Husband/Wife Team Give Marsden Golf Driving Range A New Lease On Life
The Marsden Golf Driving Range, located in the centre of Logan (Qld) near the Berrinba Wetlands, has recently reopened after a number of years of sitting dormant.
The new operators, PGA member Jon O’Sullivan and his wife Crystal, have refurbished the range which now includes lounge seating, new pro shop facilities, a short game area, and new protective netting.
“The range was designed after consultation with other driving range operators, PGA members and industry experts and each bay gives players a feeling of their own dedicated space along with relaxed lounge seating and background music,” said O’Sullivan.
“Good quality mats, balls and service are top of mind.”
Risk mitigation was another huge priority in the reopening design, explained the couple.
“The new netting has been a game changer for the driving range that at only 70m wide was regularly facing an uphill battle against wayward balls,”
“The individual bay baseball style netting is wide enough to allow good golfers to practice shaping the ball, yet stops wayward shots from travelling wide enough to leave the property boundary.”
O’Sullivan was an Australian representative as a junior, but retired injured after playing on tour for a number of years, and followed his business interests into Head Professional roles in Goulburn and Auckland before returning to Brisbane.
Flood damage
O’Sullivan and his wife has been operating the Drummond Golf Woolloongabba store since 2018, until the start of this year when the renovations of the driving range were completed.
Unfortunately, being located in a run-off area for higher parts of the suburb, the range was hit hard in the recent floods, with water up to chest height in some parts. Luckily enough the water subsided before reaching the playing area or pro shop so the range was able to reopen fairly quickly.
“The major and minor floods destroyed the short game area and bunker which will be redesigned for reopening later on this year,” explained O’Sullivan.
About the range
Marsden Golf Driving Range is only a small boutique range but it is run by a group of PGA Professionals who have thought about what is important to both new golfers and existing golfers in a practice range.
Luke Humphries is the Head Teaching Professional and runs a number of clinics for both juniors and adults, as well as being available for individual lessons. He graduated his traineeship 2nd in Australia and is a former Australian Representative and holds a current Australasian Tour Card.
With PGA Members available daily using current technology from Trackman, clubfitting can be booked across Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 am to 7 pm. On site is a full-service repair center with a lie loft machine, reshafting, length adjustments and regripping. Many of which can be done while you wait or hit a bucket of balls.
