Cork Golf Centre itself is now a state-of-the-art facility with eighteen bays, three Trackman units and a SamPutting studio while a new top of the range tilting putting green has also just been installed. The centre is also a great outlet for beginners and casual golfers with baskets of balls available for just €2.
O’Callaghan is always pushing the boat out on new technology. He teaches the long game but specialises in putting and he is delighted with the new tilting green system. He has big plans in that department for 2023 having studied putting under top tour coach Phil Kenyon.
“I would specialise in putting because I have Capto putting with 3D Quintic ball roll and I have Trackman. My studio has a simulator as well for some swing analysis in the winter.
“I’m currently using a Trackman four but have used the Trackman for the last fifteen years or so. I like the visual side of teaching. Dave also has a Trackman and Steve has one as well so everyone is geared up,” explains O’Callaghan who also operates a junior academy.
“I want to upgrade the Quintic ball roll to the new one with the putter and the ball roll, which covers the contact and collision with the putter so it would be more like a putter fitting and as we have a state of the art putting studio here it would be nice to be able to get putter data.
“I bought the Sam Studio in 2022 which was a large investment and it has full ball tracking and the projector shows the break, the ideal break and what the ball has done along with the video evidence so it has everything in one go.
Hayes dabbles in both the long and short game and along with Keating has been involved with multiple All Ireland winning club teams .
“What can I say about John Savage and Liam Burns other than they are a credit to their profession," says Keating. "The number of golfers that they have coached over a 30 year period has been phenomenal and they always throw new ideas on the table. I couldn’t ask for a better team and we have all been friends for many years.”
Cork Golf Centre is in a unique catchment area, situated in Ballincollig but also just on the fringes of the City Centre which means the driving range is always buzzing with golfers of all levels.
“We get a lot of young people here. We are only five miles from the city centre and we have Ballincollig which has a population of over 20,000 so within ten miles is quarter of a million people. It's a nice area to be in, very wooded and the two euro coins attracts people,” says Keating.
“We also get a lot of regular golfers who just want to enjoy their golf, we get a few very good players too but we’ve always said if our players can enjoy their golf, we are achieving something.”
The driving range is a family friendly facility and the opening hours are from 11am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 11am to 8pm on Saturday while it operates from 12pm to 7pm on Sundays.
