After being closed for four years as a result of an expensive court battle, Plenty View Golf Park in Melbourne’s north east is looking forward to welcoming patrons back to a new and improved facility, following its re-opening late last year.
In late 2009, the driving range – located in the suburb of Plenty – was ordered to pay $15,000 in damages to the owner of the property next door after the person complained about golf balls being hit onto her land.
Unable to prevent every golf ball from landing on the neighbour’s property, Plenty View decided to close shortly after the court case.
Last year, however, it bought back the neighbouring property, which paved the way for the driving range to start trading again.
“Buying the property was the best option for us,” says Plenty View’s manager Stacy Di Carlo. “The most important thing is that we’re open after four years of being closed. We finished a fairly major renovation as well.”
Di Carlo admits that the period of closure was extremely frustrating for him and his brother, Carmine, with whom he joint-manages the facility.
“We’ve always loved the place and to have something like that happen was pretty devastating,” Stacy says. “We tried to do absolutely everything to compensate for the balls and spent an absolute fortune trying to resolve the situation, even to a point where it might have been one or two (golf balls) that landed on some vacant land nowhere near the house.”
Now newly-renovated, Plenty View offers golfers a multi-level driving range, short game area, putting green, coffee shop and restaurant.
“We installed ten automatic tee machines upstairs so we’re the only ones in Victoria with those. We’re probably considered one of the best (driving ranges) in Australia at the moment. It’s got beautiful views, the golf fairway is magnificent. Half of its synthetic grass, we’ve got lots of large target greens.
Plans are also in place for Plenty View to upgrade its putting green and short game area later this year.
While weekday revenue continues to lag behind weekend and night trade since the reopening, Di Carlo is optimistic that the shorter days of the winter months will bring an influx of nighttime patrons.
“The nights and weekends are great, school holidays in particular are fantastic but I did expect to have more business during the day. Now that we’ve lost Daylight Saving I suppose that’s going to be really good for us because we’re well floodlit. You get a lot of tradies that finish work and head off to a local golf course and play nine holes before it gets dark. They’ll probably lose that option now and winter and the fact that it’s cold and if we have a wet winter, that’s going to be even better for us. We’re well set up in regards to being undercover. The bays downstairs, not only are they well-covered, but its set into the ground so it does become a lot warmer there.”
In a further bid to increase daytime business, Plenty View is planning to encourage local schools to get involved in clinics during school hours.
“We need to push that and promote it in a way that we do special things during the day,” Di Carlo says.
Plenty Views Golf Park is located at 206 Yan Yean Road , Plenty 3090. Phone: (03) 9436 1411. Or visit: facebook.com/pages/Plenty-Views-Golf-Park/1420522928181942
A four-time winner of the Australian Golf Media Awards, including Best Photojournalism, Best Opinion, Best Column and Best Photographic Presentation, Inside Golf Group Editor Richard Fellner is the quintessential Golf Tragic, having played the game for over 50 years (but has never gotten any better!) He has played and reviewed courses all over the world, and has interviewed many of the great players of the game (including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Greg Norman). Richard is a member of both the Australian Golf Media Association and the Golf Society of Australia, and has been a featured guest on many Australian "sports talk" radio shows and networks, including ABC Grandstand, SEN 1116, Melbourne Talk Radio 1377, 2GB and others.
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