A high-tech, $75 million driving range opened just north of the Las Vegas Strip barely two months ago, and it has already started laying off employees. Prior to opening, Atomic Golf hosted a hiring event to contract hundreds of staff members to work its more than 100 driving ranges, six full-service bars, kitchens, lounges, and event spaces. Now, the entertainment venue is administering layoffs that will impact up to half of its staffers.
When it opened in March, Atomic Golf was one of four new golf bars to open in Las Vegas. The 100,000-square-foot driving range offers golf play, sports-viewing, and food and drink. On May 24, Atomic Golf confirmed that the new venue is already conducting layoffs, according to 8 News Now. A Reddit user posted a photo of an email indicating that 250 positions were being eliminated. (Atomic Golf has not responded to Eater Vegas’s request for comment.) Staff at Atomic Golf only confirmed that a “substantial” number of staff had been laid off in May, 8 News Now reported.
Atomic Golf
The sprawling four-story driving range next to the Strat has a 212-yard range with technology that Atomic Golf says tracks players’s statistics. A digital Putting District uses projection mapping for its putting bays and a multi-use room called the Astrocade is covered in floor-to-ceiling displays for entertainment or watching sports.
Former Top of the World executive chef Robert Lomeli runs the kitchen, which serves bites like chicharron nachos with chorizo and queso blanco, a trio of pulled pork sliders with pickles, and crispy chicken sandwiches. The VIP lounge has fancier options with seafood towers, caviar service, and 18-ounce ribeye steak.
So far, Atomic Golf’s other new golf complex peers have skirted layoff issues. Those new venues include the Tiger Woods-affiliated PopStroke course at Town Square, the bar and virtual J Bar & Golf Lounge in Chinatown, and the forthcoming adults-only mini Swingers Crazy Golf golf course. Eater will update this story as more information becomes available.