Hampshire golf club to carry out major improvements

Test Valley Golf Club in Hampshire has been given planning approval to carry out some major improvements to the venue.

The club will demolish its existing practice facility as part of a three-phased project.

It will see a replacement ‘state-of-the-art’ facility built, comprising an office, store, shop, toilets, storage for equipment and golf carts, two ‘teaching rooms’ where customers can practise their shots in a ‘realistic experience’, and 12 practice bays.

The first hole will be swapped with the location of the current driving range and improved as ‘it is lacking in health and safety’.

The short game area will be redesigned and reconfigured to increase the size of the green and include bunkers.

Test Valley Golf Club. Image from Twitter

Mounds, hollows, swales and ridges will all also be installed to make the golfing experience more ‘interesting and testing’.

The expansion will offer more parking spaces, from 110 to 171, and more disabled spaces, which are currently three and will see an increase to eight.

Six electric car parking spaces with charging points are set to be installed.

The demolition and posterior construction of the facility will require the importation of 281,550m³ of clean inert soils per year for three years.

The initial application also proposed the construction of eight lodges; however, the applicant withdrew this element in January 2023.