In the first-year post-install, Mearns Castle Golf Academy saw marginal gains, increasing its yearly total of golf balls hit to just over 4 million. The next year, with Toptracer’s product continuing to improve and gain traction, turnover was up 25% at the Glasgow driving range, growth that continued steadily through 2020.
2020 brought challenges worldwide, and whilst the initial lockdowns in Scotland hampered business, the long-term impact of golf’s wider growth has certainly been felt at Mearns Castle – the number of range balls hit on the range now tops 10 million per-year, a growth of over 150% on pre-Toptracer numbers.
Russell Gray, General Manager at Mearns Castle, commented on how Toptracer has helped the business succeed in the last four years: “Toptracer allowed us to ride that golf participation wave during 2020 and 2021, and maximise revenue during a really strange time. We put up numbers in those years that I don’t think we will ever repeat, and that was almost entirely thanks to Toptracer that we were able to do that.”
The increase in traffic to the range has benefitted the wider business in more ways than one, as the on-site café is more popular than ever, whilst bookings for the venue’s conference, meeting and party rooms have climbed dramatically. On the golf side of the business, the on-site golf course now has almost 20% more tee time bookings than pre-pandemic levels, golf memberships are up, and the venue’s in-house golf professionals are regularly fully booked.
The venue has also seen an increase in non-golfers using the facility, calculating a 50/50 split between golfers and non-golfers of all demographics, across a variety of ages and abilities. In particular, the venue has noticed a significant uptick in 20 to 35-year-olds visiting the driving range, alongside increased numbers of female customers.
“Their software and their experience is constantly being upgraded with new games, new features, and more – and that comes basically every quarter, making sure that there’s something fresh and exciting for the customer. What Toptracer gives the driving range is really something unique and high quality to market and to sell to people,” added Gray.
Toptracer technology powers over 1000 Toptracer Range driving ranges in over 35 countries. Learn more at toptracer.com
