Golf on Your Time: How Launch Labs Is Rethinking the Way We Practice

Five hours.

For a lot of golfers, that might be the biggest obstacle standing between them and the game they love.

Between work, family, school pickups, packed calendars and everything else life likes to throw onto the tee sheet, finding enough time for 18 holes isn't always easy. Sometimes even squeezing in a trip to the range feels ambitious.

The co-founders of Launch Labs Golf, David Gonzalez and Daniel Kang, fondly known as “DK,”know the feeling.

The longtime friends picked up golf together later in life and quickly had the same thought plenty of golfers have after catching the bug: Why didn't we start playing this game 10 years ago?

Their friendship goes back to sophomore year of high school. Since then, they've been best men in each other's weddings, watched their families grow and, somehow, managed to work together at nearly a dozen different companies.

Golf became another thing they shared. And, naturally, another thing to compete over.

But as full-time employees, husbands and fathers, there was one problem: they wanted more golf than their calendars were willing to give them.

"We realized the problem wasn't a lack of desire to play...it was a lack of access," they said.

So they built the golf club they wished existed.

Golf Doesn't Have to Keep Business Hours

Launch Labs Golf opened its doors in Morgan Hill in December 2025 and is a 24/7, 365-day, self-service indoor golf facility built around a pretty simple idea: golf should be available when golfers actually have time for it.

That could mean a perfectly normal afternoon practice session.

It could also mean 5 a.m. before work. Or 11 p.m. after the kids are asleep. Or that magical, unexpected 60-minute opening in the calendar when suddenly, yes, I can golf.

"If the best time for someone to work on their game is 4:00 in the morning or 10:30 at night, we wanted them to be able to do that," the founders said.

The idea grew directly out of their own lives. Finding five hours for a traditional round wasn't always realistic, but neither was giving up the game they had grown to love.

So they started asking questions.

Were other golfers running into the same problem? Were they too early? Was there some reason a 24/7 golf facility didn't already exist?

The more golfers they talked to, the more confident they became that they weren't alone.

Morgan Hill eventually became home to the first Launch Labs location, putting the concept right in the South County community where its founders live.

"We weren't just opening a golf facility somewhere," they said. "We were building something we wanted to use ourselves, right in the community we call home."

Practice With Receipts

Convenience might get golfers through the door. Once they're inside, though, the numbers take over.

Every Launch Labs bay uses Trackman iO, giving golfers immediate feedback on what's actually happening during each swing.

For golfers used to judging a shot mostly by ball flight, the amount of information available can be eye-opening.

Club path. Clubhead speed. Ball speed. Spin. Landing angle. Instead of simply seeing where the ball went, golfers can start understanding why it went there.

And that's only the beginning.

"Where do we even begin?" the founders joked when asked just how much a golfer can learn from a simulator.

And the data is only half the story.

Each bay includes slow-motion video capture for both right- and left-handed golfers, meaning you can finally compare what you think your swing is doing with what it is actually doing.

Every golfer knows where this is going.

Feel versus real.

"When you have the data and video right in front of you, there's nowhere for your swing to hide," the founders said. "The radar and the camera don't lie."

Launch Labs also uses premium turf and gives golfers a choice of five golf balls, including Pro V1, TP5x, Chrome Tour, Tour BX and Z-Star. The idea is to make indoor practice feel less like hitting balls into a screen and more like intentional work on your game.

But all that technology comes with an important caveat.

Launch Labs isn't trying to convince golfers to stop playing golf outside.

Quite the opposite.

"The goal of Launch Labs has never been to replace outdoor golf," the founders said. "We love playing outside!"

Instead, they see indoor golf as another tool in the bag. A place to get reps, understand tendencies and build confidence so that when Saturday's tee time finally arrives, you're ready for it.

And they've already seen that happen.

While playing the nine-hole course at Poppy Ridge ahead of an NCGA event, co-founder Daniel was standing on the third tee when his phone buzzed.

A Launch Labs member had just shot a personal best at San Juan Oaks. He credited a big part of it to the hours and reps he'd been able to put in at Launch Labs.

The founders looked at each other.

"How much better can it get than that?"

So, Who Counts as an "Avid Golfer?"

Launch Labs was originally built for the avid golfer.

But its founders have a slightly different definition of "avid."

"You don't have to be a scratch or single-digit player to be serious about golf," they said.

To them, an avid golfer is simply someone who has decided the game matters enough to work at it.

That's an important distinction, especially as golf continues looking for ways to welcome more people into the game.

Because time isn't the only barrier.

Sometimes, it's intimidation.

Picture the traditional driving range. You're brand new to golf, trying desperately to make solid contact while someone two stalls over is casually piping drives 250 yards down the range

Nothing to see here. Totally relaxing.

At Launch Labs, the simulator bays are enclosed and private. You can't see the person hitting in the next bay, and they can't see you.

Whether your shot travels 10 yards or 300, inside the bay, the ball physically goes the same distance.

That gives beginners room to whiff. To experiment. To learn. To hit the shot that makes absolutely no sense and then try again without wondering who saw it.

"Golf is hard enough already," the founders said, "and we want to remove as much of that intimidation as we can."

Technology can help there, too.

Most people understand the basic language of a video game: screen, game, play.

Simulator golf can offer that familiar entry point to someone who isn't quite ready to walk onto a golf course or stand in the middle of a crowded driving range.

And there's no single "right" way to use it.

You can walk into a bay, pick a course and have fun hitting golf balls. Or you can dive headfirst into launch conditions, swing video and enough data to keep a golf nerd happily occupied for hours.

There's room for both.

As Launch Labs grows, its founders hope to see even more women and junior golfers using the space, too.

"Golf should be accessible to anyone who wants to work on their game, regardless of age, skill level, or background," they said.

From Practice Bays to Playing Partners

For all the Trackman numbers, slow-motion cameras and technology packed into Launch Labs, one of the founders' favorite developments has nothing to do with any of it.

People are becoming friends.

Members meet at Launch Labs, compete against each other in leagues and then make plans to play actual rounds together.

Golf doing what golf does best.

One of the clearest examples came during the facility's first Ladies Night.

Launch Labs did very little advertising.

Twenty-five women showed up.

They played golf, got some instruction and spent time together. By the end of the night, women who had never met before were exchanging phone numbers and making plans to play again.

"That's the kind of thing we hoped Launch Labs could become," the founders said. "We built a place to play and practice golf, but watching a genuine community form around it has been one of the most rewarding parts."

Community was part of the plan from the beginning.

Some of the first emails Launch Labs sent after opening went to high school golf coaches in Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The facility has since hosted local boys' teams during their spring season and plans to do the same for girls' teams in the fall.

Leagues, club-fitting events and private events have followed.

Now that community is starting to move outside the building, too.

Launch Labs' first outdoor tournament is scheduled for Oct. 30 at Coyote Creek Golf Club, co-hosted with Brandon in the Bay. The event will raise money for the girls' golf teams at Sobrato and Live Oak High Schools, along with Susan G. Komen in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with all proceeds set to be donated.