CityGolf USA Partners With Architect Tom Fazio For Golf Course Designs

Tom Fazio's creation institution will beryllium creating courses — including simulated holes and beingness greens —for CityGolf USA, which is debuting its first location successful Nashville successful precocious 2026.

Fazio Design Technologies

Renowned play designer Tom Fazio, who counts 9 original people designs among Golf Digest’s ranking of the Top 100 U.S. courses, is taking his trade to a caller medium.

Fazio has collaborated pinch CityGolf USA, an usability that is launching the first 18-hole indoor play people this wintertime successful Nashville, a conception that combines simulator exertion pinch real-world greenish complexes that are made of artificial turf but play for illustration the existent thing.

Fazio Design Technologies will create a bid of innovative courses specifically for CityGolf locations, including the 174,000-square-foot flagship venue successful Tennessee that’s the size of 3 shot fields. With these innovative indoor courses being unfastened 19 hours a time (or perchance more), operators forecast betwixt 150,000 to 200,000 rounds per year, per site, pinch almost 90% of those being public.

“FDT and CityGolf USA are committed to providing a one-of-a-kind situation and intermezo venue that is unmatched,” said Fazio, whose apical real-world designs see courses specified arsenic Shadow Creek successful Las Vegas, Congaree successful South Carolina, Gozzer Ranch successful Idaho, Victoria National successful Indiana, the Estancia Club successful Arizona and Diamond Creek successful North Carolina. “The expertise to creation and create unsocial play courses for CityGolf USA has been seamless and we look guardant to group each complete the United States having the opportunity to play them."

CityGolf USA is building connected a exemplary that started successful Asia and refining it for the American market, including much of an intermezo and socially focused experience. All locations will see a edifice and bar, backstage arena spaces, and abstracted driving-range bays for firm and societal gatherings.

But immoderate of the biggest differences are connected the people itself, which features 18 individual hitting bays and 18 individual and unsocial greens. Players will move from bay to bay passim a round, teeing disconnected and playing shots connected the GOLFZON simulator screens until they scope the greenish area. At that point, the surface lifts and participants locomotion done to decorativeness the spread astatine the realistic greenish complex.

Unlike the type that first launched successful China, which has poured actual nether comparatively level greens, the Fazio-designed greens astatine CityGolf USA locations will person crushed stone and padding beneath the undulating synthetic writer surfaces to replicate the consciousness of existent putting and chipping. Bunkers astir the greenish will person existent soil and tin person steep-faced walls up to 3 feet high.

With real-world short crippled play, location are information concerns too, specified arsenic having berms astir the various greenish complexes and immoderate benignant of plexiglass of akin dividers successful definite areas – not dissimilar the protection recovered astatine a lucky rink – successful lawsuit personification blades a 70-foot spot changeable that flies complete their green.

“What I was astir impressed by is it’s existent golf,” said CityGolf USA CEO Tony Graffia Jr., who is besides the Managing Partner of Nessie Capital and tried the conception internationally earlier bringing what he calls a ‘uniquely American’ type to the U.S. “It didn’t consciousness for illustration a video game. I felt the unit of making the putts and 3-putted my first spread pinch a group watching maine play. And past I was wowed by the technology.”

Fazio Partnership

The business pinch the Fazio marque adds cache and legitimacy to the concept, pinch a concerted effort to merge real-world people strategy pinch some integer and unrecorded changeable making.

Gavin Fazio, who is Tom’s boy and the laminitis of Fazio Design Technologies (FDT), said he’s excited to thief bring a wholly caller and innovative play conception to a U.S. marketplace that continues to clasp replacement forms of “off-course” participation.

The past 4 years person seen much Americans playing distant from the people – astatine play intermezo complexes, indoor simulator accommodation aliases driving ranges – than the number of golfers who play connected a existent course, according to the National Golf Foundation. That off-course information number climbed to almost 38 cardinal successful 2025, moreover arsenic accepted play has enjoyed surges successful play and players.

“We are looking guardant to introducing a conception that will entreaty to everyone — from passionate play enthusiasts and societal players to beginners who are conscionable discovering the game,” said Gavin Fazio. “Creating caller and unsocial integer play environments that would traditionally require a overmuch bigger footprint expands what is imaginable successful the world of golf.”

Indoor Golf Model

The indoor play conception tin let a foursome to tee disconnected conscionable earlier midnight, moreover if there’s snowfall connected the crushed aliases a large wind outside.

And while the exemplary successful China is mostly private, the CityGolf USA attraction is connected keeping it mostly unfastened to the public, pinch a mini rank that gets entree to premium tee times. As for the cost, pricing will up and down depending connected clip and time of week, pinch discounts for juniors, seniors, military, and different groups.

“I support telling people, I’ve sewage to present a $300 acquisition for a $100 value point,” said Graffia, who’s made a profession retired of uncovering and investing successful products extracurricular the U.S. that he believes will person existent traction pinch the American consumer.

“If I do that, group will conscionable proceed to support coming and coming. Now, will it ever beryllium $100? No, sometimes it's going to beryllium $30 because we're disconnected hours. Sometimes it'll beryllium $60. At 9 o'clock connected a Friday night, you cognize that's going to beryllium a much costly clip to play than a Tuesday astatine 10 a.m.”

First Location and Others to Come

While location had been plans to person the first CityGolf USA location successful Chicago, the permitting process slowed things down considerably. Chicago is still successful the early plans, on pinch markets specified arsenic Indianapolis, Columbus and Minneapolis.

Graffia said he’s had metropolis leaders successful states specified arsenic Texas and California scope retired and connection to salary for full CityGolf venue builds, which tin tally betwixt $10 cardinal and $15 million, pinch essentials specified arsenic technology, aerial conditioning, and hospitality helping thrust prices up good beyond greenish analyzable designs. One affirmative is that indoor courses don’t request to interest astir drainage aliases irrigation.

Graffia said there’s moreover been liking from a play mecca for illustration Myrtle Beach, wherever a CityGolf USA venue could supply an all-day indoor action to thief fulfill the tremendous existing request successful the area.

And erstwhile it comes to existent people design, there’s acold much elasticity successful this caller mean – 1 that different existent play architects, including Beau Welling, Agustin Piza and Gil Hanse – person ventured into pinch afloat simulated holes for the TGL indoor league. The scenery upon which holes are laid retired tin beryllium overmuch much terrible astatine CityGolf USA than a normal course, astatine slightest up to the greens. Designers connected the Fazio squad don’t person to beryllium concerned astir whether play carts tin traverse the terrain, aliases if the upland aliases godforsaken mounting is excessively inhospitable.

And soon golfers will get to acquisition the newest introduction successful the world of off-course play for themselves.

“They’ve designed a bunch of different holes successful different places that conscionable weren’t playable. Those are the kinds of things they tin bring in,” said Graffia. “I saw the 18th spread of 1 of the greens they’ve designed and it’s virtually connected an island. You’re connected an land hitting to the fairway and past hitting to different island. So, we tin make immoderate really cool experiences that you can’t do connected a regular play course.”