One of the top-tier golf simulator companies in the country has stepped it up a notch.
Five Iron Golf, which has spread from its roots in New York City to over 50 locations worldwide, has launched Five Iron Tournaments, a real-money indoor golf tournament platform that turns Five Iron’s national venue network into an always-on competitive golf ecosystem.
The platform, expected to be fully rolled out by the end of this summer, allows players to enter tournaments on demand, compete on live leaderboards and play for real prize money across formats including stroke play, scramble and closest to the pin.
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“Before Five Iron, I was a professional poker player, and I’ve always been fascinated by what happens when games build a true digital presence. We’ve seen that in poker, chess and other competitive formats, and that was part of the inspiration for bringing a more dynamic, gamified competition model to golf,” Five Iron CEO Jared Solomon told FOX Business.
As golf’s popularity continues to skyrocket, Solomon wanted to tap into what has not been done before in the world of the sport.
“We talk a lot about off-course golf and where the sport is going, but we don’t always talk enough about the different ways people can play or consume golf. With Five Iron Tournaments, we’re excited to create a new format that brings competition, flexibility and gamification into the experience,” Solomon said.
Golfers are able to obtain their own Five Iron Handicap based on their performances at courses. Five Iron’s technology gives players the ability not only to play PGA championship courses, but also some of their local country clubs.
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Other formats include scrambles (recently won by this author), fourball, closest-to-the-pin contests, and numerous others. A June closest-to-the-pin event will feature 20 tournaments on iconic courses with $20,000 in guaranteed prize pools.
“The idea is to give players many different ways to compete. There can be hourly, daily, weekly or month-long tournaments, with different formats, whether that’s four holes, nine holes, 18 holes, winner-takes-all or other payout structures,” Solomon said.
And while Five Iron is perhaps best known for its bar vibe, Solomon saw that players still have the competitive edge when they head to the simulator. Since the beta launch in October 2025, more than 1,000 players have logged nearly 20,000 tournament entries.
“A lot of this came directly from our own customers,” he said. “They want to compete more, they want more games and they want more variety in how they engage with golf. Five Iron Tournaments give them another way to do that.”
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