Five Iron Golf now counts more than 100 locations worldwide, and it has a new way to add more without building them itself. The New York-founded golf-and-food chain on Thursday launched Five Iron Lounge, a licensing program that lets hotels, bars, restaurants and other businesses install Five Iron golf bays on their own properties.

The package includes Five Iron's simulator technology, branding, artwork, furniture and training. It is aimed at markets where a full-size Five Iron location would not make economic sense.

Who signs first?

The first licensing partner is the beer brand BrewDog, which plans to install a Five Iron Lounge at its Las Vegas brewery. The deal gives Five Iron a presence inside an established operator's venue while BrewDog gets a differentiated entertainment draw.

For Five Iron, licensing shifts expansion costs onto partners. The licensee pays for the space and the buildout; Five Iron supplies the system, the brand and the know-how. That is a familiar playbook in hospitality, where licensing (a contract letting a business use a brand's name and systems for a fee) typically carries lighter capital requirements than franchising.

Why smaller footprints?

The Lounge program continues Five Iron's push into compact formats. The company recently unveiled Five Iron Studio, a scaled-down model for franchisees featuring three to five simulators. Studio targets franchisees. Lounge targets licensees. Both attack the same problem: real estate costs that make full-size locations unworkable in many markets.

Five Iron has differentiated itself from other eatertainment concepts by focusing on serious golfers, not just party groups. Customers hit a real ball into a screen powered by Trackman technology. The chain offers lessons, club fittings and memberships alongside games for all ages and skill levels. Food and drinks round out the model.

How fast is it growing?

Fast, by chain-restaurant standards. According to Technomic data, Five Iron's sales rose 26.8% last year and its unit count grew 35.7%. Those numbers landed during a period when Technomic's Top 500 chain restaurants broadly slowed as consumers cut back on dining. Eatertainment concepts with a skill-based hook, in other words, outgrew a soft market.

Founded in 2017 in New York City, Five Iron reached 100-plus locations in roughly eight years. The licensing model could accelerate that pace considerably, since it converts hotels and breweries into distribution without Five Iron signing leases or staffing venues.

What comes next?

The BrewDog Las Vegas installation will serve as the test case. If it performs, expect Five Iron to pitch the Lounge package to hotel groups and regional operators looking for entertainment anchors that food service alone no longer provides.