An exciting new sport and entertainment experience is coming to Glasgow this summer, which is designed to be fun, educational and affordable for the city's families.
Golf It! will be opening at Hogganfield in July, and has seen the team behind the project working with local groups to not only support them but also use their input to help to shape the space and experience itself.
GM at Golf It!, Russ Smith, spoke to Glasgow Live to tell us all about what people can expect from this intriguing new destination that aims to offer golfing activities and fun for everyone from people with just a passing interest in golf right through to old pros.
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Russ said: "This has been a concept that's been in development by The R&A for a number of years.
"With our aim to make the game of golf more appealing and inclusive, it was an opportunity for us to refresh people's ideas on the sport and to try to increase participation and think about it differently.
"We felt that Glasgow was the perfect place to bring golf back to the people, and so working very closely with Glasgow City Council and the team at Glasgow Life, it was identified there was an opportunity to take over Lethamhill and essentially breathe new life into what was at one point an amazing golf course."
Russ explained that Golf It! will be unlike anything people have seen before, and will pull together all of the best elements of the sport alongside other fun activities such as the new Andy and Jamie Murray-backed sport Padel, street food provided by Big Feed on-site and nature trails around the course to really offer a great day out for friends and family.
He added: "We want to attract a new audience; from active families and the people who maybe haven't played before to time-starved golfers and people who have perhaps fallen out of love with the sport."
To create the space the team used a lot of research involving local groups and asking them what they would want from the site, with Russ revealing that what came out really strongly, was that if it was going to be golf then it needs to be golf that was "easily consumable".
Russ added: "What we have now from a golfing perspective is an end-to-end pathway. And that means if you're starting out, we have got a platform for you, and that platform is Park Golf.
"Pitch and Putt reimagined, it features a plastic-headed golf club with a tennis ball, short fairways, a big flag and a bigger hole to putt in, and if you are three or 103, you can play and enjoy the game.
"This will also be connected to the education programme that we are running with schools, which will deliver in-curriculum golf activities to 42,500 school kids in Glasgow over the next five years.
"The same equipment will be used in both the schools and Park Golf, meaning that when these kids want to take their golfing journey to the next level, we are not just giving them a club they've never used and telling them to crack on, actually they are coming in and using the clubs they have been using the whole time."
Alongside that, Golf It! will also have three 9-hole adventure golf courses designed by kids for families.
"We worked with Beano Brain, a group of 60 children between 5 and 12 and asked them if they could design an adventure golf course, what would it look like?" stated Russ. "We were expecting Pirates and Dinosaurs and that kind of stuff, and actually we were pleasantly surprised by what came out.
"The first-course theme they wanted was 'futuristic and planets' as one course, 'sustainability' was another and then the third was 'effects of Climate Change on Scottish landscapes', so we have worked with our designers to create these amazing experiences.
"There are no courses like this in the UK and this has come from the brains of these kids, it's unbelievable."
Golf It! will have a 52-bay double-decker or two-tier flood-lit driving range that has Toptracer technology, and has been spilt into single and double-player bays and team bays where you can come along with family and friends that can accommodate up to six people each and are designed to be social spaces.
And don't worry about needing to bring your own clubs, Russ confirmed that all of the equipment you need will be provided for you.
Russ revealed that 'Play together, Stay together' is one of their real core values and this can be seen on the original golf course, which has been shortened from 18 holes to just nine, with a loop of five incorporated for those who are short on time.
Each of the holes has a par three position integrated into it so as part of that 'play together, stay together' ethos, amateurs can easily go around the course with the more experienced golfers in their group.
The community runs right through the centre of this exciting new experience with Russ and the team working closely with as many community groups as they could to help support them and the wider community in the area.
"We took ownership of the course in August 2021, and this site has given us a real opportunity to connect with the communities closest to Lethamhill and to provide opportunities for employment, for up-skilling, for volunteering and to give young people the opportunity to connect with the sport."
This has led to them working with local groups such as St Paul's Youth Forum (SPYF), based in Blackhill, which helps provide disadvantaged young people with opportunities, who the team are keen to support by offering a space for their social enterprise On-Bikes, where people can come and rent, buy or get their bikes fixed by the apprentices from SPYF.
While other charities such as the Pantry in Ruchazie, which provided over 200,00 meals to people who needed them in 2022, will also be provided with the fresh fruit and veg that they need, which will be grown on the grounds of the Hogganfield site.
And active families looking to get out and explore the area will love the fact that they have created a series of fun nature trails to be explored.
"I think it's pretty unique for a golf venue, that normally tries to keep you off the course if you aren't playing golf, that we instead want people to be out exploring.
"We are actively working with the team at Seven Lochs on a programme to reconnect our audience with nature at our site.
"What's amazing is that your first experience at Golf It! might not actually be about golf and for me, that's better because then we've done our job and connecting with a brand new audience and the by-product of that might be that someone might have come along for something else on site and been introduced to the sport we love.
"We want to create loads of really fun, vibrant spaces where there is no pressure, wear what you want, be who you want, be as loud as you want and just enjoy it."
Golf It! is set to open in Glasgow this July, you can find out more from their website.
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