You work in a city with the PGA of America’s national headquarters in it. Somebody on your team has opinions about golf.
That is a better starting point for a team event than it sounds, because nobody has to be good. They just have to show up.
If you have been handed the job of planning something that does not involve a conference room, here is what a couple of hours at X-Golf Frisco actually looks like.
Why this works when the usual team stuff falls flat
Most team-building lands in one of two ditches. Either it asks people to be physically brave, which rules out half the office, or it asks them to sit still and be enthusiastic about a slide deck.
Golf simulators sit in between. Everyone is standing up, moving around, and talking. Nobody is trust-falling into a coworker’s arms.
The weather does not get a vote either. One hundred degrees in August, thunderstorms in May, none of it changes your plan. Your bay is booked and the air conditioning is on.
What a two-hour booking actually looks like
Here is the honest timeline, because that is usually what you need before you can get a budget approved.
The first fifteen minutes are setup. Someone on our team gets everyone a player profile, gets the group into a bay, and shows one person how the touchscreen works. After that you run it yourselves.
Then it is golf. A group of four playing nine holes takes about ninety minutes. If you would rather skip the round, closest-to-the-pin and longest drive contests move fast and everybody gets a turn.
Food arrives whenever you order it. There is no break in play for lunch, because lunch comes to the bay.
The last twenty minutes are people standing around finishing drinks and arguing about one shot. That part is not on any schedule and it is usually why they say yes to the next one.
Nobody has to be good at golf
This is the objection we hear most and the one that matters least.
The simulator has a Novice setting that adds distance to shots. Someone who has never held a club watches their ball actually fly somewhere. That is the whole trick. People stay engaged when the screen rewards them.
Our auto-tee system handles the rest. It returns the ball and sets it back up at whatever height you like, so nobody is bending over between shots or wandering off to look for anything.
We have watched an accounts payable manager out-drive a VP. Skill has very little to do with who has the best afternoon.
Food and drinks come to the bay
You are not coordinating a caterer, a venue, and an activity. It is one booking.
The kitchen runs through your whole event. Burgers, wings, flatbreads, salads. The bar has beer, wine, and cocktails. Your server brings everything to the bay, so the golf never stops for the food.
Have a look at the menu before you book if you need to plan around dietary requests. We can also set the whole thing up as a package if you would rather not manage individual orders.
Getting your team to Preston Road
We are at 5977 Preston Rd in Frisco, which puts us in easy range of most of the corporate corridor.
If your office is at The Star, you are about ten minutes out. Plano and Little Elm are both a straightforward drive. That matters more than it sounds when you are trying to get twelve people to the same place after work.
Every bay has more than 50 courses loaded, including Pebble Beach and St Andrews, so the group can vote on where they want to play. Somebody always wants Pebble Beach.
If you want to see the space before you commit, walk through our 3D virtual tour from your desk.
Book your Frisco team event
Tell us your headcount, your date, and roughly what you want out of it. We will put together something that fits.
Book a tee time at X-Golf Frisco, or look at our corporate event options to see what other teams have done. Call (214) 308-9011 if it is easier to talk it through.
We are open until 10pm Monday through Saturday, so after-work events are no problem.
And if the group has a good time, our leagues run weekly. More than one office has turned a one-off team event into a standing weeknight thing.
