Few driving ranges put technology through a tougher test than World of Golf London. The two-tier facility, which is located right next to the A3 in New Malden, south west London, is among Europe’s busiest ranges, with almost 19 million balls hit last year and with thousands of golfers passing through its 60-bay range set up every week.
Power Tee has been at the heart of that operation since 2012, providing an automated ball teeing system that World of Golf CEO Grant Wright believes has become an integral part of the modern driving-range experience.
Wright first encountered Power Tee after joining the business in 2009, when World of Golf was looking for technology that could make the range easier and more appealing to use.
“We wanted to be at the forefront of this sort of technology,” he says. “Across the four sites that we had in those days, we went with Power Tee and we’ve never regretted it.”
The original commercial case was remarkably straightforward. When customers paid for ball by the bucket, World of Golf compared golfers using Power Tee with those manually teeing their golf balls.
“People who had Power Tee got through their balls about eight minutes quicker per 100 balls than those who didn’t,” says Wright. “It was the easiest business return case you can imagine.”
World of Golf has since moved to a time-based bay booking model, but Power Tee’s value has evolved with the business. Today, operational reliability is arguably as important as ball throughput.
World of Golf leases Power Tee units on a rolling renewable contract that comes with a full-service agreement, ensuring that replacements parts or repairs can be carried out quickly and efficiently without interrupting golf operations.
With bays in constant demand, downtime needs to be kept to a minimum. The facility keeps replacement units available so that if, on the rare occasion that a Power Tee unit develops a problem, staff can swap one out in just two or three minutes, ensuring no loss of income and no immediate need to call out Power Tee’s service team.
“It means that bay is not lost for an hour, which is what we can’t afford to do,” says Wright. He believes improvements in durability have been particularly significant, adding: “There is nothing that comes close to Power Tee in terms of how robust it is.”
For golfers, however, the principal benefits are ease of use. The ball is automatically delivered to a consistent position – at a choice of four different height options – removing the need to bend down between shots and allowing players to concentrate on developing a repeatable swing from a consistent set-up position.
“What our customers talk about most when it comes to Power Tee is consistency,” says Wright. “We have a lot of people who bring practice aids and video themselves, and the fact that they’re not having to bend down and set the ball up every time really works for that.”
That consistency is particularly valuable for beginners and particularly for a facility which runs 97 hours of group beginner and improver lessons every week, delivered by three full-time PGA professionals.
“There are advantages when you’re teaching at that very basic level,” explains Wright. “You set somebody’s posture and they’re not breaking that by setting up the ball again on the tee.”
Experienced golfers benefit from the same repeatable environment, particularly when working on swing changes or using shot-tracking technology. Power Tee sits alongside Toptracer across the range, while World of Golf has also expanded into simulator golf, reflecting the increasing crossover between traditional practice and technology-driven entertainment.
After more than a decade of heavy use, Wright’s assessment is straightforward: “We like Power Tee. We like how durable and robust they are, and above all, they work. And, just as importantly, our customers like them too.”
For a facility built around high-volume golf, technology and accessibility, that reliability has helped Power Tee become not simply an addition to the range, but part of the infrastructure supporting World of Golf’s continued commercial success.
To find out how Power Tee can drive your driving range or golf facility forward, visit powertee.com
