Golf is at war with itself: on one side, the tucked-in, collars-and-socks traditionalists, their ranks split over whether to surrender or stand up against the advancing high-tech hordes of neon-lined, balls-and-beers entertainment centres.
Kevin Haime, however, may have just brokered a peace accord.
Haime, the co-founder with wife Lisa of the Kevin Haime Golf Centre, has kitted out the sprawling outdoor practice range in Kanata, a suburb outside of Ottawa, with Toptracer Range technology – an elaborate network of cameras and lights that track how a golf ball behaves in flight.
It’s the first facility of its kind in Canada and a perfect blend of the game’s battling factions: paradise for golf purists, but packed with no-pressure fun for the untucked newbie.
“Nets are for fishing,” Haime says of typical indoor practice facilities. Instead, his nearly 30-year-old business is entirely outdoors, with 21 covered, heated hitting stations, 34 open-air tees and a grass hitting area, as well as a sprawling short-game practice area.
But Haime remains a champion of high-tech help. Devices like the Blast Motion putting sensor are a fixture at the Kevin Haime Golf School, while the Power Tee automatic ball dispensers make stooping to tee up a range ball a thing of the past.
But with Toptracer Range, a division of the Topgolf juggernaut currently turning the game on its head around the world, Haime has transformed a routine trip to the practice tee into a multimedia experience. Screens mounted within easy reach of the player track and display the flight characteristics of every shot.
Players can monitor the curve and trajectory of each shot, as well as document the distances they hit. They can also hit to real-life targets and chart their accuracy, stage long-drive or closest-to-the-hole contests and even play virtual golf on a wide selection of world-class courses, integrated seamlessly with the flags and targets installed downrange.
There’s an echo of Topgolf, the entertainment centres where customers order pitchers of sangria, plates of chicken wings and nachos, and occasionally hit golf balls to brightly lit targets that electronically register a hit.
But Topgolf, this ain’t.
