Golden Tee Golf

History

The Golden Tee series began as a project at Incredible Technologies to create a large scale golf simulator for sizable family entertainment centers. The idea was scrapped, but not before programmer Larry Hodgson had already written software to create virtual golf courses. Rather than discard his work, Hodgson retooled the concept to develop a golf game for regular arcade cabinets. He worked with co-designer Jim Zielinski, who initially rendered the courses using Deluxe Paint. Instead of a regular joystick and buttons for controls, they used a trackball, which Incredible Technologies had previously used for Capcom Bowling.

The first Golden Tee was play-tested in a bar, a venue which would become the most popular location for Golden Tee cabinets. Released in 1989, the first iteration was sold exclusively as a kit that could be used to convert existing arcade machines to Golden Tee. It sold relatively well, but the series would find greater success with Golden Tee 3D several years later. The 1995 Peter Jacobson's Golden Tee 3D Golf (featuring Peter Jacobsen) was the first in the series to support online networked play. Rather than being networked to each other, the cabinets were all linked to a central computer which compared scores for tournament play. The first test tournament, held on 24 game cabinets in the Chicago area from November 24 to December 17, 1995, awarded real money to the winners, including a $1,000 grand prize. The first "real world" tournament was held mid-June to July 7, 1996, on 145 cabinets across six states, and was considered a major success. By the end of 1996, 1,250 cabinets were installed across 32 states. The tournament gave rise to a large competitive play scene for the franchise. Ryan Bourgeois has won the US national championship three times.

Since Golden Tee 3D, Incredible Technologies has released a new entry in the series to arcades every year. Versions of the game have also been published for the original PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android. A plug-n-play dedicated console version has also been released. On May 16, 2022, Golden Tee PGA Tour 2022 was released. Later that year on October 24, Clubhouse Edition was released that was once the Home Edition. A standard model and a deluxe model was available. The standard was just the base and the deluxe came with the base, the TV (55") and the blue light marquee making it the same look as the commercial version. A compilation of several earlier series entries, Golden Tee Arcade Classics, was released in July 2025.

References

References

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4. (March 1996). "Another Network Test". Imagine Media.
5. Webb, Marcus. (October 1996). "Modem-Linked Video Scores". Imagine Media.
6. Webb, Marcus. (March 1997). "And in the U.S.A...". Imagine Media.
7. Belkin, Douglas. (July 5, 2012). "It's Rough to Make a Living as a Pro Golfer on the Bar Circuit". The Wall Street Journal.
8. Allen, Jeff. (September 3, 2014). "Bangers and Everymen: Life on the 'Golden Tee' Pro Tour".
9. (April 30, 2003). "Video golf champ has a steady hand, 'Golden Tee'".
10. Moser, Whet. (October 13, 2013). "One-trackball mind". Chicago Tribune.
11. Shoemaker, Brad. (September 15, 2000). "Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee Golf Review". CBS Interactive.
12. Ward, Trent C.. (August 12, 1998). "Golden Tee Golf".
13. Good, Owen S.. (October 18, 2015). "After 30 years in arcades and dive bars, Golden Tee is finally going mobile". Vox Media.
14. (16 May 2022). "Golden Tee PGA Tour Now Officially Shipping".
15. "GT PGA TOUR Clubhouse Edition Pre-Order".
16. Scullion, Chris. (June 17, 2025). "Arcade golf series Golden Tee is getting a retro compilation by Digital Eclipse".