Club to open £300k driving range

A golf club in Dundee is to open a £300,000 driving range after the last one was destroyed in a major storm.

Ballumbie Castle Golf Club’s previous driving range, which was the only Toptracer facility in Dundee, was severely damaged in November 2021 during Storm Arwen.

The new facility, which will open in late November or early December, will be “unbelievable,” the club manager says.

The new range will include a practice tool described as “trailblazing,” which provides shot tracing / tracking technology to analyse golfers’ swings.

The facility will have 20 bays under a steel roof with new teaching and fitting areas.

The prolonged closure hit the club’s finances as it was a significant driver of revenue. It came when golf had seen a surge in participation and amid information that there’s 42% interest in streaming golf compared to other sports streaming trends in the UK.

The £300,000 will be made up of £175,000 insurance and £125,000 coming out of the pocket of the owner Ballumbie Investments.

Work on the new driving range. Image from Facebook

Manager Allan Bange said: “We have the building that we wanted. It’s going to be unbelievable. It is approaching a year since it has been shut for now. The insurance dragged its feet as usual, but we got there in the end. We will be the only range like it in the Dundee area. It was obviously tough to take when it was destroyed, but I think people are going to really enjoy having this facility. Drumoig is absolutely mobbed, so there is clearly demand.”

Storm Arwen was one of Scotland’s worst storms for a number of years and caused widespread power outages, destroying woodland and damaging many buildings.

The course at Ballumbie is on the perimeter of the city and took the brunt of the winds, which reached 90mph in some areas.

Locals were warned to stay away from the area as metal sheets and wood broke off from the structure, flying through the air.

But the reopening of the facility will be a big boost to the fortunes of the course, which has lost members in recent years.

The course is going through somewhat of a transformation with three new holes set open.

Two new par fours and a par three will open in March or April next year, with two of them played over water.

The change is taking place because the landowner is selling a portion of land, which contains three of the existing holes, to housebuilder Stewart Milne.

The firm has permission to build 150 houses there, in addition to a development of 76 homes which are almost complete opposite the entrance to the course.