GOLFZON CITY GOLF Opens a New Path for Digital Golf Competition

An advanced digital golf arena is the core infrastructure that makes every digital golf tournament possible, and a key factor in determining the future direction of digital golf competition. As the finals of the 2024 GOLFZON China Indoor Open approach, the event’s biggest talking point is also about to be unveiled—the world’s first ‘GOLFZON Tianjin City Golf Course.’

In June 2024, the world’s first GOLFZON City Golf Course broke ground at the Meijiang Convention Center in Tianjin. After roughly three months of intensive construction, it has now entered a trial operation phase and is fully prepared to host the finals of the 2024 GOLFZON China Indoor Open. From September 13 to 15, 100 finalists selected from among tens of thousands of participants, along with wild-card players, will gather here to experience first-hand a new innovation in the world of digital golf arenas.

The GOLFZON City Golf Course was created from an idea that completely overturns the conventional concept of a golf course. It brings an 18-hole course—normally spread across the suburbs—into a 10,000-square-meter indoor space in the heart of the city, organically combining indoor golf simulators with real short-game areas to deliver a new golf experience where the virtual and the real, technology and nature, coexist.

The GOLFZON City Golf Course consists of a total of 18 holes and, just like real field golf, is operated as a front nine (OUT) and a back nine (IN). Each hole comprises a digital simulator space and a short-game zone that includes an actual artificial green.

Players take every shot on the simulator until their ball reaches the designated short-game area within the digital course. Once the ball arrives in the short-game area, the simulator screen automatically lifts and connects to the real short-game space. A laser guidance system above the short-game zone marks the ball’s position, and players finish the hole using a putter or wedge. In addition, bunkers and water hazards are also built in to recreate an experience similar to a real field environment, further enhancing the immersion and strategic depth of the competition.

When play on each hole is finished, the player enters their score on a Pad located next to the actual short-game zone. The system automatically combines the simulator play record and the short-game area record to save the hole score. After that, when players pick up their golf bags and move to the next hole, the smart system automatically recognizes the player’s information and begins play on the next hole.

As the venue for this public finals, the GOLFZON City Golf Course is opening a new era of digital golf competition. It effectively resolves the issues that traditional outdoor golf tournaments have faced—such as long playing times, weather variables, and fairness in course conditions—while presenting the future direction of digital golf competition. At the same time, it demonstrates new possibilities for linking digital golf with traditional outdoor golf tournaments.

Above all, located in the heart of the city, the GOLFZON City Golf Course offers both players and spectators a more immersive competition and viewing experience. Through this, it simultaneously raises the cultural and commercial value of the event and serves to spread golf culture more broadly and deeply.

The combination of the GOLFZON City Golf Course and the GOLFZON China Indoor Open can be seen as a new model of Eastern sports innovation born in an age of global digital transformation. It is also a case that symbolically embodies GOLFZON China’s strategy of ‘digital sports,’ ‘digital arenas,’ and ‘digital competition.’ Going forward, the GOLFZON City Golf Course is expected to lead the development of China’s digital sports culture industry, pioneer a new track for digital golf competition, and establish itself as a key platform for spreading golf culture around the world.