Huxley Golf was one of the many leading golf businesses that collaborated with The R&A to help bring its vision for the future of golf to life with the opening of the new Golf It! venue in Glasgow.
Golf It! is a groundbreaking concept which The R&A hopes will revolutionise the sport by making it more accessible and inclusive to the whole community. Situated on the south bank of Hogganfield Loch, this vast new indoor and outdoor attraction boasts an impressive range of introductory golf formats including a twist on pitch and putt, three adventure golf courses, community putting greens and a 52-bay double decker floodlit driving range, while a new-look nine-hole course incorporates five sets of tees to encourage people at all levels of ability to play together. It all sits alongside nature trails, bike hire facilities and street food-style dining and drinks areas.
Huxley Golf was given the unusual challenge of constructing the venue’s huge star-shaped Go Golf It! tees – a world first in golf. Integrated into every hole on the Golf It! nine-hole course, the stars are positioned on the fairway so that they’re within a short smash to the green, making the course easy or challenging, but always fun.
The star shapes were constructed using red sleepers, filled with approximately 5 ft (1.5m) circles of Huxley Premier Tee Turf 2, and finished with Huxley Premier Fringe Turf 35 reaching into the points of the stars.
Russell Smith, General Manager at Golf It!, commented: “Our aim is to make golf as welcoming and affordable to people as possible. I genuinely believe that we have achieved this with a facility that has grown from a seed of an idea into a phenomenal multi-layered experience for all of the family. The inclusion of the Go Golf It! tees are an incredibly important part of the new player journey which have now made the golf course accessible to all.
“Of course, bringing Golf It! to fruition required us to collaborate with trusted partners that we knew would embrace our vision and help us take golf in an entirely new direction. Huxley Golf has long been such a partner to The R&A. From the outset, we knew that there was quite simply no-one else that could give us the high quality consultancy and surfaces that this project required.”
Hugh Fraser, Huxley Golf’s Scotland and North East England Area Manager, worked with the Golf It! team to deliver on this exciting project. He said: “The briefs that we receive at Huxley Golf have kept us on our toes over the years and we always successfully rise to the challenge, but this one from Golf It! was the most unique to date; a challenging fit but an absolutely stunning finish. This project is one that the whole Huxley Golf team has been immensely proud to be a part of and we hope that it inspires and brings immense joy to everyone who visits Golf It!”