By Gavin Tagg
On a blustery, overcast Friday in half-term, my son George and I were invited to check out the driving range at Hever Castle Golf and Wellness. I had expected this to be a standard driving range experience, inexpertly blasting range balls off the tee and looking admiringly into the distance ‘following’ them (when of course most balls get hooked or sliced … I would describe myself as an enthusiastic amateur golfer). However, I was not prepared for the digital experience that awaited us.
At Hever Castle Golf Club they have installed a start-of-the-art Trackman driving range. There are multiple cameras which digitally track all your shots, and instantly give you the good or bad news about direction and distance to the nearest metre on a screen behind the tee. If you are interested, it will also tell you other stats, such as your ball’s apex height, speed, launch angle etc.
This was the very first time that I had ever hit a ball on a Trackman range, and had originally thought this was something brand new; I was therefore surprised to see a sign that said that the millionth ball had recently been hit from the range and the club were running a celebratory ‘golden ball’ contest with prizes for every golden range ball you get in your bucket.
The club pro Steve gave us a warm welcome, and introduced us to all that the Trackman experience had to offer. After an initial foray into a virtual pitch and putt course set in central London (which we gave up on because the distances were too short), we tried a couple of the other virtual courses (much trickier!) and eventually settled into a few of the games directed at the younger golfer – one of which involved blowing up cars (Scrapyard), and the other hitting monsters (Magic Pond). Our favourite game was Bullseye, which gave big points for accurate shots closest to the range markers. George’s verdict was: “I would describe the range as a really fun experience, and a great way to get people from all ages intrigued with the sport.”
I would echo this – we spent nearly two hours on the range having fun with the various virtual simulation opens available, when I would usually expect a bucket of 120 range balls to last half this time on a traditional driving range. This is, I would say, a great way to get youngsters into something which exercises their entire upper bodies, as opposed to just their thumbs.
