While the range operations at Washington Golf and Country Club and The Preserve at Eisenhower Golf Course may vary considerably, the common thread that benefits both the oldest club in Virginia and the acclaimed public facility in Crownsville, Maryland, is TurfHound tee surfaces.
TurfHound Inc., is in its sixth consecutive year as a sponsor of the Middle Atlantic PGA Section, and between the two ranges at "Washington Golf" and "Eisenhower,” TurfHound performance tee surfaces can be found in all 38 bays. Brian Golden, a PGA member for 25 years and the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at TurfHound, said the reason for such growing acceptance of the industry-leading surfaces is simple.
"TurfHound tee systems are the best performing products on the market to help golfers experience the feel of hitting off real turf," he said, "and they're a great return on investment for those facilities that are using creative ways to get more golfers to their ranges."
It's TurfHound's exclusive dual-density foam technology that helps players experience the "feel" that Golden mentioned, and at Washington Golf and Country Club, PGA Director of Golf Jay Dufty said such performance characteristics have resulted in an average of 5,000 balls being hit per day at the Arlington, Virginia-based club. With an abundance of data generated by Toptracer Technology, Dufty said there have even been days when 12,000 balls have been struck by club members and guests on the two-level practice structure that features 18 stations for player practice and two stations dedicated to instruction.
Washington Golf, built on only 107 acres, underwent a full-scale Master Plan update to the golf course, which reopened in April 2020. The range, located some 800 yards from the clubhouse, was also re-engineered, with a putting and chipping area, and two indoor simulators within a separate building. The 20 TurfHound stations are split between the two levels of the outdoor practice facility.
"Our members view TurfHound as a quality hitting surface that looks great and performs extremely well," said Dufty. "If it can't be actual grass, TurfHound is as good as it gets. Our members love the spaces built into the TurfHound tee surfaces that allow them to insert their own tees into the tee slot system.
"From a business standpoint, we properly rotate the panels to get the most life out of them, which saves us money, plus the look and design of the hitting bays are very attractive to our players who want to improve their games."
Golden, whose four-decade career in the golf business included his time overseeing the game-changing launch of Softspikes, Inc., noted that TurfHound Inc. enjoyed its best year ever in 2021. The acceptance of the company's premium tee surfaces at public facilities such as Eisenhower, and the continued implementation at renowned private clubs such as Washington Golf, are major reasons why.
The Preserve at Eisenhower golf course opened in May 2021, after a two-year renovation, and PGA Director of Golf Ed Ruiz says the facility also overhauled its practice facility and installed TurfHound Tee surfaces in all 18 hitting stations.
"We went from a 230-yard, limited-flight range to a full-length, 280-yard practice facility with four target greens scattered on the range and precise yardages from each hitting station," says Ruiz. "We've made a major commitment to try to grow the number of players we have at Eisenhower by getting more people on the range. The TurfHound systems are maintenance-free, they're soft to hit off of, and their durability has been great for our business."
Aesthetics and functionality also are key attributes to TurfHound hitting systems, according to Ruiz. "We haven't had to rotate any of the panels yet, and they provide a clean and continuous look," he says. "The people love them -- we haven't had a single complaint -- and our range has done extremely well."
For more information, visit TurfHound.com, follow TurfHound on Instagram and Twitter, and call Brian Golden at 877-377-3100.