There are hopes that a nine-hole pitch and putt course, alongside a ‘footgolf’ facility, could open on the site of the closed golf course at Woodmill in time for the summer.
Speaking at the Friends of Riverside Park AGM on Monday (March 22), chair Doug Perry said it’s hoped the attraction will be up and running by July 27, and that it will open during school holidays and weekends.
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It will consist of a nine-hole pitch and putt course, with a further nine holes along the river for a football-golf course – also known as ‘footgolf’.
Footgolf apparently uses the same rules as golf, but players kick a football into a somewhat larger hole, rather than using clubs and a golf ball.
He said there were also plans for a mobile café, with seating, where people will be able to “have a cup of tea, with my favourite, bacon sandwiches, and where you’ll be able to watch the river flow past”.
The existing Riverside Park pitch and putt course closed after the 2015 season, reportedly because the council couldn’t afford the £15,000 a year needed to subsidise it. [see also the council's web page here].
A Southampton City Council spokesperson told bitternepark.info: “We are working with Mytime Active (who run [Southampton City] golf course) on a licence to provide the pitch and putt and football golf at Woodmill. We hope that, if all goes well, the facility will be open by the summer.”