An ownership survey found that the average golfer was averaging four to 10 trips to a driving range each year. Now, regulars can warm up for a round or visit the club for practice they previously would go elsewhere for. In addition to the 16-bay driving range, the Marshfield, Mass. club is introducing a new dining establishment to service guests as part of a two-year expansion process.
This summer, Green Harbor Golf Club in Marshfield, Mass. will debut a furnished, covered 16-bay driving range designed to appeal to both experienced golfers and those new to the game, the Marshfield Mariner reported. The range uses Toptracer Range technology, which Manager Jordan Lamothe said opens it up as a fun, informative experience.
“With all of these tools, it allows people to use different clubs and have different experiences and learn what golf is all about and what kind of shots they can make without just going out to the course for five hours,” Lamothe said.
Toptracer tracks each shot via camera array and gives the golfer detailed information on their shot on a screen at each bay, the Mariner reported. Toptracer also has various games that golfers can use to compete against one another—and against anyone else using the technology at other ranges.
Golfers can also virtually play famous courses in the United States and Europe, whose features are digitally mapped out, with the actual shots taken in Marshfield reflected on screen, the Mariner reported. The technology also includes games designed for young golfers, like “Go Fish” where each shot “catches” one of many different fish, collecting the catch on screen.
Green Harbor’s owners surveyed their customers, finding that the average golfer was averaging four to 10 trips to a driving range each year, the Mariner reported. Now, regulars can warm up for a round or come to the club for practice they previously would go elsewhere for.
One feature of the range that is sure to appeal to golfers of all skill levels: balls rise, already on the tee, from the ground, and automatically brings up a new one after each shot, the Mariner reported.
The range is part of a two-year long expansion process for the third-generation family business, the Mariner reported. Board Chairman John Harrington said the business is adjusting to the way the golf industry is evolving—in the last 10 years, 800 golf courses have gone out of business, while 2,300 driving ranges have opened.
“It clearly shows that the market is changing, the industry is changing,” Harrington said. “We have this beautiful, bucolic setting that [golfers] exclusively get to enjoy, we need to be able to invite a larger audience to enjoy the same incredible vista.”
While enjoying the new driving range, golfers can order food from another new development, the golf club’s new restaurant, Winslow’s Kitchen and Bar, the Mariner reported.
“We used to be a place where you could get a hot dog and a beer, maybe an egg salad sandwich,” Harrington said. “Now, we have an executive chef, so that’s a game changer.”
As the business changes, though, Harrington said the club is committed to sticking to his family’s mission, the Mariner reported.
“We want to have a place here where you feel comfortable bringing your kids at night, having something to eat, letting the kids run around the putting green,” he said. “We’re a family business, we’re stewards of the memory of the family.”
This memory lives on in one striking physical manifestation; an old family home had to be removed to make way for the driving range, but the fireplace hearth from that structure lives on to heat the restaurant’s patio, the Mariner reported.
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