The Business of New Golf

Denver-based Old Tom Capital is investing in where the game is going

By Jim Bebbington

As the golf industry evolves it’s easy for the average player to get lost on how big the golf industry actually IS.

But when you roll it all together – courses with greens fees, equipment to maintain the courses, gear, apparel, technology, spin-off golf entertainment, broadcast, digital media – some estimates put it north of about $80 billion annual revenue business world-wide. Other figures estimate it could be close to $200 billion.

The millennial generation – the largest the U.S. has ever seen – picked up the game in the past 10 years, and they brought with them their digital-native lifestyle. They have been using screens since their childhood, so why would that change now.

In business, that is known as an opportunity.

One of the leaders Investing in companies that are trying to take advantage of that opportunity is a Denver firm, Old Tom Capital, and it’s Denver-based co-founder, Matthew Erley.

Erley and his partner Evan Roosevelt formed Old Tom Capital after Erley’s years of experience in founding start-ups, including the alcohol-delivery service Drizly which Uber purchased in 2021 for $1.1 billion. Erley, 38, grew up in Broomfield and lives in Denver now with his wife Shannon and two children, Maxwell and Reese.

In the universe of angel investment firms the number that are seeking investment opportunities across a range of business-types is large. Erley and Roosevelt decided on a different path – to invest just in golf industry businesses, specifically ones which are creating products and services for where the golf industry is headed, not where it is today.

“There’s a lot of people who’ve just been throwing cash into the golf space for a long time, and there’s been a lot of people building companies in the golf space that maybe shouldn’t be building a company in the golf space, because it’s a tough area,” Erley said in a recent interview. “But everybody has like this blind perspective sometimes because it’s golf and it’s something we love. You have to separate that.”

It’s the difference between someone building a golf course because they really like golf and want to play it, and someone building one for people who want to play but can’t.

“Every day when we look at investment opportunities, we talk to investors, we have to kind of separate ourselves and say, is this just a good opportunity?” he said.

NEW GOLF

The business of new golf is many things. For Erley and his firm, they are looking at several sectors that boil down to a basic belief that as more people play, more people are going to want to experience the game differently.

PROFESSIONAL GOLF: Within professional golf, the PGA Tour is the definition of a disrupted business. The LIV Tour is just the biggest example – offering millions to some of the touring golf’s biggest names and then putting them in a witness protection program where they are never seen again. But there are also companies trying to present new types competition-golf to a video audience or in-person crowd.

Old Tom has invested in two. TMRW Sports, co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and media executive Mike McCarley, launched its first product this winter, The TGL. Teams of PGA stars played in a purpose-built arena in front of a live audience, hitting into enormous screens and putting and chipping from a real-grass and sand indoor green complex.

The matches were broadcast on ESPN and averaged about 500,000 viewers. Highs were more than 1 million when Tiger or Rory played; lows were a little more than 100,000 for a match held 5 p.m. East Coast time – out of prime time.

The other company, Grass League, also played this winter with high-stakes competitive par 3 golf played under the lights at night at a custom-built course in Phoenix. The matches are short, co-ed, and according to reports earned up to 100,000 viewers on the league’s YouTube channel.

Both are also scalable. TGL’s technology – the fantasy holes the pros play – could easily be made a premier package for owners of simulators worldwide. If the Grass League takes off, warm-weather cities everywhere are candidates for courses where it’s too hot to play in the day.

GOLF LITE: Erley distinguishes between what he says are ‘golf entertainment’ businesses – which they tend to avoid and what they are looking for: ‘golf lite’ businesses.

Golf entertainment businesses are similar to TopGolf, he said. Many are essentially bars with simulators. Ten years ago they might have installed axe throwing or escape rooms; now its golf simulators. The longevity for many of them remains to be seen, he said.

Instead, they have helped fund one company that is buying private driving ranges, fixing them up, and offering a higher-level of service. And they’re looking for more businesses like this.

“All of these new players coming to the game, I think they’re going to be less inclined to spend four-and-a-half hours, five hours on a golf course,” he said. “So where are they going to spend time? It’s probably driving ranges. It’s probably parthree courses. It’s smaller footprint, faster rounds.

So that’s an area that we as investors are looking at a lot. How do we come in and identify a lot of good assets in the golf space that aren’t traditional courses.”

GOLF RESOURCES: Another field they are in is resource management for green-grass course owners. Namely: Water. Many in the golf course industry are trying to prepare for a time when there is less water for irrigation. Cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas – covered in thirsty golf courses – are expected to be rationing water use eventually as population growth outstrips water supply.

Old Tom raised money for a Swiss company, TerraRad, which produces sensors which can help course owners precisely what turf needs water and when.

“This is a narrative area that we care a lot about,” he said. “What companies are building towards helping courses save money and water in the agronomy practices.”

Old Tom has also backed a slate of golf-forward brands and platforms, including Dryvebox (mobile golf simulators), Fairgame (golf social and discovery app), Birdie Houses (group travel golf retreats), Quiet Golf (modern golf apparel), Lusso Cloud (comfort-focused footwear), and Sweetens Cove Spirits (the official bourbon of golf).

Erley said doing national and international investing from Denver is not just convenient for him, but his location is an asset. Colorado’s golf community is huge and diverse and Colorado has an obvious emphasis on outdoor lifestyle and tech-savvy talent. “Being based in Colorado gives us a unique perspective,” he said. “We’re surrounded by people who love the game but aren’t afraid to challenge its conventions.”

How does Old Tom work?

Erley and Roosevelt are building Old Tom with investors looking for the same things they are.

“We have a private investment group that is about 350 people right now that are family offices, high net-worth that love the game of golf and also are accredited investors who have money to deploy,” he said.

“So when we go do a new investment, we up to this point have always done what we would call like an individual vehicle. We’d go out to our group, we raise the money from the group for that one investment, and then we deploy that capital into the company versus having a fund where you’re just kind of, you know, you raise the funds up front and then you’re just pushing it out there into companies.”

He said they made six investments in 2024 and will likely have about that many again in 2025.

“It’s so interesting how the game has evolved,” he said. “The game didn’t evolve that much for the last 300 years. And then in the last 20 years, it’s like, it’s just completely different now. The traditional stuff is still there, but it’s kind of incredible what’s happened so fast. And so, where is it going? How is this going to change? I think it’s an amazing time to be in the golf space.”

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Jim Bebbington is the Director of Content at Colorado AvidGolfer and can be reached at [email protected]

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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