first segment, but let's get into Golf House Academy. When exactly did you start it, and tell us a little bit about that process.

So we opened in February, I think it was the 28th of February. So a little over three months ago. The process before that was probably about a year of planning, work, finding a space that works, building it out, working with architects and seeing what we can and can't do. So we've been open three months, but it's probably been a 15 month period since we started the conception.

Yeah, and what the hell made you want to open it? I mean, let's call it what it is. Put it this way.

I mean, you've been out playing on the tour. Now you're running a business.

It's a unique place, but you can tell it's from the mind of a golfer, someone that was building a place that he wanted people to be a part of, not just building it to make money. And I say that because I've seen a lot of these trying to capture a trend, and they put bare bones there. They put waitresses and drinks and try to capitalize on the trend. But based on what I saw, you purpose built it with, one, the ability to grow with the community, but two, so it's a lot of things to a lot of different people. So what made you want to build it? And then what influenced how you built the place out?

So my business partner, one of my best friends, Tim Stewart, he's also a PGA member. First and foremost, me and him built this thing together jointly. It wasn't any one of our ideas. I first had the idea of doing just kids. I was like, golf's expensive in Atlanta. If you want to get a lesson for your kid, where do you take them? If you're not a member at a country club, there's not a whole lot of options. You've got maybe Bobby Jones or Charlie Yates or Candler Park, but that's kind of it. So it started there. And then as we started building it, we were kind of like, well, why would we just do the afternoons? Why wouldn't we do women in business clinics and adult beginner camps during the day, and corporate events, and so on? So it kind of started with that. And then it rolled into, well, we don't want to lose these kids, or lose out on some of these better players. That's where we built our high performance area. When you walk in, we've got PuttView and a Trackman room. So it kind of morphed from, we'll start with kids, into, well, why don't we do something with everyone? And now we've got Ladies Who Golf Atlanta using us as one of their facilities. So we do clinics every week for them. We've got 130 or 150 women coming through with that, which is nice. I think we've had just under 1,000 people visit us in three months. Our retention rate is over 90%. So getting people to come back isn't a problem. And in building it, we wanted it to be flexible. I know you saw it. Everywhere we've been in the world, if you build a room, you're limited to a room. That's all it is. So we wanted to create a space where you could have it like a driving range, because it gave us a bit more room. We didn't have to have nets. We had an impact screen. And then we were like, hey, if we wanted to turn this into a room, could we? Tim was like, imagine if we could do curtains that were retractable. And that was Tim's unbelievable idea. So we met a company, Better Baseball, actually here in Atlanta, out of Marietta. And they were like, hey man, we can build curtains on the moon. Just tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it. And that's what we did.

The flexibility of what you guys have afforded yourselves. Most people realize they need to make those changes when their place is already built, and it's impossible to do so. What I saw was, like, a corporate outing. You can break off, you can do a little leadership segment, then you can break off to private things and go to a pod here and drive. It is literally built to be accommodating to whatever needs to come in, which is the name of the game, right? If you're just hoping people will adapt to you, it's not as good as you being able to adapt to them. So talk about some of the technology, because I remember we were putting, and to see the topography on a putting green and the rolls and all that stuff and the exact line. My goodness, knowing my putting game, something like that would be extremely helpful. So talk about some of the tech.

Yeah, so that's part of our high performance area. When you walk in, it's all glass, so you can see in and see what's going on. We wanted to have that open feel. The putting room we have is called PuttView. Basically we have a shaped green under the ground, and they use this LIDAR technology that basically maps like the sea floor. They bring guys from Germany, they come in, they scan the ground. We've got these projectors overhead, and pretty much anywhere you want to hit a putt from, it will tell you where you need to hit it and where it's going to break. It shows you, it tracks it, and kind of like your iPhone, it keeps all your stats if you want. It can tell you how many you missed left, how many you missed right. And the cool thing about it is, I'm a pretty simple guy, as in I just want to see where the ball goes. But if you're really into the analytics, like Bryson for instance, who's got one, he probably uses a lot more of the tech data. So if you want to geek out, you can. But if you want to keep it super simple and just have nothing, you can. So again, it's flexible. We're not putting anybody in a box. You can have as much or as little as you want. So that's the putting room. The Trackman room is kind of like a typical higher end country club. They have a Trackman. We've got a Swing Catalyst. We've got 3 high speed cameras, TV.

And that's the one where it's even showing you the weight on your feet and how you strike the ball. The spin and the speed and the velocity. I was blown away. These are not things I've ever even heard of, let alone been measured on. But it makes sense when you see how your feet angle affects how you strike the ball, and it starts coming together. So tell us about that one. When I started seeing some of those stats, I was like, oh my goodness, this kind of makes sense now why these 20 year olds are doing this. If you're brought up with that technology, imagine the advantage you have over these guys. Did you have any of that stuff when you were training?

No. Some of the technology was probably just coming out when I was like 22, 23, but now it's just so far advanced. If you go to any tour event, you're going to see Trackmans, Foresights. So the Trackman room, like you said, we can measure where your weight transfer is, if it's on your toes, if it's on your heels, on your back foot. It's really analysis by paralysis. You can have as much or as little, again, as you want. Out back, where our driving range is set up, we use Foresights, which are great. They give the everyday golfer everything they need, like their launch angle, how far it went, whatever you want. So it just depends. Again, we cater to anybody from absolute complete beginners all the way to tour pros. We could have a tour event and there's stuff in there for everybody to use, or they could have their son come with them who's never played golf, and we've got something for them too.

Have you had any crazy stories yet? There's got to be, whether it's someone who is just beginning to play, or just some kind of crazy event.

I mean, some of the funny things that have happened so far, we haven't had too many. When we're talking to people about grip pressure, they'll be gripping the club super tight, and we'll be like, hey, you just need to hang on to it. If you had a baby bird in your hand, you don't want to kill the bird. You just want to hold it tight enough that it's not going to get away. So then the next shot they hit, and I actually posted it on our Instagram, which was pretty funny. I tried to blur the face out, but he swings and just lets go of the club, and it goes flying into the screen. So he took that literally. But no, it's cool. We've got some people that come into a lesson and go, hey, I'm coming in to get a lesson, I've got a tournament next week, and I don't want to change anything. That's always a good one. Or they start telling us what they need to work on in their swings. Those ones are always fun.

Are you doing the trainings? Are you involved in the training? Are you training people?

Yeah, absolutely.

Do you enjoy it? It's very hard for someone who is good at something to be training or coaching in something. So what have you found? Have you been helping people train?

Yeah, I mean, I'm in there at the moment longer hours than I'd care to admit to any of you guys. Most days we're in there 12 hours a day teaching, doing the clinics. I want to have a hand in it for sure. I've got a unique background. My dad is a 50 year PGA pro, a great coach in Australia. He's won all sorts of awards. He coached me. My brother was number one ranked down there when he turned pro. My sister's a mid-am champion, plus two. Our whole family has got a lot of golfing lineage. And I didn't realize growing up as a kid how good I was also at applying the coaching side of it, because I'd never really done a whole lot of it. So I'm definitely in there doing the coaching, because one of our things is we don't want it to be a babysitting service. Whether you drop your six year old off for a clinic, or you're an adult in the corporate world and you want to learn golf or play with your friends, we don't want people that are driving range armchair quarterbacks that haven't really done it. I want you to be like, hey, this doesn't feel good. And I'll be like, this is why you've got to do it this way. And when I sit there and hit a golf ball, or any of our coaches hit a golf ball, people can still watch them and go, okay, I'm going to listen to this guy because he's done it for a job. So that's probably our differentiator.

Let's go back a little bit. In your opinion, is it better to have someone that has no preconceived notions, or someone who's got some ideas but at least keeps their mind open, versus the person who doesn't?

You don't want someone who's not athletic just thrown out there to start swinging clubs. I've seen that happen. That experiment does not go well.

And I'll use my own example. I had had some lessons, some bad lessons, I would say. The person basically made me into what they wanted, and it was incredibly flat. And that just didn't work. I had been playing golf for 15 years. So I kind of moved back to my old swing, and then I found someone else, and I came in and we started talking about it. I said, look, I just don't want to get too flat. And he said, with the incredible dry humor that he had, you can't be anything but more flat. And I was like, touché, fair point. I said, but I just don't want to get where this is the way you're going to make me. And now I'm a single digit handicap. I've been taking lessons from him for seven, 8 years. But the point is, at least I had some idea of what I wanted and what hadn't necessarily worked. But it sounds like there are people who are just close-minded but want to come in, and I'm guessing that's a challenge.

Yeah. One of our coaches, Mark Matzer, he's a great player and he's got a phenomenal golf swing, and we're finding that it's so much easier with someone that's never played before, because we can put them in spots and positions and they don't know any different. So for them, it's great. Whereas someone who's played a little bit of golf, just say they're 15 or 18 handicappers: well, it doesn't feel good, I want to change my grip. They've got a little bit of knowledge. So it's kind of a sweet spot. The people that are higher handicappers don't mind changing, because they're like, hey, I just want to play with my friends and enjoy it. The ones that have hit some good shots and watch a lot of YouTube and TikTok videos, they're a disaster. They're just really hard, because they start dictating to you what they're going to do.

Do you have any advice for a 20 handicapper who tends to do better with six beers in his system, and then once he goes to 10 beers, it all goes to crap really quickly? Bartender. I'm asking for a friend. I'm asking for a friend. So talk a little bit about the location, because one of the things I've been impressed by is, I used to live in that area. It's a unique area. There's a lot of money there, but it's also very community based, a lot of kids. It's a unique part of town.

Yeah, tell us exactly where it is, too.

Yeah, so we're on 1123 Zonolite Road. It's basically just on the backside of the Druid Hills, Morningside area.

How is the community engaged? Because I know how many restaurants have failed in that Morningside area. If you don't get that community buy-in and your regulars, there's not enough commuter traffic, because no one's coming from Alpharetta down in traffic to Morningside to go do it, not on a daily basis. So talk about how the community is engaged, because again, it's essential in that part of town.

Yeah, you're 100% right. We've been fortunate that the community has embraced us, and you can see that off our website. We've got 155 organic five-star reviews. So people now are Googling golf lessons or golf in Atlanta, and we're popping up. So it's kind of like a snowball, right? If Trip has a good lesson and he tells one of his buddies, and then he comes, before you know it, all his friends come. Same thing with the school. So that area, absolutely. Our big thing about this facility is we're trying to make golf accessible. There's no membership, so we're trying to cut down all the barriers, like buying golf clubs, having dress codes, memberships. So now we provide all the golf clubs. We don't have a dress code. For a kid, it's like $30 for an hour. For an adult, it's $50 an hour. So the good thing is we're making it accessible. We're definitely in an area that's got a lot of kids. So we're finding a kid comes and then they bring a friend, they bring another one, and they've got their groups. But without the community support and the people behind us, we wouldn't have a business. And we've been fortunate enough that they believe in us. They see that we care. They come in kind of expecting X and they leave with X and Y. And having great people, doesn't matter what your business is. If you've got good people that care and go above and beyond, it's a recipe to build something great. We're at the beginning stages of it, but it's looking like it's going to be something really cool.

And I'm happy you put that, because one of the things about that neighborhood is, because it is such an affluent, high-end neighborhood, you could gouge people on prices. You could be that guy, but you don't. And it's pretty cool. You can see the prices are all listed out. If you want to come in for a class, you come in, or you can come in on a monthly thing, come in every time. You can come with buddies, so it's not a private thing. Because how many people really need full private lessons with that much attention? Not everybody. When you're starting, it's more fun to be with people you know and to just joke around. So I like the way you've handled it and set it up for accessibility at all levels. Most people say that. They say they want to get into the community, they say they want to be accessible, but then they charge $600 an hour for the price of accessibility. So I like the way you guys do it. It's transparent, you see the pricing on there, you see the options. It's important nowadays, because everything is much more expensive than it was.

Yeah, and we're parents. Me and Tim, we've both got kids, so we're parents too. We know the game a little bit. My son's 9. There's no gotchas. If you cancel, you just need two hours notice. And even if it's two hours, we'll credit your account and you've got 30 days. We're trying to make it as flexible and transparent as possible, because we don't want people to think that it's gouging, to your point. The golf clubs are included. If you're going away, just ring us and tell us, and we'll freeze your membership so you're not paying the subscription. Or some parents buy a 10 pack, and they've got 90 days. We're not trying to box anybody in. We're just saying, if you like knowing that you've got a class at 4:00 on Tuesdays, you can be on the monthly and you're in that class every week. If you're someone that doesn't want to be on a schedule, and you go away for work a lot, or you're going to be here next week and you want to do 5 lessons, hey, buy a 10 pack. If you're going to be away, we'll freeze them, whatever. We're just trying to make it simple.

Yeah, to customize to your audience. And I think that accessibility is great, because the golf course side of things has had a rough last four or five years. I've started to see some of the pricing out there, at the public courses and the semi-public courses. It's happening right now because the interest is growing so high. I'm not going to say it's becoming unaffordable, but there are courses now charging $100 or more on weekends that used to be half that.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a big part of our market too. If you go to Topgolf and you like it, and you want to do golf, where do you go? We want to be that spot. It's like, hey, if you want to get better at golf, come to Golf House Academy, because we've got great golf professionals that have done it for a living. They know what it feels like to have a 5 foot putt for $1,000,000, or they know what it's like to miss a cut. They know what it's like to get on a tee box when they're not playing great and you've got water right and out of bounds left. So that's the thing, you're kind of paying for that experience too. And we're trying to do a volume game. Like you said earlier, we could probably charge twice as much. And we don't want to just draw from here. We want to be getting people from East Atlanta, South Atlanta, wherever they want to come from. We want to be a home that they feel like they can come to and learn their golf.

Yeah, I think it's great, because you have the word academy in there, which makes people think it's super serious, but because of the way you have set this place up, it's approachable and it's not boxing anybody out. So I think it's amazing. What about a rainy day? Do you have people who wanted to go play, it rains, and then all of a sudden they're coming in for lessons or goofing around with their buddies in the putting room? Is weather a trigger? When are you seeing spikes? What is business looking like right now?

That's a really good question. Definitely the rainy days. As a brand new business, me and Tim are golfers first. We've met a lot of business people in golf, but we're now running a medium-sized business. We kind of skipped small and went straight to medium. So we're still working on times, like when are we busy? We thought our weekends would be slammed. Saturday afternoons used to be pretty dead. But now Saturdays are slammed from 8 o'clock all the way to 3 o'clock. So we're like, okay, now we've got all these simulators unused. Maybe we'll open up a range membership, where people can come in and hit balls and we'll just charge them an hourly rate to come and practice. When it's raining, absolutely. We could even be creative and go, hey, it's raining outside. Come to Golf House Academy. We've got 10 bays available for the first 10 that come in.

What about big events, like when the Open was on? Are you able to do things for people who want to see what's going on but also want to be hitting?

Absolutely. Again, there are so many things that we can do that it almost makes our head hurt. The Masters, for instance. We did a Masters week. I did two or three corporate events during Masters week. We had number 12 at Augusta on the projector. So we did nearest the pins. We did a long drive, a drive off 18. We had the Masters going on. We did pimento cheese sandwiches, pulled pork. Super cool. It was awesome. And there's really no reason we can't do stuff like that for every major, and not just golf. We could have the World Cup soccer going on the TVs and you'd be in there hitting golf balls, or the baseball. It doesn't matter what it is, but we're definitely set up, and it's easy for us to do corporate outings or team building events. Right now we just haven't had enough time to breathe, or enough people to do everything, but I would love to do more of that, because our space can accommodate 50 people pretty easily, up to 100, and we've got plenty of parking and it's in a good part of town.

Yeah, that's a good one. So let's talk about how to get a hold of you, because I think what you just set up is really good for listeners. The corporate outing part of this: everyone wants something new and fun to do. And because of the way you're set up, I can imagine bringing my sales team. They'd get a little competitive, but cool competitive. Because I've got guys, we do 4 golf tournaments a year, that still haven't swung a club. And it angers me so much, because I started because of work. That's why I started playing eight years ago. I started swinging a club because of work. I was like, I have to get good at this. I have 4 salespeople that are afraid to pick up a club and start swinging. That's not good. There needs to be a place like this where maybe they get a little confidence and start going out and playing. So talk about how they would get a hold of you, and some ideas you have for corporate outings, and why they should reach out to you.

Yeah, so getting a hold of us is pretty easy. We've got a website, golfhouseacademy.com. We're on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all those avenues. We've got a phone number. You can look us up and call and ask. But our corporate outings, the cool thing is we're doing them already, and we've got something for everyone. We've got a nearest the pin. We can do putting comps. Even if you've never ever swung a golf club before, there's something in there for you to have a good time. At the end of the day, you might take home a couple of golf tips here or there, but it's really about creating an experience for you and your team, and that camaraderie and being together. So golf is really just the ticket of entry. Being there as a group together, meeting people that you might know on your sales team, and you might have kids that play sport together or you might have grown up in the same area, but you haven't talked. That's what's really cool. And different than the…

Actual sport. Because when you go play the sport, you're with one or two other people, four people total, and you're with them for five hours. There's not a lot of cross-pollinating.

No, I mean, yeah, obviously there's a lot of depth.

Unless you're like me and you're hitting the wrong fairway, then you have to go meet people every once in a while.

And people look at the system. They don't have to bring their own clubs. You've got the equipment. You can really make it easy for companies.

And we throw in instructors too. So when you have a corporate event, we have our tour pros there giving a clinic, going around to everybody, showing them how to grip it, what to do, what they can improve on, because obviously we get people who play twice a week and someone who's never done it before. And the cool thing is, we're finding especially with a lot of our women clients, they're like, listen, we love this place because we're not intimidated, we're not outside. Sometimes we're on the driving range and we're not sure if people are trying to help us or trying to hit on us. It's not an intimidating environment. They come in there, we've got music playing. It's just really laid back and relaxed.

I have, from personal experience, known some people who feel that way. And it's a block sometimes for women.

Trip, stop being so good looking and people won't hit on you on the course all the time. It's that simple. It's really that easy.

Yeah, well, with that, I think we definitely need to go to a break. But you are listening to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3. We'll be right back.

Now back to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3 FM.

Welcome back to the Marketing MadMen. Trip Jobe and Nick Constantino here with Jamie Arnold of Golf House Academy. Really great story. Like you said, you just went live four months ago, roughly, and you've accomplished so much. How are you thinking about the rest of 2024? And then what does the future hold?

I think for the rest of 2024, we're just trying to get a really good staff in there and do what we do best, which is giving good golf lessons and giving people a great experience. Looking past that, if it keeps trending the way we're trending, this isn't just a golf problem in Atlanta. If you said fast forward 10 years from now, I'd love to have one of these in most major cities. There's no reason we couldn't have one in Tampa or Jacksonville, Dallas, Knoxville, Birmingham, Nashville, and on and on. The long term picture is blue sky thinking, but there are a lot of guys that come off tour or don't make it on the PGA Tour that have got a lot of great skills and love golf, and they're good communicators, and they've got a lot of knowledge that they can teach. And there are a lot of communities that have a lot of golfers. So I think the legs on this are really long, but we've got to get our first one up and going, and then once we do, look at, okay, what's our next step, and keep building it.

I imagine all the mixed-use, the malls and stuff that are losing tenants. This would be a great thing to go into an old mall, pop in a location where you already have foot traffic coming in, people seeing you for the first time. With your space, you could probably shrink it down or even go bigger if you needed to, because of the way it's scalable. So I think you guys have set something up great. I do think it's hyper competitive now, but I think the way you're differentiating yourself is really important. One, you've embraced the community. Again, most people, I feel like, are just cash grabs. Two, you can be multiple things. You want to have a beer while you putt? Have a beer while you putt. If you want to be really super serious and formal, you have a whole room for that. If you want to watch, you can do that. So you're being a lot of things to a lot of people, which is something most people say they want to do, but they're not capable of.

And for Nick, there's no dress code. So we're in good shape.

You don't even know how good my golf game has gotten, man. First of all, I've learned two things. One, it's about etiquette. Two, it's about how you dress. So those are the first two things I fixed. From that point on, people were less concerned with my horrible golf game, because I was dressing appropriately and acting somewhat appropriately. I was a little [bleep]. I got to play Peachtree a couple weeks ago. They don't let you play music anywhere on the course. And I was a little [bleep], because it's like, who says I'm going to go blasting hip-hop music with the subwoofer going?

Yeah, make them play Sinatra.

I always play Sinatra. That's how I calm myself down. It's more Dizzy Gillespie. I play a little Dizzy Gillespie, Mingus. But anyway, let's talk. The future of Golf House is great. At some point you're probably going to slow down playing golf and be more involved in the business. What does the future of golf look like? LIV, the tour, do you feel like we're on the upswing? Because one of the things I've noticed is that Topgolf and a lot of these things have helped the sport, because they're bringing new people into the game. But I don't think the new people are going to be converting into full-time golfers as much as people think, because of those cost barriers. It's really expensive to do it. Not saying Topgolf isn't, but we've convinced ourselves that as long as we're drinking and having beers and a good time, it's okay to spend money, right? If you're not good at golf and you're going out and playing 18, it's not always fun. Sometimes it's horrible to realize how bad you are when you get out there. So what do you see for the future of the sport, and how do you think that will help or hurt your prospects with Golf House?

I think the future of golf and what's going on right now in professional golf is probably totally separate from the people that we cater to and service. Who knows? That's probably the $3 billion question right now, what the PGA Tour does.

That's why we're paying you the big bucks. Predictions, baby.

That's why you're paying me the big bucks. Saudi funds. So I don't know. We were supposed to have that all wrapped up at the end of last year. Who knows how close or not close they are. As for predictions, yeah, Topgolf is sports entertainment, right? You said it right. People go to Topgolf and they don't mind spending 100 bucks because they had four beers, got a plate of wings or a pizza, and they hit targets. They make it fun. But for us, our whole thing is versatility and flexibility. We can have a corporate event going on, a beginner kids clinic, a private lesson, and something else, all going on at the same time right around you, and you wouldn't know. So I think we're trying to capture people like, hey, whether you like golf or you're great at it, there's something here for everybody. Just come here and check it out.

And I think you're trying to understand your different audience types and what's important to them. I've said this many times: I was wrong on Topgolf from day one when it came into Atlanta, which was one of the very early locations. I was thinking about it myopically and not from their marketing side of things. They were thinking of a much broader audience. I was thinking about it from a golfer's perspective and was absolutely wrong about it. But I think what you're doing, and what businesses sometimes forget, is they think about it in only one way. It sounds like you're listening to your customers, you're thinking about it from that flexibility standpoint, about different types of customers, and how that can meld with your vision.

Yeah, and I think too, looking at LIV specifically. The PGA Tour is catering just to golfers, people that are into golf. LIV's saying, hey, the exact same thing. They're really being the Topgolf of professional golf. They're saying, what about…

There's always a musician or a concert or something coming up. They've got Dan and Shay. They're always doing a concert, they're always doing something to make it an event.

And also, think how many people go to the Kentucky Derby that never watch the races, or they go to a football game and they've never even followed the team, or they go to a baseball game. They're making it about the stadium half the time.

They're creating a t-shirt.

They're creating an experience, an event, and they're bringing people to the sport that really haven't been a target audience. So that's where it's going to be really interesting. They're definitely doing that. But look, we all know there's not one way to do things. And I think competition in anything is great. So we'll see where it goes. It's going to be kind of fascinating to see what happens.

Yeah, I even wonder a lot of times about the golf equipment side, and can they continue to change and pump out something new every year? But it seems like there are people willing to pay.

Well, have you ever seen somebody who's hitting an eight-year-old driver and then hits a new driver? I've seen them, and they're like, what the hell is this? Just the new tech, the way it's weighted and everything. So I don't think you need to buy it every year, but.

Well, that's the point, but they come out every year. Yeah, no, eight years, absolutely. But there are people I know that are out there…

That are still hitting a freaking persimmon wood, because he's so stupid and ignorant that he wants to keep hitting it, because he thinks, oh, I don't play enough to buy a new one. I'm like, yo, you can buy a club for $12 on eBay that will outperform this piece of crap, falling apart golf club. I'm talking to you, Colin. I've cleared 100 four or five times in my life. Right, I can play if I'm on, or I'm doing too much. Give a couple of tips just here. Just give a couple of tips.

First thing is your grip. The ball always starts wherever the club's pointing, and the only relationship you have with that is the grip. So 9 times out of 10, the people that come in and see us, their grip is not correct. Everybody wants to start on the 6th floor and work their way up. And we just say to them, hey, you've got to start with the grip, with a grip trainer. All of our clubs have got grip trainers on them, so it shows you exactly how to grip it.

I've got to come see you.

That's a good place to start.

Start with your feet together and start turning, and just learn the basics of how the club swings.

And how you hit it. My biggest thing, which I only tell people after four or five holes, is if you always hit it right to left or you always hit it left to right, have a target 6 inches in front of you. So if you hit it right to left, you're not already starting on the left side of the fairway. So many people don't even understand alignment principles.

Yeah, and they get worse. Someone starts slicing it, they aim further left.

Yeah.

So they'd be better off aiming to the right, which is the opposite. Everything in golf is the opposite.

That's where equipment actually helped. Because when I was doing that, all of a sudden my dad was like, get me a club. I got a club that was a kind of draw, and I started hitting the ball straight and learned from it.

So this is awesome. If you want to learn more about golf, check it out. Check out Golf House Academy. And Jamie Arnold, thanks for joining us. You've been listening to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3.