The Back Nine

The Back Nine was founded in 2020 in St. George, Utah by Wil Bangerter, an attorney with young children who built the concept around the personal problem of fitting golf into a busy schedule. The original location was a two-simulator setup; franchising launched in 2022 starting in nearby Cedar City, Utah, and the chain has since become the fastest-growing indoor-golf franchise in the United States.

Every Back Nine location is unstaffed and self-service. Members and walk-in players use an app to unlock the door and access their booked bay; there's no front desk, no bartender, no equipment for sale, and no instruction layer. The format is intentionally narrow — strictly golf, 3-6 simulators in 2,000-4,000 square feet, no food and beverage, no gym.

The chain's footprint covers 40+ U.S. states and extends into Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with the densest concentrations across the South and Mountain West. Growth pace runs around 20 new openings per month — 9 locations opened in 2023, 18 in 2024, and the trajectory continued through 2025. The company reports 178+ locations sold against ~35 fully operational, with the rest in build-out.

Every Back Nine location runs Full Swing simulators across all bays. The Full Swing partnership is a hard franchise standard — same shot-data system, same course library, same swing-analytics layer at every location — which is what enables Back Nine's cross-location-play feature for members. It's the rare chain in this market with a single, uniform equipment commitment.

Headquartered in St. George, Utah. The brand's partner roster (Travis Mathew, Bad Birdie, Vimhue) leans into the modern-golf-lifestyle aesthetic without bringing apparel sales onto the venue floor — Back Nine venues themselves stay deliberately minimal.