Capital gains with #thisgirlgolfs

There are no shortage of big hitters at Greenwich Peninsula Golf Range – and not just the golfers.

To the left of this recent addition to London’s sporting facilities are the city slickers of Canary Wharf, which sits on the other side of the Thames, while the star names of showbiz, regularly turn up and perform next door in the O2.

Standing on the tee on this prime location, you get one of the best views in this part of London – and one of the most in demand with an average of ONE MILLION balls a month being hit.

Owned by PGA pro Declan Malone and his N1Golf company, the site is home to a number of PGA Professionals promoting the game.

One of those pros is Neal Granville, who will this week continue the #thisgirlgolfs initiative in partnership with Sompo Canopious, the parent company of Golfplan - PGA official partners and headline sponsors of the PGA Pro-Captain Challenge.

Granville, provided an insight into the popularity of the facility, which opened last year.

“It was quite a long time in the planning and is a joint venture between Declan Malone, who owns N1 Golf and Nine Dragon who are the property developer for Greenwich Peninsula,” he said.

“They’re going to develop the whole of the peninsula and there’s a massive amount being put in, so it won’t just be residential, but they’re going to create a community.

“This is going to be the final piece they get to and it’s going to be worth quite a lot of money with apartments overlooking the river.

“The range opened just over a year ago and this year, I believe this will be the busiest range in Europe. On average, we’re seeing over a million balls a month being hit.

“The people that come here is so diverse. I’ve never seen anything like it in a golf venue. “We’ve got professional people from Canary Wharf and the City, serious and regular golfers, club golfers, corporate golfers and society golfers. These are the kind of golfers you’d expect to see at a range. But then we have corporate events and even people who don’t play golf but just come here to smash golf balls as a social activity as if was like bowling or going for drinks. It’s set up with plenty of room plus sofas to create that social fun element to it.

It might introduce to them to the game but it may just be that this is a pleasant environment to come and spend an hour or two and have some fun.

“After work this place gets busier. Between 6-9pm it is again quite diverse but you tend to see golfers and wannabe golfers. It can be so busy through the week that some nights people are queuing through the door waiting for a bay.

“With regards to corporate events, we’ve held these with the likes of Barclays, HSBC and the names you can see on the top of Canary Wharf. Some will book the whole top floor, which is 60 bays. We’ll do coaching clinics, which will depend on the numbers. On average they’ll have two or three coaches and food and drink. The clinic will be about an hour and we’ll also have trackman so they can do nearest the pin and longest drive.

“On the junior side the day-to-day demand is quieter but we’ve still done a number of junior sessions.

“N1Golf has set up the N1 Junior Foundation, which is a charity to offer inner city kids an opportunity to try golf,  to come to the range and have coaching funded by the foundation. “That will also be going out to schools. It’s fairly early stages but it is starting to gain some momentum.”

Granville joined N1Golf last October having previously coached at the Cranfield Golf Academy for eight years and then Sandford Springs, where he rose to the position of director of golf. A desire to return to coaching was the key motivator in going to Greenwich Peninsula.

Looking ahead to his session with the women, which will see six beginners take part, he outlined the structure and what he hoped to achieve from the three hours.

“It will be an introduction to golf - ‘week one – learn to play golf’ scenario. This will provide an understanding of the game, the journey they can go on with golf and some of the basics to get the ball in the air.

“It’ll cover playing some different shots the session will be split between basic technique, a little bit of work on putting and rolling the ball, chipping, pitching and an overview and understanding of three or four different shots so if someone did say to them, right we’re going on the course tomorrow, they would be able to have a positive experience.

“I also think it’s important to create an environment where people, particularly beginners, are comfortable and know it’s all right to miss the ball or hit the barrier, or the board and fluff a few on the way to finding the middle of the golf club.

“How often do all of us coaches look at beginners and see them struggle to start with but then hit hat one from the middle of the club. You see instantly their outlook changes to ‘I’ve done it’.”