Shelburne Free Press
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Export date: Fri Mar 29 12:28:07 2024 / +0000 GMT

Driving ranges providing outdoor activity to many this summer




Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

With limited possibilities to enjoy outdoor sports this summer, local golf related businesses are seeing a surge in the number of people taking up the sport.

At the 10 & 10 Driving Range on Highway 10, it has been a busy season as people come out to hit a bucket of balls and spend some time having fun in the outdoors.

The driving range gives you the opportunity to practice and improve your swing.

If you're a newbie, a couple of trips to the range will help you learn how to hit a ball, rather than get out on the course your first time out and find you are hitting ‘worm burners' for 18 holes.

The 10 & 10 Range was delayed opening this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and they delayed the opening even longer to make sure they were ready for the public.

“We opened on June 1,” explained Range owner, Jasbir Kooner. “We normally open in mid April. We were allowed to open earlier but we made the decision ourselves not to open. We wanted to have enough information to keep everyone safe. We didn't rush into it.”

Following the new protocols required some extra work for staff on the site.

While the driving range is open, they have not opened the miniature golf course as they don't want a lot of people handling the golf clubs.

“We wash the balls,” Jasbir said. “We wash the balls twice and we put bleach in there. We try to do whatever we can. The min-putt is closed. We don't rent any clubs. Everybody has to have their own clubs and there's no club sharing.

A driving range naturally provides space between people so social distancing really isn't a problem.

“We've always had extra space,” Jasbir said of the way patrons are distanced on the range. “Most driving ranges have people eight feet apart. Ours are ten feet. We took away a couple of spots just to spread things out. On the grass tees they are about 12 feet apart.”

The range is about 300 yards from the tee to the end of the fair. Although Long Ball Canada comes to the range every year and manage to hit 400 years into the field beyond the range.

Jasbir said they have seen an increase in business this year with many new people trying to get into the sport.

“We are definitely busier. We're finding it busier than ever before. We are busier on the week days and on the weekends we've see around a 20 to 30 per cent increase in business.”

The range provides an opportunity to hone your skills while enjoying a sport that is appreciated by a lot of people.

Post date: 2020-07-02 11:41:55
Post date GMT: 2020-07-02 15:41:55

Post modified date: 2020-07-02 11:41:58
Post modified date GMT: 2020-07-02 15:41:58

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