How Chipshot Pickleball Built a Smarter Eatertainment Model with GoTab’s POS

Across the country, pickleball clubs are becoming more than places to play—they’re becoming multi-experience destinations. Guests expect great food, cold drinks, seamless ordering, and zero friction between matches. That expectation has given rise to a new wave of pickleball club POS systems designed to power high-volume, high-fun venues that blend hospitality, recreation, and community.

No one embodies this movement better than Thomas Walsh, founder of Chipshot Pickleball in Jacksonville, Florida. A former professional golfer and University of Virginia All-American, Walsh traded the Korn Ferry Tour for a new kind of challenge: building a 30,000-square-foot sports and entertainment venue featuring eight pickleball courts, four golf simulators, a full smokehouse restaurant, and a self-pour beer wall.

From concept to grand opening, his vision relied on one principle—technology should make hospitality easier, not harder.

From Pro Golfer to Eatertainment Entrepreneur

After years on the road, Walsh saw how America’s appetite for social sports was exploding. He’d played at countless golf and pickleball facilities, and noticed one glaring issue: “You’d book a court for an hour, but by the time you got food and drinks, you’d lost 20 minutes of playtime,” he recalled. He wanted to design a venue where guests get their full hour—and more.

Chipshot’s model is built around efficiency and freedom. Guests check in within 30 seconds, receive a GoTab Easy Tab link via text, and can order food or drinks right from their phones. The order fires instantly to the kitchen or the self-pour beer wall, and by the time players finish their first few points, their food is waiting.

“There’s no waiting around, no awkward card exchanges,” Walsh said. “The power’s back in your hands. You pay for an hour, and you get that full hour of play.”

The Pickleball Club POS That Keeps Pace

When evaluating vendors, Walsh conducted extensive due diligence. He interviewed half a dozen POS providers before selecting GoTab and PourMyBeer as his technology backbone.

“I’m super heavy into due diligence,” he admitted. “GoTab was the most tech-forward platform we found. If you’re not going all-in on technology, you’re falling behind.”

Chipshot runs on GoTab’s cloud-based, entertainment commerce platform, which integrates seamlessly with PourMyBeer’s self-pour beer wall. The system links guest profiles, open tabs, and ordering behavior across zones—from the courts to the bar to the golf simulators. Guests can start a single tab and keep it open across activities without ever re-swiping a card.

This hybrid of QR ordering, RFID integration, and mobile POS has become the blueprint for next-generation pickleball clubs, where guests expect autonomy without sacrificing service.

A Seamless System for Events and Private Parties

Just two months after opening, Chipshot’s event business is booming—more than half of total sales came from private and corporate events. With GoTab, Walsh’s team can set up shared tabs, assign multiple RFID cards to one account, and track spending effortlessly.

“Once we figured out we could add 20 or 30 people to a single tab, it changed everything,” Walsh said. 

GoTab CEO Tim McLaughlin confirmed the data: venues using shared RFID tabs often see 2–3x higher check averages than traditional POS environments. “When you remove payment friction, guests stay longer, order more, and enjoy the experience,” McLaughlin noted.

The platform’s integration with Tripleseat, a leading event management system, further streamlines booking, deposits, and accounting. Each package—bronze, silver, or gold—can be pre-purchased, tracked, and reconciled in GoTab automatically.

Restaurant Meets Recreation

While pickleball drives foot traffic, food and beverage make up 70% of Chipshot’s revenue. Walsh knew from day one he couldn’t do it alone. “I wasn’t a restaurateur,” he said. “So I partnered with the best operators in Jacksonville—the team behind Bono’s and Strings Sports Brewery.”

That partnership brought decades of culinary expertise, standardized processes, and a full smokehouse menu to the venue. Brisket, burgers, and craft beer pair perfectly with a post-game cool down. And thanks to GoTab, every item—from kitchen routing to payment remittance—is automated.

McLaughlin added context: “Breweries and entertainment venues that serve food consistently outperform those that don’t. It turns a taproom into a destination.”

By blending great food, entertainment, and a flexible pickleball POS, Chipshot has become more than a sports club—it’s a community hub where families, coworkers, and friends spend hours together.

Handling Volume, Fraud, and Friction

Running a large-format entertainment venue comes with unique challenges—especially around payments. Early on, Chipshot faced a wave of unpaid tabs from insufficient funds or disputed charges. The GoTab team quickly introduced incremental authorization, a feature that re-verifies a guest’s card as their tab grows.

“It saved us thousands in unpaid sales,” Walsh said. “Now, every time a tab increases by $25, GoTab automatically re-authorizes it. It’s the peace of mind every operator needs.”

These tools, paired with real-time reporting and support, help operators safeguard margins while keeping the guest experience effortless.

From Launch Stress to Scalable Success

The road to opening wasn’t easy. Construction delays, build-outs, and vendor coordination tested every bit of Walsh’s patience. “If I’d known how hard it was, I might not have done it,” he laughed. “But once you’re in, you’re all in.”

After opening just 10 days behind schedule, Chipshot now serves thousands of guests monthly and is already planning a second location in Daytona—this time with 40 taps and expanded RFID integration.

Each iteration gets smarter, more efficient, and more guest-centric—proof that technology and hospitality can coexist beautifully.

The Future of Pickleball POS

The rise of pickleball clubs represents a broader trend in hospitality: the fusion of play and dining into a unified experience. Guests don’t just want a match—they want an outing. For operators, that means investing in systems that keep guests engaged and revenue flowing.

GoTab’s open, flexible POS makes that possible. With Easy Tab, RFID and QR integration, real-time kitchen routing, and automated remittances, venues like Chipshot can deliver the efficiency of modern tech without losing the heart of hospitality.

“People think they’re coming to play pickleball,” Walsh said. “But really, they’re coming to relax, connect, and enjoy. GoTab lets us make that easy.”

Ready to Elevate Your Pickleball Venue?

Whether you’re launching your first club or scaling your next entertainment concept, GoTab’s pickleball POS system can help you simplify operations, maximize revenue, and deliver a guest experience that keeps people coming back.

Download the Pickleball & Padel Playbook for Food & Beverage

Looking to launch or level up your own pickleball or padel concept? GoTab’s Pickleball & Padel Playbook for Food & Beverage distills insights from leading operators, technologists, and hospitality pros into an easy-to-follow guide. Learn how to connect play, pour, and plate with seamless tech workflows, proven revenue strategies, and guest-centric design.

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