How artificial surfaces could revolutionise winter golf practice at your golf club

07/11/2024

As winter approaches and outdoor facilities become less playable, artificial putting greens and other synthetic surfaces are revolutionising golf practice by providing year-round solutions for both golfers and PGA Professionals.

PGA Professional Paul Hebdon is an expert in the design and installation of synthetic putting greens, providing golfers and facilities with solutions for practice year-round. He set up his company, Golf4Home, which is based in West Yorkshire and specialises in designing and installing artificial grass putting greens.

Here, Hebdon shares insights into his journey setting up Golf4Home, and how synthetic surfaces are offering PGA Professionals an innovative way to continue coaching during the colder and darker months—a trend further supported by PGA Partner Zen Green Stage, whose cutting-edge, fully-adjustable putting surfaces create a realistic and accurate indoor experience.

Hebdon began his golfing life at Pannal in Harrogate where he began his PGA apprenticeship before completing his qualifications at Fulford. He has since led a varied coaching career – he would work in Austria before he was appointed head professional and golf operations director at a resort in the country. He was also appointed a national coach and found time to play on the Asian Tour and the Space Coast Tour in America. Now, he lives a very different life, having set up Golf4Home four years ago.

What prompted you to set up Golf4Home?

I set it up with a partner who I've been friends with since childhood. He's had several successful businesses and we always thought it would be nice if we could do something together. He was selling one of his businesses which allowed him more time to look for something else and so it was the right time for us. We now have nine people who do work for us which ranges from website and video design to the labourers and grass fitters. I'm one of the directors but I'm pretty hands on with all the meetings, business development and social media.

How much has your PGA background helped?

I'm a PGA Fellow Professional, I've earned the Association’s Director of Golf qualification and I've attended their seminars around the world so I've always tried to do as much education as I can. And then obviously, if you've got the badge behind you, it has some clout and adds some trust. I think people are always impressed when they hear that you're a PGA Professional as well. We’ve also recently teamed up with PGA Professional Peter Myers, who owns Dunes Driving Range and Golf Shop in Fraserburgh, and he will help us with the direct grass sales, online accessories side of the business and marketing.

Do you work with golf clubs as well as individuals?

We've seen the business developing so we're looking to make grass sales directly to golf clubs, for things like pathways and teeing grounds. If they're wanting an artificial putting green to make it more playable 12 months a year, then that's something we can do. We're trying to work with more pros and we are going to do Marcus Armitage's at some point soon. It's definitely something that we'd like to do more of and we're also looking at doing some kind of specialist accessories. We’ve recently agreed with Arc Master, who have just developed a putting teaching aid with Dr Paul Hurrion, to be their worldwide grass partner.

What trends have you seen over the past four years?

The home entertainment business is increasing all the time. More people are still working from home and generally wanting to spend more time at home and the putting green is such a good social thing as well. When you're having friends over in the summer you can go out there or if you've got children, it’s great. It ticks a lot of boxes. You're not always having to get in the car and go somewhere, it's just there for you. So it's a good time to have launched the business.

How much do artificial bunkers play a part in the business?

This is something we have done but there’s more upkeep needed. For a putting green, the maintenance is really minimal. You're not having to do anything apart from to blow the leaves off occasionally. The bunkers tend to attract all the leaves and twigs and they involve a lot of maintenance. If you've got a huge area then you have room to work with and it's easier to maintain so it just depends what your circumstances are.

What's the secret to a good putting green?

It just depends on the customer really. It's mainly running somewhere between 10 and 12 but you can go slower. It's what you add on top, the top dressing that really affects the speed. So you're looking for a hard-wearing surface and you want a non-directional pile so the ball rolls nice and smooth. It's also what you put underneath really is what is important, that you're putting in quality sub-bases and that you're putting in enough of the sub-base that it's going to hold up and drain well.

What sort of promotional activity do you undertake?

What really works for us is Instagram. So I'd say that, TikTok and Google Ads which we've had some success with. But we get a lot of business through our Instagram account and we get quite a lot of celebrities who play golf following us.

What's the favourite layout that you've done?

We did a target green for the World Superbike racer Sam Lowes. We did his putting green last year, extended that and now we've built a target green in his field next door. That was good fun and the first one of those that we'd done. It was different to anything else and we built little mogul hills around the side, a few grass bunkers before the green and then mounded up all around the sides. That will take a couple of months to settle all the grounds around it but it will look amazing.

I love it. I can't wait to go to work every day, I wake up in the night thinking about it and what we're going to do next.