The owners of Strathclyde Park Family Golf Centre in Scotland are celebrating hitting a major milestone after the five millionth ball was hit on its 24-bay range just 10 months into the year.
Locally born PGA Professional Kenny Monaghan and his wife Amy bought the popular Glasgow-based venue in October last year, and since that time have invested in the facility, installing Toptracer Range, renovating the fixtures and fittings, and opening a new café.
Monaghan, who was formerly the head professional at Stirling Golf Club, said that buying Strathclyde Park had been a long-held ambition, and leading its transformation has been extremely rewarding given his long association with the range, having often visited it when growing up in the area.
Speaking to The PGA, he said: “I practiced here as a kid, so when we came back from Dubai 10 years ago, my wife said, ‘if that ever comes up for sale, we need to buy it’ I always knew this place had potential and now we’re really tapping into it.
“We added the word ‘Family’ into the name, so it’s now the Strathclyde Park Family Golf Centre, which sends out a simple yet very effective message that we welcome all ages and all abilities.
“We have transformed pretty much everything. We put Toptracer Range into our 24 covered bays, we refurbished the entire building – doors, carpets, windows, the shop front, the lighting – everything. We made it modern, bigger and brighter. We also turned an old shop and trolley repair room into a 35-seat café. Over the next month or so, we’re building a new seven-bay extension that will have two specialist fitting bays and five more public bays. The demand is off the charts.”
The investment has paid off in terms of both the number of visitors coming to the centre and the overall use of the range.
“We estimated that the previous owners saw about three million balls hit each year,” said Kenny. “We had a goal of five million for this year, and we broke that recently. We’ve had something like 60,000 visitors. We get all his data on the Toptracer management system. It’s blown us away by how good it’s been.
“The Toptracer element brings a different type of golfer,” added Monaghan. “We get couples coming here on date nights, which would’ve been unheard of a few years ago. We get loads of families now and we have a junior academy too. For the serious golfer, there is so much for them to keep them engaged too. It’s a competitive marketplace, but with everything we have we can certainly compete.”
The growth has led to the need to hire more staff, especially across the golf team, with PGA Professional Stuart Kerr brought in as operations manager, while Kirstin Scott, who had previously had teaching roles at Gleneagles and Mar Hall, as well being a custom fitting technician with TaylorMade, has also joined on as one of eight new additions to the PGA Professional team.