The man on a mission to improve your practice area

Ranges and short game areas can be among the most under-utilised areas at a course. Architect James Edwards,who has forged an international reputation in this field, says this must change if many clubs are to survive

It’s a mud-caked, churned up, patch of grass that’s best negotiated with a buggy as it’s so far away from the clubhouse.

Any of us who have played the game at all seriously, or just yearn to warm up before taking our tired joints out onto the course, will be able to perfectly picture this image of the archetypal beat-up club practice range.

James Edwards made a room full of course managers and greenkeepers sit bolt upright in their chairs at BTME in January when he mused that as many as 1,000 golf clubs could shut in the future as members, visitors and potential players turned away from those with poor facilities.

But he wasn’t trying to cause

headlines – more shine a light on the paucity of options the average club offers customers.

There’s a myth players don’t enjoy hitting balls, that they simply want to turn up, have a bacon roll, and get straight out onto the 1st tee – save for rolling a few putts before they draw their driver from their bags.

But the burgeoning success of Topgolf, and driving ranges that offer clean bays, good quality balls and simulators, has shown that to be a fallacy.

“Golf, in my view, is getting stronger,” Edwards said. “Every one of my friends plays golf but not one of them is a member of a golf club.

“The facilities do not offer what they need anymore. What we’ve got to do now is make sure these facilities are reverse engineering themselves into places where people want to turn up with their families. Clubs need to become inclusive.

“I turn up at Bristol Golf Centre, I’m not a member of a club, and I’ll spend £30 a week hitting balls. They’re reduced distance balls on a cold range in Bristol.

“Why am I not spending that money with my family at a golf club? There’s clearly a disconnect. It’s because member facilities are not responding to what I need personally.”

Edwards, a former professional golfer turned golf course architect, has become world renowned for his work transforming driving ranges, practice and short game areas for forward thinking clubs. His portfolio includes a 1,000

sq/m chipping and putting academy at Moor Park, a 9-hole par 3 course at Cumberwell Park with 1,700 sq/m short game academy, and a new range and short game area at Stoneham GC.

His philosophy is gathered around a concept called ‘Make it Fit’, where the clubhouse, practice facilities and course all work together in harmony to give golfers an easy customer journey from the car park to the 1st tee. Key to that is the ‘Golden 100’, the idea that nothing you’d want to do on the grounds should be more than 100 yards walk from the clubhouse.

“Our perception is that golfers don’t practice,” Edwards added. “But if that range is within 100 yards of your bacon sandwich in the morning would you practice more? “If you saw a pyramid of balls outside the window where you’re having your coffee, and the 1st tee is next to it, doesn’t it make good sense to say ‘I’m going to hit a few balls to warm up’?

“It is a logical customer journey to go from food, to warming up, to hitting balls. That’s why you see loads of guys on the putting green. The reason they are putting is because there is not a place to hit balls and they’re not chipping because there isn’t a place to chip. “That sign I love – no chipping – and there’s always the one person that gets a few chips in. We all do it – because we all want to warm up.”

He continued: “The key word is proximity. Is that facility within the Golden 100? Is it within 100 yards walk? If it is I am going to use it.

“Clubs need to analyse what they’ve got and be honest with themselves. Do they want revenue out of a range?

“A lot of clubs say ‘no, it’s not part of our sales pitch to a member’. I think that’s wrong.

“We need to start saying ‘this is the club’. The 100 yards around the clubhouse needs to be reengineered and all the golden facilities placed in that circle. Without exception.”

So when Edwards is called in to assess a club’s practice and short game facilities, and advise on improvements, everything starts from how far something is from that bacon roll.

What he largely finds, particularly at older clubs, is the range can be a considerable distance away from both clubhouse and tee.

Edwards explained: “I want to practice. I want to get better. I don’t want to walk 400 yards to a field with no quality and waste an hour of my time when I could go to a range with a car park right next to it, a warm bay with TrackMan, and can work on my game, learn the data and go and have a coffee. It’s all in the same space.

“If you go to a range on an evening there are people of all types and abilities hitting balls.

“When they are walking out, they are buying more, because they have to walk through the shop to get back into their car.”

If Edwards seems passionate, almost zealous, it’s because he sees himself as a man on a mission – to create an environment that’s welcoming to everyone, whether that’s the serious player looking to carve out a career on a world-class practice range, or the youngster that’s got a putter in their hand for the first time and is knocking it round a small adventure golf course. The customer journey, he insisted, should be welcoming to the point where the urge to become a member is almost irresistible. He fears that at many clubs, providing the kind of facilities fit for the modern age is an afterthought.

“Has anyone actually spent any time on a world-class short game academy? I was lucky enough to hit 1,000 balls a day when I was practising and playing and so I spent my life on these poor facilities. “I learned my trade on them. But if you have facilities of a high standard that are nearer the clubhouse, I am going to work in front of the clubhouse on my short game.

“I am going to be five feet from the bar where I might want to buy another drink. The pro shop is right there too so the pro can come out and engage with you.

“It’s all related and you have the ability to communicate with the various stakeholders at the club.” Where this can provoke discussion with clubs – particularly those whose courses have some history behind them – is whether to change what you’ve got to potentially improve the experience of customers.

Golf courses are not museum pieces, in Edwards’ view. They’re living things that have been adapted and altered – whether that was a new green here, or changes of bunkers there – from the day the earthmover first got to work.

“We don’t want to wrap these things in cotton wool. They’ve had their day and they’re amazing. But we’re not going to bastardise the golf course,” he outlined. “The point is ‘what makes it better, more current?’

“I love classic Jaguars. I respect them but that doesn’t mean I have to drive around in one. I like to drive a modern car.

“That’s not a bad thing and golf

courses, in my opinion, are no different.

“If you just move ‘that to there’, you open up a world of opportunity for the club and offer something new.

“That doesn’t mean a short game academy in front of the clubhouse. What’s ideal to me is an 18th green in front of the clubhouse, but I want the range going off in a northerly direction nearby.

“I’m looking for them in the Golden 100. If it’s all there we have a game and I’ve encouraged loads more people to join that golf club. “That’s what golf has to change - the clubhouses and the surrounds. If they change the golf courses will never die.

“The club that has the facilities in 2030 will get the members. I know plenty of golfers who are members of clubs, good players all coming through the ranks, and they’ve joined those clubs because the practice facilities are better.”

Visit Edwards Design International at edi-golf.com to find out more

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