FlingGolf Play Reaches 2000 Golf Courses. New Swarm Looking Ahead.

(Cover: FlingGolf player at Torrey Pines GC, California)

October 15, 2024. Amesbury, MA USA

The creator of the alt-golf-sport announces the milestone prior to World League FlingGolf's final stop of the 2024 Tour.

There are many valid ways to measure an emerging sport's growth: active players, equipment sold, media coverage and social media followers being some of them.  For FlingGolf, a particularly meaningful metric is the number of golf courses where players have brought their FlingSticks out to play a round.

To discuss why, one needs to recognize that the sport has been growing in one of the most traditional and often slow to change cultures and places in all of sports: golf courses. To successfully introduce something new, fun and able to co-exist with traditional golf is a feat unto itself, but there are good reasons why FlingGolf has been able to reach the milestone of 2000 courses played as quickly as it has.

"We think that we have a perfect storm of features that FlingGolf brings for both courses and players", said Alex Van Alen, CEO of New Swarm Sports, which created and manages the sport. "For golf courses, we are offering them new customers and players that can play in the same foursome as their existing golfers, who take no divots and don't clog up their tee sheet with slow play.  Perhaps the biggest bonus is that course management gets this for free, and they don't need to change anything about the course as FlingGolf players play from the same tees to the same holes."

"However, it is really our enthusiastic player community that has driven this growth.  FlingGolf offers them a fun, athletic way to get out on the golf course quickly, with or without their golfing friends or family.  Much like snowboarding offered a new way to be on the slopes with skiers in the 1980s and 90s, FlingGolf is creating a new golf course experience for its players.  Our community has no problem introducing FlingGolf to the golf courses near them, or often when they are on vacation, and then reporting their round back to us at HQ. That is how we've gotten to 2000 so quickly."

New Swarm does note that while FlingGolf has officially gone beyond 2000 reported courses played, the true estimate is possibly significantly larger, as many players may not report each course they play.  The company also mentions that these courses range from courses played just a single time, to courses with over 15,000 rounds played like those at Massanutten Resort in Virginia. 

Brett Mowbray, the PGA Pro and Director of Golf Operatoins at Massanutten incorporated FlingGolf for his guests along with his golfing customers, and the resort has become a sort of Mecca for FlingGolf. It is set to host World League FlingGolf's final stop on its 2024 New Swarm Tour where FlingGolf players from across the US will compete in the Virginia Open on October 19th and 20th. 

According to Mowbray, "When we first brought FlingGolf to Massanutten, we used it to fill in open afternoon tee times with resort guests.  That quickly changed once we saw demand for the sport grow and players from outside the resort come to play.  There was no reason to limit play at all as it fits so well with the traditional game and our golfing customers.  We actually often see families or groups of friends playing both sports at the same time.  Now we see a steady 1500-2000 rounds of FlingGolf each season."

Since courses don't need to make any changes to accommodate FlingGolf, players often simply book a tee-time, introduce the FlingStick to the course manager or starter and head out to play.  Players often report that course management often likes to step out and see them head off the first tee.

Notable courses played on New Swarm's list include private country clubs like The Country Club (Brookline, MA), to high end golf resorts such as Pebble Beach (CA), Torrey Pines (CA) and Pinehurst (NC), but the vast majority of play has occurred on municipal and daily fee courses. Play has also reached overseas, including US Military courses in Germany, Japan and South Korea.  There has been FlingGolf play on every continent except Antartica.

Van Alen continues, "We are excited to have reached 2000 courses so fast, but are even more excited about milestones to come as our player community drives the growth of the sport in the US and beyond." With rapid adoption of the emerging sport by both courses and players, expect to see some more of FlingGolf's metrics to be reached and surpassed as it heads into the 2025 season.

"Liberation"

The FlingGolf Player community refers to the first time a course has been played to being "liberated".

This is a typical liberation report from a player.

Click on New Swarm's map to see the status of a course near you.  

If you've played FlingGolf on a course, but it doesn't show up as liberated, submit a report HERE