When Chris Ingham and Elliot Godfrey first met as juniors at South Beds Golf Club in 1999, they had no way of knowing that they would go on to run one of the UK’s most talked-about golf businesses together.
But fast forward 26 years and that is the position that the two lifelong friends find themselves in as co-founders of Pitch Golf.
The stylish indoor golf club has just opened its fourth venue in the heart of Canary Wharf and – with two more locations coming this Spring – there’s plenty more to come.
“Though we played together as juniors, for the next fifteen years or so our careers followed quite different PGA paths – our first major collaboration together was The CityPoint Golf Studio in Moorgate,” recounts Ingham.
“We had a couple of bays for teaching and club fitting, but we saw that traditional simulator experiences were being left behind by the way real golf was progressing.
We felt that modern simulator tech lent itself perfectly to something more social and inclusive.”
The pair’s response was Pitch Golf, which debuted in Bishopsgate in 2016. Six years later – albeit slightly delayed for obvious reasons – Pitch became a multi-venue club with the opening of Pitch Soho.
PITCHING OVERSEAS
The brand first expanded overseas last year with a new venture in Dublin and soon will be opening in Melbourne, Australia, and the US later this year alongside other European venues.
As Godfrey puts it: “It’s no coincidence that we look for locations in busy, fast-paced parts of major cities.
For people who live and work in those places, finding the time to travel to a golf course and play eighteen holes can be so difficult. Indoor golf is much easier to fit into a busy schedule.”
But regardless of which venue you step into, the essence of Pitch’s signature style is the same.
“All of our venues use the best possible technology, but that’s only half the story. We always serve cocktails and our Asian-inspired menu, every venue has an exclusive members’ area and many of them have built-in spaces for live DJ sets.
These are places to socialise, relax and enjoy yourselves whether hitting golf balls or challenging friends to a game of shuffleboard.”
New ideas are still being developed and implemented as Pitch continues to expand (in a matter of months, Birmingham and Manchester will become the next cities to join the Pitch revolution).
CONCEPT STORE
One such example is the UK’s first TRENDYGOLF Concept Store, which opened alongside Pitch Wharf in February.
“TRENDYGOLF and Pitch felt like a natural fit,” says Ingham about the partnership with the online retailer, “they value style, inclusivity and they like to try something different, which aligns closely with our own ethos.”
Inclusivity is one of the key words at every Pitch location. “We want visitors to feel welcome at any time. Fairly or unfairly, there are so many barriers associated with golf. When you break down those barriers and introduce new people to the game, everybody wins.”
