Splash City Golf started out as an event company that specializes in producing pop-up waterfront driving ranges. Focusing mainly on the Maryland, DC, and Virginia markets, we have built a profitable business model that combines our passion for golf and beautiful waterfront paradises. It’s truly a blast to watch participants hit biodegradable golf balls at floating golf targets.

We often receive messages from entrepreneurs about starting a similar type of event company in their community. We have provided advice to entrepreneurs throughout the United States, and even as far away as Portugal, on how to apply the water golf business model to their areas.

This guide serves as a resource for anyone interested in creating their own water golf company. With the right strategy, equipment, and partnerships, any driven business person can launch a profitable water golf company - whether it’s on a ocean, river, bay, or pond.

In this guide you’ll find:

Basics: What Is A Waterfront Driving Range?
Basics: What Value Does A Waterfront Driving Range Company Provide?
Basics: Why Do Clients Hire A Waterfront Driving Range Company?
Basics: Who Should Start A Waterfront Driving Range Company?
Marketing: Waterfront Venue Referrals
Marketing: Event Planner Referrals
Marketing: Open Swings
Financials: Upfront Equipment Investment
Financials: Event Costs & Pricing

Basics: What Is A Waterfront Driving Range?

A waterfront driving range is where participants hit biodegradable golf balls into the water at floating golf targets. Waterfront driving ranges can take place on all bodies of water, including oceans, rivers, bays, lakes, and ponds. We’ve produced waterfront driving range events on the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean, Potomac River, and several other rivers, bays, lakes, and ponds. For advice on how to build a waterfront driving range, check out our Ultimate Guide To Building A Waterfront Driving Range blog post.

Basics: What Value Does A Waterfront Driving Range Company Provide?

A waterfront driving range company is responsible for all aspects of producing a waterfront driving range. This includes:

Providing all the equipment and staffing needed to execute an event
Interacting with participants and ensuring they have an incredible experience
Forming partnerships with local waterfront venues and recommending these venues to potential clients

The ultimate value a waterfront driving range company provides to its clients is convenience. As the business owner, you will be providing a 100% water golf turnkey solution. You provide the biodegradable golf balls, the hitting stations, the floating golf target, the golf clubs, and the staff. This allows your client to enjoy a water golf experience without the hassle and stress of figuring out how to create a waterfront driving range on their own.

***Providing great customer service during events is essential to building a successful waterfront driving range company.***

Keep in mind that a waterfront driving range company is typically a vendor for events. Your team will be interacting with participants during the event, handing out golf balls, clubs, and offering swing advice. It’s also important to note that an event, such as a wedding or corporate outing, cannot be postponed. There isn’t a date range. Similar to a caterer or a band, you have to show up on time and in good spirits. It’s vital to being successful.

Basics: Why Do Clients Hire A Waterfront Driving Range Company?

A waterfront driving range is typically an add-on activity to an already planned event. In our experience, clients fall into three main categories:

Corporate Groups
Social Groups
Public Event Organizers

Corporate Groups

Outdoor corporate outings in nice weather are a morale boost for employees. Company milestone celebrations, team building exercises, and picnics are examples of corporate events that we have been a part of. Check out some of our previous corporate group outings for the types of companies that book waterfront driving ranges as part of their outings.

Social Groups

Waterfront driving ranges are a very popular addition to a wedding weekend. We’ve produced waterfront driving ranges during the rehearsal dinner, cocktail hour, the reception itself, and pre-wedding groomsmen activity. Other social outings we’ve produced waterfront driving ranges for include birthday parties, bachelor parties, and house parties.

Public Event Organizers

***Harborfest in Norfolk, VA is one of our best public events.***

In the corporate and social group examples above, the waterfront driving range is for a private group. In this scenario, any member of the public can participate and hit biodegradable golf balls into the water. Typically a sponsor will pay the waterfront driving range company directly and the individual customer will pay a fee to participate. The sponsor may be a festival organizer or a restaurant owner.

Basics: Who Should Start A Waterfront Driving Range Company?

The only requirement is access to a waterfront area. That being said, there are three main types that are best suited to create a waterfront driving range company:

Entrepreneurs In Waterfront Areas
Existing Event Rental Companies
Waterfront Resorts & Event Venues

Entrepreneurs In Waterfront Areas

Entrepreneurs that live in areas with lots of waterfront are best suited to start this type of company. We started our waterfront driving range company in Baltimore, Maryland. Within a few hours drive of Baltimore are countless waterfront venues and homes where we could produce waterfront driving ranges.

Communities with lots of waterfront event venues and wealthy waterfront homes are ideal. A waterfront event venue may be a restaurant, hotel, or dedicated event space. The more prestigious the event venue, the better. Producing a waterfront driving range is not cheap, and the price you charge will make your service considered a luxury. In addition to researching the number of waterfront venues in your area, another good barometer is to research how many waterfront homes in your area are listed over $1M on Zillow. If there are a lot, then you should have a lot of potential customers in your service area.

Existing Event Rental Companies

If you own or operate a company that already provides equipment for events, you should consider adding a waterfront golf option to your business offerings. A company that already offers event equipment rentals - such as tents or linens - already has relationships with waterfront event venues and a recognizable brand in their community. Your staff can easily create a waterfront driving range at the same time they are setting up other equipment. Upselling a water golf add-on is a great way to drive additional profit for your event rental business.

Waterfront Resorts & Event Venues

***Mackey House in Savannah, GA now offers their own waterfront driving ranges.***

Waterfront Resorts & Event Venues may choose to operate their own waterfront driving range, independent of a third party company. This provides the waterfront venue greater flexibility in how to package, price, and sell waterfront driving ranges to their clients. This also allows the waterfront venue to offer a waterfront driving range on their own schedule and without reliance on a dedicated waterfront driving range provider. One of our partner venues - Mackey House in Savannah, GA - began offering their own waterfront driving range to their clients in 2023 with great success.

Marketing: Waterfront Venue Referrals

***Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville, MD is a partner waterfront venue of ours.***

Any successful waterfront driving range company will form great partnerships with waterfront venues in its service area. These partnerships make sense for both sides. The waterfront venue gets to offer their event clients a unique experience that their non-waterfront venue competitors cannot offer. In exchange, the waterfront venue recommends your waterfront driving range company to its existing base of event clients. You may consider offering your waterfront venue partners a commission to encourage them to promote your service.

A great way to start a partnership with a new waterfront venue is to create a free demonstration for their team. Allowing the waterfront venue’s team to experience this activity for themselves will turn them into great advocates for your company. Consider hiring a professional photographer and videographer for the demo so both sides have high quality material to promote the service with. As you sign more waterfront venues in your area, other waterfront venues will take notice and begin reaching out to you.

Marketing: Event Planner Referrals

Event Planners are another great source of referrals for a waterfront driving range company. In our experience, we come across two categories of event planners:

Destination Management Companies
Wedding Planners

Destination Management Companies

A Destination Management Company (DMC) is a local specialist that handles the logistics and planning for events, tours, and travel in a specific destination. DMCs are great for providing corporate client referrals. For example, a company based in Boston is coming to Baltimore for a business retreat. This company hires a DMC to plan every detail of the trip. The DMC writes a proposal and presents it to the client. If the DMC is aware of your waterfront driving range company, they may include your service in their proposal to the client. If the client agrees, you’ve got new business! DMCs are great because if you provide a quality service, they will continue recommending you to their clients.

Wedding Planners

A Wedding Planner assists couples with all aspects of their wedding, from initial planning and design to day-of execution. Wedding Planners are great for providing wedding client referrals. A Wedding Planner that is familiar with your waterfront driving range company can tell their clients about it during the planning phase of the wedding, which is very important because this is often when wedding couples are planning their budget for the event. Similar to DMCs, if you provide quality service, Wedding Planners will continue recommending you to their clients.

Marketing: Open Swings

***Trying the experience first-hand is a great form of marketing!***

One of the best forms of marketing is to let people try the experience! When we first started Splash City Golf, we created Open Swings at local waterfront restaurants. An Open Swing falls within the Public Event category described above, and is where anyone can come and pay for the experience of hitting biodegradable golf balls at floating golf targets.

Creating Open Swings offer several benefits:

Creates Buzz: We found that people who participate in our Open Swings tell their co-workers about the experience, leading an increase in private event sales.
Provides Content: You’ll need a constant stream of content for your website and social media. Producing Open Swings allows you an opportunity to capture high quality content you can use for marketing purposes.
Practice Makes Perfect: The more events you produce, the better they’ll become. Open Swings allows you to experiment with new ideas and implement ways to improve the overall experience.

Financials: Upfront Equipment Investment

Any waterfront driving range company will need to make an upfront investment in equipment to get the business off the ground. For advice on which equipment to purchase, check out our Ultimate Guide To Building A Waterfront Driving Range blog post.

Biodegradable Golf Balls

The waterfront driving range company will need an initial stockpile of biodegradable golf balls to use at events. Our ZERO™ biodegradable golf balls are high quality, backed by transparent eco-certifications and manufactured in the USA. Volume pricing for larger orders means greater profit margin for your waterfront driving range events.

Floating Golf Target

Hitting biodegradable golf balls into the water is fun, but hitting them at floating golf targets is addicting. You only need one floating golf target to start. In our experience, the GolfShotBot™ is the best floating golf target in the market.

On Land Equipment

The hitting experience should be phenomenal. We recommend any waterfront driving range company to invest in quality hitting platforms. Other on-land equipment you’ll need include golf clubs, ball buckets, folding tables, and chairs.

Event Signage & Branding

Investing in event signage is a great way to build brand awareness. Custom tents, table covers, and feather signs help elevate the aesthetic of your waterfront driving range and help promote your company to potential customers.

Optional: Transportation

If your waterfront driving range company will operate at multiple locations, you will need a way to transport equipment from location to location. You may consider purchasing a cargo van, box truck, or trailer for the business.

Financials: Event Costs & Pricing

The waterfront driving range company will incur costs each for each event:

Biodegradable Golf Balls: The waterfront driving range company will need to track how many balls it goes through at each event. The total number of balls used multiplied by the per ball cost results in a total biodegradable golf ball cost for the event.
Labor: The waterfront driving range company will need staff to transport, set up, operate, and clean up the waterfront driving range. We recommend at least two staff members per event. Each staff member is paid an hourly wage.
Transportation: If the business owns a vehicle, you can track transportation cost multiplying the total miles driven to and from the event by a predetermined cost per mile. If the business doesn’t own a vehicle, they can rent one on an event basis from Enterprise, U-haul, or a similar company. The cost of the rental represents the transportation cost for the event. This cost doesn’t apply to waterfront venues operating their own waterfront driving ranges.

The waterfront driving range company will need to project these expenses for each event and come up with a total cost estimate. The company should then determine an acceptable profit margin for their service to come up with a price to charge the customer. For example, if the company’s estimated costs are $1,000 and they are seeking a 50% profit margin on the event, they would charge the customer $2,000 for the waterfront driving range. This would result in a profit of $1,000 for the event.

Final Thoughts: Tee Off into A Growing Industry

Water Golf is a niche but growing industry with lots of ongoing innovation. There is an opportunity to take our waterfront driving range business model, apply it to your service area, and run a business that is fun and profitable. We’re here to help you get started, so please reach out if you’d like to learn more.

How To Create A Profitable Waterfront Driving Range Company