Maple Leaf Golf (MLG), which owns four golf clubs in the UK, has commissioned a neuroscientist to review the customer offering and experience at its 18-hole venue, Horton Golf Park in Surrey.
Stephen Smith, chief psychologist at SPL/PSYenz and is described by MLG as golf’s leading experience neuroscientist. He lives locally and says he has watched MLG change the venue.
“Maple Leaf Golf have been one of the most innovative driving forces in golf for some time,” he said. “As a local resident myself I have watched as they have transformed a venue that was rather careworn and unloved into an exciting destination that attracts whole swathes of the local community who would never, normally, step foot inside a golf venue.”
Smith added that venues cannot stand still. He said any venue in the sector must look to design itself to “light up the pleasure sectors of the human brain”. This is driven by the neurotransmitter dopamine, which creates a feeling of joy when it flows, and that flow, he explained, is switched on and off by our surroundings.
“It has been a pleasure to work with a forward-thinking organisation like MLG who are leading the way in adopting the neuroscience approaches that have been so incredibly successful in other commercial sectors,” he said. “I am sure these approaches are going to explode across the golf market in 2027.”
Smith has recently been working with European Tour Destinations, a global network of world-class golf resorts, on improving their clubhouses, and has in the past written about the ‘seven pillars‘ of golf venue design that underpin the psychological experience of the user.
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