New driving range set to increase membership and access to golf

Alan Chapman, who is chairman of South Staffordshire Golf Club, has been part of the group which has worked to build a brand new covered driving range at the club, which is on the outskirts of Tettenhall.

Mr Chapman said that the new facility, which provides a number of areas with a tee and space for people to practice and which is covered under wood and timber, was built in response to a decrease in young players due to a lack of facilities.

He said: "We have had the driving range for a while, but it wasn't covered and while people could go down there, when there was weather, it was poor.

"As chairman, I've been wanting to develop the kids section and ladies section and, to do that, you need covered areas as they can't have consistent training when it's the winter and it's wet and they get fed up because training isn't on, so they'll go elsewhere.

"That means we've never been able to develop a juniors section, so that was the main reason that we did this."

Mr Chapman said the club had raised £20,000 on a crowdfunding site and then had Sport England donate £10,000 towards the costs, with sponsorships being sold to cover the rest of the costs.

He said that having the new facility was great as it offered more opportunities for people to try the sport and play in all conditions.

He said: "It's massively improved the facilities and what we can offer our members as we're offering them more value for money because they can come down in all weather and use the range, whereas they couldn't do that before because it was wet.

"It's a better facility for our members and enables us to do so much more with the junior section and ladies section and keeps people engaged."

The range was officially opened on Friday, April 26 with a gala dinner at the club, with club professional, former Ryder Cup player and current legends order of merit winner Peter Baker hitting the ceremonial first shot during the event.

Mr Chapman said it was great to have Peter hit the first shot as he believed he was the best pro in the country and spoke about the long term vision for the club with the driving range.

He said: "This is about membership sustainability as the juniors are lifelong and we need to get more kids playing golf and more ladies playing golf and I think this facility can really help us put programmes together in the winter to keep kids engaged.

"I would like to pay tribute and thank all the other members for their help with this as they've put in a lot of work and made this a great facility for everyone."