How a ladies’ night in Dublin became a 4-country golf network, and what it tells operators about the tech they install.
The first night, eight women turned up to a range in Dublin who barely knew each other. Most had never stood on a driving range without feeling watched. Within an hour they were a team: competing across the bays, chasing each other up on the leaderboard, planning the next one before they’d even left.
None of them came for the technology. That’s exactly the point.
Suzanne Thompson didn’t start Swing & Tonic to show off software. She started it because the range, like most of golf, is quietly built for someone else: male-dominated, solo, and intimidating to anyone breaking in for the first time. And that “someone else” problem is getting more expensive to ignore. The NGF reports the female golfer pool has surged 45% in six years [source, NGF], the fastest-growing segment in the game. The women are coming. Most ranges still aren’t built to keep them.
Suzanne’s fix was simple: make the first step easy. No solo spotlight, no scorecard shame. Inrange+ Teams let her players compete using the bay-vs-bay feature, as a team, so the nervous first-timer was never out there alone. The technology wasn’t just for the regulars, it could pull a wider group in. Multiple bays, multiple countries, all on the same leaderboard, on the same night.
What started as one night in Dublin is now a series of events across 8 ranges in 4 countries. Nearly 300 women have walked into their local Inrange venue on the same evenings, competing on the same leaderboards, and making connections across continents. In the latest round, they were playing for tickets to the Solheim Cup.
Here’s the part operators should sit with. Suzanne built all of that. Swingyard, running on Inrange, gave her the platform, the venue and the F&B, then got out of her way. The range didn’t grow because it installed clever technology. It grew because the technology let a customer chase her own ambition, and pulled the business along with her.
Most ranges buy technology aimed primarily at making traditional golfers happy. The ranges that win the next decade will be the ones whose tech serves both the golfer and the entertainment customer. The top performers won’t just accommodate the Suzannes in their community, they’ll hand them the tools to build something, and grow their business while they do.
So before your next technology decision, one question is worth more than the spec sheet:
Does the technology I’m putting in empower my customers to grow my business for me?
- For more information on Inrange® Golf visit their website, and follow them on LinkedIn for the latest news and product innovations from their team.
Contact Name: Sam Hill
Organization: Inrange® Golf
Email: samhill@inrangegolf.com
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