We’d love your help – tell us your views!
We need you, in 2018, to help us decide the best way to make improvements to the fantastic facility we already have in Winchester Gold Academy (if we do say so ourselves!)
As always, we have a few ideas in the pipeline, and would like your views on whether you think they would be a nice addition to the current set up. We would also like to know whether you would see yourself benefitting from any of the following investments. Please send your replies to [email protected]
Adventure Golf
If you haven’t heard already, we are currently in talks with a construction company to build an 18-hole Adventure Golf Course!
Over the past 12 months we have been travelling up and down the country looking at these whacky style crazy golf courses.
Most recently we have been to The Trafford Golf Centre in Manchester to look at their brand-new Dino Adventure Course and we were lucky enough to meet their Senior PGA Professional, Pete Styles.
This was the first time we’d met Pete and from the little time we spoke with him it was clear that his enthusiasm for this new project was infectious. Since the 2 months the Trafford Centre Dino Golf has been open, it is clear that it is a fantastic opportunity to expose golf to non-golfers.
Pete was especially surprised at how many families and children were coming to use the new facility on the side of his long standing 18-year-old, 60 bay floodlit driving range. On the 27th of December over 800 people played on the course.
The current plan is to build our very own ‘Adventure Golf’ in the field adjacent to the Academy next to the overflow car park.
This would be a considerable investment, so we would like to hear your views on it. Also, if you have any ideas on themes you would like to see let us know. We have recently seen themes such as Pirates, Lost Islands, Dinosaurs, Animal parks, Crash landing sites. The plan is to have the site open in Summer/Autumn this year.
LED Flood lighting
Our current Halogen lights at the Academy are both ground level and above the range itself aiming towards the outfield. These lights are incredibly expensive to run, and aren’t necessarily the best at lighting up the whole field.
We have had quite a few comments on visibility of the balls in the evening time and since the change of the colour of our balls from white to yellow, we feel that this has made a big improvement.
However, our research tells us that LED technology has improved significantly over the past 2 years and we have the option to change.
We have seen many driving ranges up and down the country, and have had mixed reviews on LED lights, so it would be nice to hear if any of you have had any experience with these or even have a connection with a supplier.
Or if you would simply like to see an improvement in our overall lighting please let us know.
Academy Golf Course
Don’t get too excited about this, but we thought that we’d throw this idea out there for discussion as it seems to be the most talked about thing at the Academy!
We have our own thoughts on the idea, but it would be nice to know what sort of golf course (if any) you would like to see added to our facility.
Here are the most popular suggestions we get from customers;
- 1 100 yard hole with a bunker and elevated hitting areas
- 3 Hole Academy course. Each hole 60-100 yards long
- 6 Hole Academy course
- 9 Hole Academy Course
If you think you have the answer to what we are missing in this aspect please let us know.
New Range Targets
Since opening in May 2015 we have tried to keep the outfield looking tidy with a very basic combination of range target nets and distance markers.
We are constantly asked why we don’t put a car/van/tractor on the field to aim at.
Would you feel that this would distract your practice every time someone whacked the side of a car or pinged a ball on a windscreen, or would you see it as a fun target to aim for and maybe make your practice more enjoyable? Again, let us know!