{"id":251672,"date":"2025-11-08T17:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T17:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/251672\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T17:56:10","slug":"you-can-now-play-one-of-the-worlds-most-famous-golf-courses-in-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/251672\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You can now play one of the world’s most famous golf courses… in Derby’"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can now play St Andrew’s, Pebble Beach and Augusta without leaving the confines of the city\"ReporterReporter Oscar Fisher went to try out the glitzy new venue(Image: Derby Telegraph)<\/p>\n

I recently picked up the golf bug<\/a> while on holiday<\/a> in Tenerife<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prior to this, I’d played a handful of rounds in the last few years, but my golf game is poor, I’ve had no proper coaching, and I don’t have any of the gear.<\/p>\n

If you’re a Facebook user like me, you may have seen this new golf place in Derby<\/a> being advertised recently: Drive in Golf.<\/p>\n

Well, the advertising definitely did its job, because as soon as I saw it, a trip was booked just a few days later.<\/p>\n

You can find the venue tucked away at Unit 8, Merlin Park, off Osmaston Road<\/a>, where visitors can book a slot on one of the five golf simulators, powered by Trackman.<\/p>\n

There are also two interactive dart boards, but my visit last week was purely for the golf.<\/p>\n

The simulator is essentially a projector screen that you hit balls into and your shot is mimicked realistically – allowing you to virtually play any course in the world.<\/p>\n

I quickly realised how realistic it was, with nearly every one of my drives slicing far to the right – just like in real life.<\/p>\n

\"DriveDrive in Golf can be found in Unit 8 at Merlin Park(Image: Derby Telegraph)<\/p>\n

The way it works is, the booths have a square patch of turf with a fancy sensor above.<\/p>\n

That sensor measures all aspects of your swing, from club speed to spin rate, and, rather impressively, transfers that data to the projector screen when you hit it.<\/p>\n

Putting is a bit dodgy, in my opinion, but there is a setting that lets you auto-play the putts, depending on where on the green you land.<\/p>\n

Not wishing to waste any time practising or messing around, my fellow novice friend and I headed straight to St Andrew’s in Scotland, without doubt one of the most famous and iconic golf courses in the world.<\/p>\n

I thought I’d be safe on the simulator, and that it might give me the benefit of the doubt when I played a poor shot – oh, how I was wrong.<\/p>\n

My driving was OK, but I seemed to find the rough with nearly every shot, and a fair few of these balls found their way behind a tree or a bush.<\/p>\n

By the end of the second hole, I’m pretty sure I’d hit 10 over par – it was a shambles, to be honest, but I was enjoying it nonetheless.<\/p>\n

The roughs were definitely my downfall, they really penalise you when you’re in there – and if you’re not careful, you could easily lose a few strokes.<\/p>\n

\"InsideThe facility has five high-spec Trackman simulators(Image: Derby Telegraph)<\/p>\n

One thing I have been asking myself in recent weeks is: ‘Why on earth am I getting into golf now, when the days are shorter, colder and wetter?’ Well, I guess Drive in Golf is the solution to that problem.<\/p>\n

It’s certainly more fun than going to the range, but obviously not as rewarding – or damning – as a proper trip to the course. And it isn’t just amateurs like me trying it out.<\/p>\n

There were some players who had all the top gear having a go, and one of them was cracking drives nearly 300 yards to my right.<\/p>\n

But, to the left of me, a family were playing some of the other interactive games on the system, including what looked like a crazy golf setting.<\/p>\n

The children, who must’ve been under 10, were really enjoying it, and the venue also offers kids’ parties and other functions, so I imagine that goes down a treat with parents.<\/p>\n

The facility also has a little cafe counter with coffees and snacks, and if I remember correctly, I’m sure there were a few beers for sale as well – so there’s plenty of potential to treat it as the clubhouse after your virtual round.<\/p>\n

We went for St Andrew’s, but you can pick from hundreds of golf courses across the world, from Pebble Beach on California’s coast, to the dunes of Tara Iti in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

As for the price, it came out at just \u00a325 per hour for the two of us – which I’ve come to realise is a marvellous price. Another recently opened venue in Sheffield, for example, offers the same service but for \u00a355 an hour – more than double the price. So that price tag is a huge win for Derby.<\/a><\/p>\n

And the whole thing is another big win for the city. You take this, along with the new padel facility in Derbion<\/a> and the pending new skate park next door, and all of a sudden, there’s plenty to do in Derby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I will definitely be visiting Drive in Golf again, and it might just get me through the gloomy winter ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can now play St Andrew’s, Pebble Beach and Augusta without leaving the confines of the cityReporter Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[102310,5904,101,56,54,55,104858],"class_list":{"0":"post-251672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-derby-city-centre","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-whats-on-in-derbyshire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}