Indoor Golf Franchise War: One Will Win

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Let me tell you something funny about the facility boom.

I’ve been tracking it for months now. Update after update. Fifty-some individual openings. Eight states. Multiple countries. Each one felt like its own story — a 24-hour spot in Berlin Connecticut, a co-location inside a 7-Eleven in Grand Rapids, a standalone in Sioux Falls South Dakota.

But I was looking at the leaves, not the tree.

The real story — the one that actually matters for where sim golf will be in 2030 — isn’t any single facility opening. It’s the three-way franchise war that’s been running in the background the whole time.

Three brands. Three different business models. Same strip malls. Same mid-market cities. And they’re all accelerating at the same time.

The Three Players

Here’s the landscape as of right now, July 2026.

Another Nine is the quietest of the three. 24/7 keycard access. No staff. No bar. No frills. Just sim golf at 3 AM if you feel like it. They just hit 50 franchises nationwide — the fastest-growing indoor golf brand in the country by pure location count. They closed a $2 million round from existing investors in June and they’re doubling their team by year-end. Their next target is Louisville, and they’ve got their eye on the Carolinas.

Five Iron Golf is the premium play. 20+ locations, mostly downtown and high-traffic suburban. Full TrackMan setups. Cocktails. Leagues. They look like what you’d build if someone handed you $50 million and said “make indoor golf cool.” Their latest move is a real-money tournament platform — bracket-style cash competitions across every location, with entry fees from $20 to $500. National leaderboards. A sense of stakes that no other sim facility has managed to create. They’re also opening in Valencia, Spain — their first European location.

Back Nine is the franchise-first operator building in the middle of the map. Cedar Rapids. Huntsville. Midlothian Virginia. Harlingen Texas. Places where the nearest Topgolf is an hour away. Their model is smaller — 4-8 bays — and more neighborhood bar than entertainment complex. They just locked down two OEM deals in two days: Full Swing as their hardware partner (200 units across their pipeline) and Bridgestone for ball fittings and tournament infrastructure. They’re also expanding internationally.

All three are racing. All three have different answers to the same question: “what does indoor golf look like for most Americans?”

Why This War Matters

Three brands scaling at the same time in the same space is not normal. Normally, one model wins early and the others pivot or die. But indoor golf is big enough — and the market is young enough — that all three might work, just for different customers.

Another Nine is for the practice golfer who wants to hit 100 balls at midnight. No conversation. No drinks. Just sim golf.

Five Iron is for the group outing. The birthday party. The after-work thing where you pretend you’re going to hit balls but really you’re there for the cocktails and the vibe.

Back Nine is for the suburb where you take your kid to a lesson, grab a beer, and realize you could also book a bay for yourself next Tuesday.

Three different jobs. Three different customer experiences. Same underlying trend: sim golf is infrastructure now.

What This Means for Home Sim Buyers

Every time a new franchise location opens in your town, it’s a billboard for your garage build.

Someone walks into a Five Iron for a birthday party. Hits a few balls on a TrackMan. Thinks “this is fun, I should look into this.” Six months later they’re on this site reading about the Square Omni and wondering if their garage ceiling is high enough.

The franchise war doesn’t just validate the space. It creates the pipeline of future home sim buyers. More facilities → more people try sim golf → more people want their own setup. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle that didn’t exist even two years ago.

There’s also a hardware angle. When Five Iron orders 50 TrackMan units for a single year’s buildout, TrackMan’s manufacturing costs drop. When Back Nine signed a bulk deal with Full Swing for 200 units, Full Swing’s per-unit cost went down. Those savings eventually reach consumer products. The same R&D that improves commercial sensors trickles into the $5,000 and $2,000 and eventually $1,000 consumer units. The franchise war is subsidizing your future launch monitor.

The Dark Side

The franchise war has a downside worth naming.

These brands are all racing for the same suburban strip malls. Same downtown leases. Same franchisee candidates. Some of them will fail. Franchisees who bought in on good faith — who took out loans, signed personal guarantees, quit their jobs — will lose their investment when their local market gets split three ways and nobody has enough customers to cover the rent.

The consolidation is coming. It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of which brand positions itself best for the shakeout.

Another Nine has the leanest model (24/7, no staff, lower overhead). Five Iron has the strongest brand (premium, urban, events). Back Nine has the best corporate partnerships (Full Swing + Bridgestone gives them a hardware-and-software advantage that the other two can’t easily replicate).

The smart money is on the brand that survives the war, not the one that opens the most locations this year.

The International Angle

The franchise war isn’t staying in America.

Another Nine has no international presence yet, but their CEO told LINK nky they’re evaluating Canadian expansion — a natural fit for a 24/7 model in a country where winter lasts six months.

Five Iron is already in Europe. Their Valencia location opens this year, and they’ve hinted at more European cities. When a brand that built its identity on downtown US storefronts opens in Spain, it’s a signal that the indoor golf franchise model works internationally.

Back Nine is the wild card. Their international expansion is tied to their OEM partnerships — Full Swing’s distribution network gives them a ready-made international pipeline. If Back Nine locations start appearing in the UK or Australia next year, don’t be surprised.

The international expansion is what separates the franchise boom from a domestic trend. When the same business model works in Spain, Canada, and the American Midwest, it’s not a trend anymore. It’s an industry.

The Bottom Line? No, the Middle Line

I don’t know which brand wins. Nobody does. The market is too young and the growth is too fast.

But I know this: the franchise war is the best thing that’s happened to indoor golf since TGL proved the format works on national television. Three brands competing means three different answers to “how do we get more people hitting balls indoors?” Three experiments running in parallel. Three shots on goal.

And every shot that lands brings the home sim market one step closer to mainstream.

That’s good for everyone — whether you’re a subscriber to Another Nine hitting balls at 2 AM, a Five Iron regular grinding for cash prizes, or just a guy in his garage wondering if the McIlroy Drive or trade-up program is worth it.

The franchise war is how sim golf went from a niche to a neighborhood.

For the full picture: Another Nine hits 50 franchises → | Another Nine’s $2M funding → | Five Iron real-money tournaments → | Back Nine + Full Swing partnership → | Back Nine + Bridgestone → | Facility Boom Update #10 → | The indoor golf franchise explosion explained →