Konnect is located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, around the corner from Rockefeller Center, with about 5,000 square feet of usable space and featuring eight hitting bays, as well as craft beers and an extensive food menu. Memberships are offered for $500/year and plans are also in place to host Wall Street outings and high-school golf team practices.
Konnect, a new high-end private golf club, opened during the week of February 12th in the heart of New York City on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, just around the corner from Rockefeller Center, Forbes reported.
The modern indoor golf club, with about 5,000 sq. ft. of usable space, is “top shelf,” in the words of co-owner Ralph Kartzman, Forbes reported, with eight state-of-the-art hitting bays that feature Trackman 4 technology, a partnership with The Leadbetter Golf Academies for elite professional instruction, and exclusive equipment from PXG. Members can “play” more than 200 premier courses from around the world without leaving the city.
Plans are also already in place to host outings for Wall Street firms and high-school golf team practices, Forbes reported. And there’s an online tee sheet for members, and the expectation of ownership is that Konnect will become a popular spot for socializing.
“As a New Yorker, what I tried to do was bring all the best of the turf world to Manhattan in an indoor space,” Kartzman, who spent 35 years working on Wall Street, most recently with his own hedge fund, told Forbes. “Here on the east coast, golfers are challenged by time, weather and cost factors. They’re all an opportunity for us here in Manhattan.”
Kartzman has been around the game most of his life, Forbes reported. He was introduced to golf as a youngster growing up in Springfield, N.J., and his high school team was fortunate enough to play out of Baltusrol Golf Club.
Today, Kartzman still gets into New Jersey frequently – as a member at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, N.J. – but working in the financial industry, he has made Manhattan his home. He was a proprietary trader at First New York Securities for 18 years, where he became a partner, before running his hedge fund up until two years ago.
Kartzman’s partner in Konnect, Lee Hetfield, also has a financial background and a love for golf, Forbes reported. Hetfield was on the debt side of the business on Wall Street and is a member at another venerable New Jersey club: Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J.
“We’re both golf geeks. That’s what brought us together,” Kartzman told Forbes. “We love our golf, and we missed the passion in the city.”
They’re looking to foster that community and camaraderie at Konnect, which has a strong social component but appeals to a membership serious about the game. The duo, Forbes reported, studied the appeal of the indoor golf simulator market in South Korean cities like Seoul, where more than 100,000 people a day play on virtual fairways and greens.
Recently, says Kartzman, the club hosted a group of young professionals in the 28-to-38 age range who plan to use Konnect like a gym–showing up by 6 a.m. to practice and polish their swings before heading into the office. “They’re also interested in the nighttime activity once the day is over,” added Kartzman. “They’ll be back for some simulated play where it’s a little more relaxed, and maybe have a few beers.”
Craft beer is on tap at Konnect, which features an extensive food and beverage menu along with bi-weekly competitions that feature league play and prizes, Forbes reported. The standard rate for membership is $500 a year (for those 32 and over), with discounts for those under 32 and additional fees based on play time. Members can reserve hitting bays on their phone, through what’s essentially an online tee sheet.
One of the club’s first non-member events, Forbes reported, will involve hosting 65 women from one of New York’s biggest financial companies, a private-wealth platform. Additionally, four Manhattan high-school golf teams have already signed up to hold preseason practices at the venue into April or the beginning of May.
There’s an inclusive vibe at Konnect despite the upscale trappings, Forbes reported. As the club’s name suggests, the owners are seeking to create engagement, not a one-dimensional location where guests hit golf balls and leave.
Kartzman has been encouraged by the interest and utilization rate of the new club in its early stages, but is still taking a cautious approach, Forbes reported.
“Once we get to a point where we can’t book a bay for somebody—they’re a member and there’s no availability—then we have a problem,” he said.
Additional Konnect locations could be coming to the Big Apple in the coming years, Forbes reported. Recognizing the passion for golf in the city, Kartzman believes Manhattan could accommodate four or five similar facilities in well-located areas.
“We would have them in neighborhoods where people walk or live,” he said. “You know how New Yorkers are. We like the best, like it right around the corner, and we like it now. That’s what Konnect golf is supposed to deliver.”
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