One of the longest running arcade game series, Golden Tee has maintained a large following and spawned a competitive tournament scene.

[2] The Golden Tee series began as a project at Incredible Technologies to create a large scale golf simulator for sizable family entertainment centers.

The idea was scrapped, but not before programmer Larry Hodgson had already written software to create virtual golf courses.

Released in 1989, the first iteration was sold exclusively as a kit that could be used to convert existing arcade machines to Golden Tee.

The first test tournament, held on 24 game cabinets in the Chicago area from November 24 to December 17, 1995, awarded real money to the winners, including a $1,000 grand prize.