Beyond the green: How PopStroke’s Greg Bartoli and Synovus teed up a game-changing partnership

Greg Bartoli doesn’t just build entertainment, he builds ecosystems. Spaces engineered for connection, designed for scale and grounded in experience.

By 2013, after over a decade on Wall Street, Greg made a deliberate shift. With a young family at home and a keen eye for opportunity, he wasn’t looking to replicate the status quo—he was ready to reinvent it. He’d already invested in Florida real estate. Now, he wanted to create something that brought people together.

Lighthouse Cove was the proof of concept: mini golf, reimagined through a hospitality lens. It worked. But Greg saw white space. What if this could be bigger? What if it wasn’t just a game, but an immersive experience for all ages?

That idea became PopStroke.

“Synovus didn’t ask me to shrink the vision. They helped expand it.”

Blending custom putting courses with on-course service, chef-driven menus, crafted cocktails and curated entertainment, PopStroke redefined what “family-friendly” could look like, without sacrificing experience for scale.

“You can stand there on any given night and see grandparents playing with their grandkids, college students hanging out, couples on a first date,” Greg said. “That’s what makes it different. PopStroke was built for everyone.”

But building something new doesn’t come without friction.

As the vision took shape, Greg needed a financial partner who understood the pace and potential of what he was building. His former bank didn’t. “Every conversation felt like I was pitching,” he said. “Trying to get them to see what I already knew.”

Then came Synovus.

From their first meeting, Greg knew the conversation was different. “I didn’t have to sell the vision—he already saw it,” he said of Synovus banker Mike Walker.

What followed was a relationship grounded in clarity and speed. Synovus refinanced his existing debt and designed tailored lending solutions that flexed with every phase of PopStroke’s growth and scaled alongside it.

Today, PopStroke operates 20 locations across the U.S., with more underway—and industry leaders like Tiger Woods and TaylorMade Golf Company on board.

For Greg, the difference is clear. “Synovus didn’t ask me to shrink the vision,” he said. “They helped expand it.”