\n If plans are approved, East Sussex National Golf Club in Little Horsted, near Uckfield, will overhaul its leisure offer.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club says leisure tastes have changed since it first planned an artificial grass football pitch and a par-three course.\n<\/p>\n
\n East Sussex National Golf Club (Image: Google Maps)\n<\/p>\n
\n Planning document said: “The hotel and local community would be better served by the provision of a golf driving range, padel courts and an adventure golf course.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Padel has rapidly grown in popularity in the UK, with the Lawn Tennis Association reporting 400,000 adults played it at least once a year by the end of 2024, up from 89,000 in 2021.\n<\/p>\n
\n The golf club said turning the football pitch area into a flatter grass driving range will make it easier to use and better for golfers.\n<\/p>\n
\n It would flatten ridges and drop-offs, spread balls more evenly and make maintenance easier.\n<\/p>\n
\n “East Sussex National intend to use the latest robotic cutters and ball collection units,” planning documents said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Raising the lowest parts of the pitch would improve sightlines so golfers can see where their shots land across the range.\n<\/p>\n
\n The changes follow findings that the original outfield was not suitable for a modern driving range.\n<\/p>\n
\n Previously, the outfield had mounds, ridges and drop-offs that blocked visibility.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club said its architects, Weller Design, drew up the changes and the redesigned outfield will not affect trees, ecology or drainage.\n<\/p>\n
\n The new layout would also include a dedicated short-game area.\n<\/p>\n
\n Michael Taylor, senior planning officer at Wealden District Council, said: “We hope that you might now be in a position to approve under delegated powers, allowing us to programme the main start of works over the coming months.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The club, once called Little Horsted Golf Course, got permission in December 1987 to change the land from agriculture to a golf course.\n<\/p>\n
\n The golf club staged the European Open in 1993 and 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If plans are approved, East Sussex National Golf Club in Little Horsted, near Uckfield, will overhaul its leisure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511727","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=511727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}