Essex Golfer

Well Now Summer has all but disapeared, Two old has beens set out on the trial of as many golf ranges as possible to keep the appetite wet till the nights get lighter once again and we can make it back to the  courses. 

Over the darker months we will be giving a light hearted review to all the ranges visited, if we think they are good value for money and if any of them offer anything different to the standard hit the ball into the field and try and guess where it landed. Please check back as and when you have the time generally will be updating this once a week and hope to have a top ten once we’ve managed to visit 10.

PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE OUR OPINIONS OF OUR EXPERIENCE ON THE PARTICULAR DAYWE VISITED AND ARE NOT SUGGESTING THAT THIS WILL BE THE CASE ON EVERY VISIT. 

Well the first stop on our travels was

Rayleigh Golf Range

We visited rayleigh golf range on a wet monday night, it’s a very clean place with 18 undercover bays and a reasonably well stocked shop. We Purchased the middle range bucket of 75 balls for £4.  The Range itself has a reasonably new feel to it ,my understanding is that it has only been established around 5 years. The bays are either side of the shop itself and have a fair amount of space they are very basic. There wasn’t a selection of tee sizes which was a bit dissapointing as I like to play off a low tee myself. The mats were in good condition, however were not in any sort of holder so we found that they moved in all directions after a few shots. the field was a little bland with not enough features,they have made some effort to put a couple of chipping nets in and the customary Yardage markers but not much else going on. As the bays are either side of the shop that could be a possible reason as effectivly they are trying to fill 2 ranges.

Overall fair value for money and scores a 6 out of 10.

ST CLERES GOLF RANGE – Stanford – Le – Hope

St cleres is the range that is closest to my house so I’m a regular visitor of this place. St Clere’s is a smallish Range with only 15 covered bays which is situated away from the course and golf shop. this is a tidy range and does have a variety of tee sizes but you have to walk up and down the bays to look for them. the mats are in good nick ,the bays are very basic but have plenty of room and some of them have mirrors if you want to watch your backswing.The field has a few flags & nets to aim at but again nothing to set the world on fire. Ball price is Simple it’s £2 for 30 balls or £3 for 60 balls which I feel represents quite good value. It’s away from the pro shop and could probably do with a drinks machine if you are going to spend any time there.

Overall were giving St Cleres a 7 out of 10

The Next visit on a freezing tuesday night was

THE BELVEDERE – Basildon

The belverdere is situated between basildon & billericay down a couple of country lanes if you don’t know where you’re going you may drive past it. When we arrived it was a step up from where we’ve been so far, when you arrive there is a chipping area and a small green which isn’t really very useful when it’s pitch dark but is something extra, the shop is a little disapointing but then do we all really buy very much in terms of golf equipment when we go a hit a bucket of balls. The range itself has 28 covered bays, each bay has additional netting in front of the bay for thoses wayward shots. the bays also have automatic tees, for me this is a bit like marmite you either love them or you hate them. I don’t like marmite so this might be a glass half empty veiw. The auto tee’s have 4 height settings which then caters for all is you don’t want to use the tee then you can just knock the ball off onto the matt and save you pulling one from the bucket I suppose and one’s always there for you, it gives you a ball count so I guess that can be use full if you want to hit 20 balls with a particular club. The down side is that if like me you often take a swing at the side of the ball then the tee starts randomly moving up and down as your lining up which is a bir irritating sometimes.

Ball price here is good value again we went for the 100 balls for £4.50 but the do all levels the cheapest being £1.50 for 25 balls. they also offer a card scheme in which you can get £5 worth of free balls if you put £30 of credit on the card they give you £35. The field itself is not the fullest it has a few nets and flags to aim at I’m not sure what I’m expecting but so far there been nothing in any field to give me a little bit more excitement and would be great to have the flood lights up to the 250 yards as anything over 200 you have no idea where the ball’s landed or if it took a right turn at the last minute.

I guess none of these things make you go WOW I must go there, but I think this is slightly better than your run of the mill range is kept well and is definatly the best so far.

We are giving The belvedere 8 and a half out of 10  but I may revise this after I’ve visited a few more.

The Next on the Review is

Dunton Hills Golf Range - Brentwood

Now we are well into november our evening sessions are getting colder, we visited Dunton hills on a monday evening. As you arrive your first impressions of dunton is that it’s nice clean and very welcoming. the guy’s in the shop where you have to purchase your tokens are very freindly and willing to answer any questions you might have. The shop also has a seating area and a few drinks machine’s if you need one. There is also hot food available unfortunatley not at the time of night that we arrive. Duntons set up is very focused on teaching and they run many courses, I even managed to have a chat with one of the pro’s about what they teach which was a nice touch being as I look like a bit of a hooligan. The price for Balls is reasonable Value at £2 for a small bucket of 30 and £3 for a 60 ball bucket.

On the range itself, unfortunatley it is lacking a little in maintenance there are 20 bays . You enter the range in the middle and they are bays to the left and right the coaching bays are on the right hand side, they do have a mixture of automatic tees and manual so you at least have a choice. We used the auto tees much as though I don’t like them I was feeling lazy, the field itself had a target at around 75 yards but from where I was standing it was pretty difficult to see what was on it there were chipping nets at 50 yards and 1 flag in the middle of the range but that was about it.

We feel that this could be a much better place with a little care and attention and maybe a cleaner or 2. This is a nice place to go and would love to be able to say some more posative things about the range it just need a little tlc.

We are giving this place 7 out of 10 but that mainly because of the place and not the range facilities.  

Our Next Visit is to South Essex Golf Centre tonight(09/11/09)    

 will report back soon