When TJ Hirshfield and Doug Piesko stepped on a Delta flight on a snowy day in Detroit last week, they didn’t know what to expect. Just two months earlier, the two players, part of team Tee Times, had won GOLFZON Tour Season 2, taking home $300,000 as a group. Their success on the golf simulator tour had already changed their lives — but this trip would take their indoor golf competition experience to the next level.
From Winning GOLFZON Tour to Playing an Indoor Golf Tournament in Korea
Along with the prize money, another perk of winning Season 2 was an invitation to compete against the best in the world at South Korea’s GTOUR, one of the top virtual golf tournaments globally. Neither player had flown outside North America before, yet they returned with nothing but gratitude and excitement.
“Being able to just compete and the opportunities that GOLFZON has provided is top tier,” Hirschfield said. “It’s a great experience and I hope more people and more good golfers can get to experience what we have to because this is awesome. It’s Unreal.”
“Seoul’s my favorite city now,” Piesko said. “I would say it’s maybe the top experience. This was such a different experience culturally.”
Experiencing the GOLFZON Ecosystem Through Golf Simulator Tournament
Piesko, who competed in both seasons of the GOLFZON Tour, is no stranger to simulator golf tournaments, but seeing the full virtual golf tour ecosystem in Korea was eye-opening.
South Korea is home to over 10,000 GOLFZON facilities, including Zoimaru, a premier golf-focused space featuring nearly 100 TwoVisionNX simulators where sim golf tours take place. The site also houses the GOLFZON Leadbetter Academy, GOLFZON Market and more. Hundreds of fans gathered at Zoimaru to watch the simulator tournament in person.
“It was really cool to see just how many fans came out to watch,” Piesko said. “I got to sign an autograph. It’s very humbling to be the first two Americans to play on the GTOUR. I hope this is something that can happen more often, get the word out worldwide to other cultures, other countries. I hope this can be another stepping stone to have other people participate on GOLFZON Tour.”
Lessons Learned on the Simulator Golf Tour
Although Hirschfield didn’t participate in Season 1, he played an integral role in Tee Times’ road to victory in Season 2.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said. “They’re on a different level than what we are in the states I would say. It’s awesome to compare yourself and to kind of get a benchmark of what you got to improve.”
In an 88-player field, Hirschfield missed the cut by just two strokes, while Piesko fired a -7 in the first round to make the cut and shot 6-under in the second round to finish T46. Yet results took a backseat to the overall experience of participating in the virtual golf tournament.
Ahead of Saturday’s tournament, Piesko and Hirschfield met with GTOUR players Se-Jin Lee and Yein Ahn. They learned tips for playing on GOLFZON simulators and insights into life as a professional indoor golfer in Korea.
Experiencing Korean Culture
The trip wasn’t just about sim golf tours. GOLFZON wanted to share a piece of their origin story with the players. The players immersed themselves in Korean culture — they wore traditional Korean clothes, hanbok, and visited Gyeongbokgung, a royal palace from the Joseon Dynasty and tried a different Korean dish every day.
“It was an opportunity of a lifetime, like TJ said, and I couldn’t pass it up,” Piesko said. “Very grateful again for the opportunity to be here and not have to fork over a ton of money. It’s been a wild experience and it’s something I’ll get to go back home and talk to my friends and family about it and then tell my kids about it in the future.”