Wow - this place is a trip and a half! It is an expensive trip and a half, but that's kind of golf…read morein a nutshell anyway, so let's have fun doing it!
A couple buddies and I drove 2 hours up to Hillsboro to make a day of the area and started with Topgolf. Never been to one before and weren't sure what to expect. The guy that greeted us was all that helpful with we needed to do. I had to give my name, number, and email, which was fine. I chose an hour and the guy told me that we had the hour and could extend for up to 30 minutes as there was another party that was going to use our bay after that. Armed with only the bay number to go and find, we left the counter without knowing what we needed to go.
Once we got to our bay, there is a tablet device that wanted me to pick from one of the 5 or 6 available games. As I had no clue what any of them were, I didn't know what to pick. Thankfully, there is an employee that is outside in the bays to help with things and he got us on track.
Weirdly enough, if I wanted my friends to have their own names (to see who won each game), they would have to spend $6 for memberships of their own. That's not cool. The kid that came over was kind enough to set it up so that we could have 3 different names for the games and he picked the first game for us. He also explained how the ball was dispensed, that there is a QR code on the table if we wanted to order food, and to have fun.
The balls have trackers in them, so after you hit it, the TV screen in every bay will show a digital view of how the ball flew through the air, where it landed, and how many points were earned with each shot. So you hit the ball, you watch it land, and then everyone turns to the TV to see how many points were registered. Pretty simple. Everyone got 5 shots per round and there were 3 rounds the first game we played.
After we got done with the first game, we chose a 2nd one that played a little differently. Much more important to hit the circular netted targets on the large field to score points.
I wanted to order food, but it was a chore. First, the QR code made me download the Topgolf app. Not the end of the world, I guess. I found the food and added to my cart. I couldn't figure out how to "sign in" to the bay so that I could actually order the food (you can't order it until you are in the bay - which we already were). I tried several times before I found a login area and it auto-logged me into my bay. If it were that easy and I approved the app to see my location, why didn't it auto-login me in to my bay? Now that I know, I know - but we waited 12 minutes while I figured it out (and had to play a round in the middle of it) before we could get our food ordered.
The food was decent. I got regular fiesta nachos and a side of fries. For the price, they are OK, but there wasn't much on the nachos and the fries needed ketchup (or ranch, or some kind of dipping sauce, and they came with none).
We finished up our 2nd game right about the time that our gametime expired. The game froze up with 15 minutes left to see if we wanted to extend our game time and I couldn't figure out why the ball wouldn't release for my turn until someone pointed to the tablet. All told, for the fiesta nachos, fries, and an hour of golfing, it was about $70 (plus the tip). Not egregious, but you can get a lot more out of $70 than an hour and snack bites for that amount. We also played just before noon, so we got the lowest per/hour rate. It would have been more if we had shown up later.
Still - I would definitely come back. There was plenty of room for more people, although we'd have to play longer to get through the games with more players. Food ordering would be more simple. We didn't try any drinks, but we were brought ice water when we got to our bay. Overall, it is a fun place and not a bad way to spend a little bit of time - if you are good with the pricing.
