From seasonality to Year-Round Golf: What the data tells us
This winter marked a step change in how golf is consumed. By including indoor play within the membership, we observed a clear shift in behaviour — higher utilisation, increased flexibility, and stronger engagement across a growing network of facilities.
As we enter the Nordic golf season in full swing, and GolfStar has now opened most of its courses, it’s a good moment to reflect on a few key learnings from this past indoor season.
This winter marked the first time we included free indoor play as part of the GolfStar membership – across 26 indoor facilities throughout Sweden. The outcome has been very clear: when indoor golf becomes an integrated part of the offering, engagement increases significantly.
At our own GolfStar Indoor facility, equipped with five Trackman simulators, utilisation reached 99%. In practice, that means only 1% of all available slots went unused during the season.
Looking at our partnership with Indoor Golf Group, the pattern is similar. From week 36, 2025 to week 12 this year, GolfStar and Cloud members played a total of 15,999 hours across the network — corresponding to 11.4% of total available simulator capacity.
There are two clear takeaways from this:
First, when indoor golf is bundled into the core membership, utilisation doesn’t just increase — it accelerates. Barriers to play are removed, and usage becomes more frequent and more spontaneous.
Second, scale matters. A network of facilities drives behaviour differently than a single location. We see more revisits — not necessarily to the same venue, but to the network as a whole. The flexibility and variety become part of the value proposition.
This also highlights an important structural shift in the market. As the barrier to entry for indoor golf continues to decrease and new venues emerge, standalone operators may find it increasingly challenging to compete against broader ecosystems that combine outdoor and indoor golf, unified through one membership.
A big thank you to Indoor Golf Group for a great partnership this season and for welcoming our members across the country. And, as always, to the team at GolfStar Indoor — delivering a 99% utilisation rate is no small achievement.
Now, as we transition into the outdoor season, we do so with energy and momentum — ready to serve our customers.