Inside Topgolf El Segundo, Los Angeles’ giant new driving range and sports bar

By Darren J. Ponce On May 24, 2022

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Sports dining and entertainment venue Topgolf has opened without much fanfare in El Segundo, quietly becoming one of the biggest places to hang out, eat and play games with friends. The multi-story building and surrounding enclosure opened in the South Bay on April 15 on the former Lakes Municipal Golf Course and Driving Range, with room for dozens of golfers, drinkers and fans spread out over three floors and a ten-hole course. it’s one of the largest sites in the growing company’s stable.

Originally announced in 2018, Topgolf El Segundo is the company’s first foray into the Los Angeles area, with Ontario being the company’s next closest location; it’s the Dallas, TX-based brand’s 76th overall location. The driving range (rental by the hour and intended for parties/large groups) is designed for novices and experts alike. The bays feature an interactive simulation with various points to place balls in certain parts of the range, making it more of a bowling alley than a pure driving range in a sense.

With three sports bars dotted across the floors and catering service available on all flight decks, as well as catering for events, Topgolf has enormous capacity. The fare is fairly standard at Buffalo Wild Wings, from barbecue sauce burgers and chicken wings to meat-laden flatbreads. A disappointing first visit showed very salt-hungry cooking, although the lightly seasoned lemon pepper wings really should be better, and certainly more lemony, for a sports bar menu. The Meatalian flatbread was inspired by a recipe devised at Topgolf Tampa, but there’s absolutely nothing about the soft flatbread to balance the sliced deli meats overloaded with a sodium barrage.

A silver lining: Most dishes hover around the $11-15 range, which in these days of inflation is totally achievable. The Double Trouble Cookie Pan might have been the best item of the day, with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce on a hot chocolate cookie. The drinks are overly sweet, like any chain restaurant bar, so ask the bartender to reduce the syrup and sugar if you prefer. Overall, though, there’s a lot of potential with a place like this claiming to make ‘chef-inspired’ and ‘high-end’ drinks. Hopefully the company sees that Angelenos expect a little better quality of food, even from its sports bars and entertainment venues.

Topgolf is open daily from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays, closing at midnight on weekends.