Screen Golf: Where Digital Sport Takes Center Stage (JoongAng Ilbo Sung Ho-jun)

The 126th U.S. Open concluded on June 22 with Wyndham Clark’s victory at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, New York. Throughout the championship grounds, spectators enjoyed simulator golf at booths set up across the venue. Could screen golf one day host a major championship of its own, on par with the U.S. Open?

The answer is a resounding yes — and it’s closer than many realize. The United States Golf Association (USGA), with its 130-plus-year history, is already in discussions with GOLFZON about launching a U.S. Simulator Open.

What’s driving the traditionally conservative USGA to embrace this vision is the explosive growth of indoor golf across America. According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), the number of simulator users in the U.S. reached 8.1 million in 2024 — a staggering 126% increase from 3.6 million just five years earlier. That figure has already surpassed Korea (approximately 6 million), the birthplace of screen golf. Freed from the constraints of weather and location, simulator golf has captivated American golfers with its accessible blend of competition and entertainment.

Simulators are popping up everywhere — from bars to golf courses themselves, where adoption is spreading like a trend. The USGA and the R&A share a clear vision: they want indoor golf to remain firmly within golf’s existing framework rather than splinter into a separate category. Just as Korea expanded its golfing population through screen golf, the USGA and R&A see simulator golf as a powerful tool to broaden golf’s reach. In fact, the USGA is working with GOLFZON to develop a dedicated handicap system for screen golf.

The world’s top players are already on board. TGL — the simulator golf league spearheaded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — features elite world-ranked talent including Woods, McIlroy, Tom Kim, Justin Thomas, and Cameron Young. Reports of a women’s TGL league are also emerging.

Some assume TGL is responsible for the indoor golf boom — but the truth runs the other way. It was the surge in indoor golf participation that made TGL possible in the first place. As Seon Pyun, GOLFZON’s U.S. branch president, explains: “TGL was created in response to the screen golf boom, and it’s now serving as an accelerant for that very growth.”

As the screen golf market continues to expand, the USGA’s vision of a U.S. Simulator Open is steadily becoming reality. Top-tier players are growing increasingly comfortable with simulators through TGL, and the USGA is exploring a format that would welcome both professionals and amateurs alike.

Screen golf’s ultimate destination is the Olympic stage — specifically, the Esports Olympics. Whether virtual golf simulation becomes an official Olympic Esports event is no longer a question of “if,” but “when.” While the Esports Olympics has faced some turbulence as Saudi Arabia stepped back amid financial difficulties, esports — much like extreme sports before it — is poised to find its place as future generations continue to embrace it. As Pyun puts it: “Golf is currently represented in the Esports Olympics through video games. There’s strong momentum within the industry to shift that representation to simulators instead.”

Which company’s simulator gets selected for the Olympics is shaping up to be a defining question for the industry. Currently, Trackman and Full Swing lead the U.S. commercial simulator market — Trackman with strong adoption among professional players, and Full Swing with its alliance with the PGA Tour through ventures like TGL.

GOLFZON, having pioneered the screen golf category in Korea from the ground up, has earned its place among the top three most recognized brands in the U.S. market as well. Its partnership with the USGA is a tremendous asset — GOLFZON served as the official indoor golf simulator for both the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open this year, giving spectators and VIP guests the chance to experience major championship courses firsthand. This positions GOLFZON to play an even larger role alongside the USGA in indoor golf R&D and standardization going forward.

GOLFZON’s partnership with the International Golf Federation (IGF), which governs Olympic golf, adds further momentum. The IGF oversees national tours (including the PGA and LPGA) and major golf associations, managing the qualification standards for Olympic competition. GOLFZON is set to participate as an IGF partner at the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games in Senegal later this year.

The fact that Korea and Singapore are emerging as leading candidates to host the Esports Olympics is another favorable sign for GOLFZON. The company’s 64-directional “Motion Plate” technology — delivering playability that rivals real fairways — along with network play capabilities supporting up to 10,000 simultaneous real-time connections, represent competitive advantages that the U.S. industry views with envy.

GOLFZON has built a powerful global triangle of tours: the domestic G-TOUR, the GOLFZON Tour USA, the GOLFZON x David Leadbetter Junior Tour, and the GOLFZON CHINA OPEN. The G-TOUR has established itself as a traditional stroke-play tour, drawing competitive players like Hong-taek Kim. The U.S. tour, reflecting North American club culture, runs on a three-player team format, and thanks to network play technology, it has attracted participants from English-speaking countries including Canada and the U.K.

CITY GOLF — a hybrid platform combining long-game play in simulator booths with short-game play on real greens — has become a hit in China. The GOLFZON CHINA OPEN, offering a total prize pool of 20 million yuan (approximately ₩4.25 billion) and a winner’s purse of 5 million yuan (approximately ₩1.05 billion), continues to grow in stature. The tournament’s finals welcome more than 20,000 global entrants across qualifying rounds, drawing top KPGA and KLPGA stars such as Hong-taek Kim, Bio Kim, and Ah-yeon Cho. Later this year, GOLFZON also plans to launch the CITY GOLF U.S. Championship.

Cross-tour exchange has already begun. At the G-TOUR’s second event in February at GOLFZON Joy Maru in Daejeon, a player from “Tee Times” — the U.S. tour’s winning team — competed and posted strong results, proving that a career as a screen tour pro is a viable path being validated internationally as well.

An industry once rooted firmly in fairways and turf is now being transformed by cutting-edge technology, data, and a global competition platform that transcends time and space. And at the center of that transformation stands GOLFZON.

The views and analysis expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of GOLFZON GROUP.