It's tech. It's mini golf. It's both — mixed with a lot of food, drinks and bright lights.
That’s what you'll find at Puttshack, the latest attraction at Oxmoor Center in St. Matthews.
The 25,000-square-foot venue is set to open to the public on March 20, but I was able to attend a sneak-peek event for the media Wednesday afternoon to talk with some of the members of the leadership team and try out a few of the 36 tech-infused (and they are just that) miniature golf holes.
What drives that infusion of technology, though, is not so much the bells and whistles of the courses, but the ball itself, which has a microprocessor in it with four million lines of code. This allows the ball to track a player’s score, among other capabilities.
Before you can find any semblance of mini golf, though, you are greeted by a massive bar (with 15 bourbons on hand, for those curious) flanked by tables and chairs. On this day, several of the approximately 150 employees were buzzing around.
Check out photos of the space in the gallery below.
Puttshack
Among the people I spoke with was Angelina Gradilla, Puttshack’s senior brand manager, who flew in with other corporate teams from Chicago, where the company is headquartered.
“Puttshack is a part of this new social entertainment space. Post pandemic, people were craving not only somewhere to eat and drink, but also something to do — ways to make memories with their loved ones, their friends, families [and] co-workers. Puttshack fills that space,” Gradilla told me.
The food options center around, Gradilla said, a “chef-driven globally inspired menu” that features Rendang Lettuce Wraps, Wood Fired Thai Octopus and Chorizo and Cheese Empanadas. There are more than 100 different items on the menu that are made from scratch.
A walk to the back and up some stairs will bring you to the golf portion of the equation — an area that is intentionally dark so that features can be illuminated with an endless amount of lighting, creating a Vegas vibe.
When you set the ball down to putt, you will see four green lights around, which denote that you are good to putt. Side note: If you put a ball on the tee if in a course that you are not assigned, you will see a blinking red light.
The goal for most of the holes — which harken to a variety of table games, video games, bar/party games, and other categories — is to locate the “supertube,” which gives you a 90%-plus opportunity to get a hole-in-one.
I was fortunate enough to experience beginner’s luck on the first hole I tried, which was called “Putt 4” (inspired by the Connect 4 game). I hit my ball onto a wood blank that was labeled “SUPERTUBE”, which led to a hole-in-one. When the ball entered the actual hole, the hole turned bright green.
I ended up playing five holes. On average, it takes about 30 minutes to play one of the four, nine-hole courses. It cost $14 for adults to play nine holes. Players 12 and under cost $10.
One thing to note: Puttshack is family-friendly up until 8 p.m. daily. After that, the night club atmosphere picks up, complete with in-person DJs.
Also, the building features a large bar in the back next to a private dining room that can be rented out for corporate outings, birthdays, private events, etc. Bookings can range from a party of 13 to the whole venue (for about 500 people).
Similar to Topgolf, but different
It’s easy to pull into the parking lot and see the large edifice that is Topgolf to its south, and immediately associate the two with one another — but the two franchises are completely separate from each other.
As the story goes, twin brothers Steven and Dave Jollife who founded Topgolf out of the United Kingdom, built what would become the proprietary Trackaball technology inside the golf balls. Side note: Topgolf balls have radio frequency identification (RFID) chips inside them, whereas Puttshack balls contain the specialized microprocessor, Gradilla said.
They are also the co-founders of Puttshack and sit on its board of directors. Fellow Brit Adam Breeden is the other co-founder who took the technology and created the format that will greet patrons next week. Breeden has been behind a series of immersive-technology-meets-hospitality concepts.
The first Puttshack location opened in West London in 2018, and the first U.S. location opened in 2021 in the Atlanta metro area (the Louisville location is No. 14). The franchise has a total of 22 venues in the U.S. that have either been built or are under construction — and four in the U.K. At this time, all 26 locations are company owned.
