Golf Channel’s owner is buying into the hardware of the sport it broadcasts. Full Swing supplies the PGA Tour, powers TGL and traces to Tiger Woods’ own home setup, and unlike key rivals, pays its athlete roster to use it. Versant is wagering that network is worth as much as the screens.
“Sports,” says Mark Lazarus, “are becoming more interactive, more data-driven and more connected […].” The company Lazarus serves as CEO, Versant Media Group, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, producer of sports simulators, especially for golf, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investors. The purchase price is $530 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
Full Swing has been building simulators since 1986, long before “sim golf” had a name. Its technology tracks a player’s swing both with an overhead camera, which follows the club through to impact, and (depending on the model) infrared sensors or high-speed cameras, which pick up the ball in flight.
Full Swing is the PGA Tour’s licensed simulator and the tech partner behind TGL, the indoor league run by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. The range of use between these poles is the selling point.
Tour pros set up the company’s KIT Launch Monitor at home, while recreational venues run Full Swing hardware under the Topgolf Swing Suite brand (the latter being distinct from Topgolf’s own outdoor driving-range tracking system). Full Swing has since applied the same tech to baseball, to measure a batter’s Squared Up Rate and Potential Exit Velocity.
Woods has held an ownership stake since 2015, alongside Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and such non-golfers as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Steph Curry. The names on either side of Versant’s acquisition of Full Swing come from different worlds.
Seller Bruin Capital, which bought a controlling stake in Full Swing from North Castle Partners in 2021 (for $160m), is a private investment firm, buying, building and selling stakes in sports and media companies rather than running them day to day. Buyer Versant is a publicly traded broadcaster, spun off from Comcast in January 2026 and otherwise built around cable networks (Golf Channel, CNBC, USA Network) and digital platforms (GolfNow, GolfPass).
The asset’s market
Full Swing has several serious rivals, each with its own vision for simulators. Trackman uses Doppler radar and has a PGA Tour partnership, renewed through 2030, that provides ball-tracking for tournament broadcasts. Foresight Sports, Uneekor, Golfzon, Aboutgolf and Trugolf all track by camera; Golfzon holds the largest share of the global simulator market and is the official simulator of the US Open and US Women’s Open, while Uneekor has lately pushed into the UK and Europe.
Golf simulator competitive landscape
| Company | Tracking method | Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| Full Swing | Overhead camera (club) plus infrared or high-speed camera (ball), depending on model | PGA Tour official simulator; TGL technology partner; tour-pro home and Topgolf Swing Suite installs |
| Trackman | Doppler radar | PGA Tour partner through 2030; supplies ShotLink broadcast tracking |
| Foresight Sports | Camera-based (photometric) | Strong in club-fitting and teaching-bay use |
| Uneekor | Camera-based | Mid-to-premium home and commercial; expanding into the UK and Europe |
| Golfzon | Camera-based, with proprietary green-reading | Largest global simulator market share; dominant in Korean screen-golf venues; official simulator of the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open |
| Aboutgolf | Camera-based | Commercial and entertainment-venue installations |
| Trugolf | Camera-based | Broad range of price points |
The technique and quality of their tracking aside, the companies differ in their relations with the tours. Full Swing, Uneekor and Golfzon pay individual athletes to represent them: Golfzon’s roster runs from tour pros to college players to an instructor partnership with David Leadbetter. Trackman and Foresight Sports, on their own product pages, make a point of not paying. Pros buy the units themselves, or use tour-supplied loaners. Trackman still has a commercial relationship with the Tour itself, through its ShotLink broadcast deal; the distinction is between paying an institution and paying a player.
Full Swing, for its part, has sought star-power, and is buying it at scale.
