Is FlingGolf Really the Next Pickleball?

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In recent years and months, FlingGolf has been compared to pickleball in news articles, social media, and other sports world commentary.  While there are some elements of each sport that are comparable from a player perspective, I’ll discuss that from a growth perspective, any similarities are really about timing.  I will also dive in to why a comparison to snowboarding and particularly the Burton company’s early years is more appropriate.

With 35,000 “FlingGolf Ready” golf courses across the globe, the only barrier to entry for a FlingGolf player, once they have a FlingStick in hand, is a green fee.  That is what has allowed FlingGolf, in just 10 short years, to be played in 39 countries on well over 2000 golf courses to date.  That includes the recent “liberation” of the Old Course at St. Andrews.  Most of those courses have been played in just the last few years.  It is now a persistent brushfire spreading gradually across the world, reaching all 6 continents with a golf course in just a few short years.  Antarctica?  Maybe some day.

Pickleball’s recent meteoric rise was actually over 6 decades in the making, with the sport starting in Washington State in the 1960s and slowly creeping into senior centers and PE classes through that region, before spreading slowly out across America from there.  Major League Pickleball arose to become the leader in competitive pickleball over 50 years after pickleball began.  It was only after there was a concerted focus on organizing the sport and bringing different parties together that pickleball was able to reach the heights it has recently reached.

Conversely, World League FlingGolf’s first tournament was held in 2022 and was shown nationally by ESPN, less than 8 years after FlingGolf’s beginning.  And while we don’t yet have the base that took pickleball 60 years to develop, we are on a much faster track building that community up player by passionate player as is witnessed by the rapid spread of the sport across the US and internationally.

There are certain elements of the 2 sports themselves that are similar from a player perspective.  Like pickleball, FlingGolf players are able to get a quick start with a single FlingStick, much quicker than its older cousin, traditional golf, with its 14 clubs.  And while it still is a challenge to master the sport, especially the short game, being able to get off that first tee after just a bucket of balls on the range, and enjoy a golf course with friends is one reason that players are attracted to the sport. 

There is also the social draw to both pickleball and FlingGolf.  Because it is seen as a more casual and intuitively athletic sport, with fewer, if any, dispiriting rounds or frustration, it allows for a more fun, easy going time on the course with friends.  The play can be very competitive like traditional golf, but the attitude is more like those snowboarders who always seem to be having a great time no matter how they’ve ridden that day.  There is an intrinsic joy to playing the sport.

While pickleball, for most of its existence, was largely for seniors, we are seeing FlingGolf being played across a very wide age demographic from the very start.  Kids, young adults, seniors, college athletes, and entire families have taken up the sport and play together.  First Tee coaches, PGA pros, and golf course management promote FlingGolf at their own courses to bring the “golf curious” out from Top Golf and on to the course. It is a gateway to the golf course for that significant slice of society that wants to be out there, but hasn’t yet found the way to do it.

Is snowboarding a more appropriate analogy?

For those of us old enough to remember, snowboarding came on the scene starting in the late ‘70s, using existing ski resorts, just as FlingGolf is using existing golf courses.  While snowboarding originally had to overcome some issues with rider’s control and convincing the resort management to let them ride, FlingGolf actually integrates nearly seamlessly with traditional golf, even able to be played in the same foursome with players of the older sport. 

In fact, with no divots and a slightly quicker pace of play, we are a dream-come-true for golf course management as our players pay the same green fees and adhere to the same course etiquette as golfers.  (We may be even nicer than some golfers!)  In some instances, we have even seen golf courses put 5 FlingGolfers per tee time to move at the same pace as the golf foursomes around them, giving them a 25% jump in revenue with the same fixed costs.  Gravy.

While Burton had had significant capital investment behind it to grow snowboarding early on, New Swarm has achieved the spread of FlingGolf with little capital through the passion of its community of pioneering players, intrigue from Shark Tank and ESPN that have brought awareness to the sport with a national and even global reach, and the good graces of golf course owners that have welcomed the sport first with curiosity and then often enthusiastic acceptance, and even promotion.  One of those golf course owners has become so passionate that he hast started a FlingGolf Chapter dedicated to growing the sport throughout the United Kingdom.

So yes, while we are in deep admiration for what has happened with pickleball over the last 5 or 6 years, we are on the path to speed through the slow growth of its first several decades and get there much more rapidly.  We are really more on the pace of snowboarding which, fairly quickly reached over 40% of ski resort lift ticket sales and revenue, and ultimately became an Olympic sport.  

In conclusion:

“Our vision and belief is that FlingGolf will be  the most popular sport ever played on golf courses.”

Let that sink in. While that statement may initially be dismissed as hyperbole, consider both pickleball’s recent rise, and snowboarding’s first 20 years. Add in FlingGolf’s propensity to attract passionate pioneers and easy access to 35,000 already-built-courses, and we believe that vision will arrive sooner rather than later.  I look forward to you joining us out on the course with a FlingStick in hand!

Alex Van Alen, Founder and CEO FlingGolf/New Swarm Sports