This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Five Ponds Opens New Practice Facility

The Five Ponds Golf Course opened its new practice facility on Friday. The course will provide new and experienced golfers with a place to practice and ease the overuse of the current driving range.

The Five Ponds Golf Course in Warminster opened a new practice facility Friday morning to give new and experienced golfers a place to practice as well as to ease the overuse and crowding of the current driving range.

The course, located on Street Road, features three greens and approaches and three sand bunkers.

Most work for the course was done "in-house" with additional contributions made by local vendors and Warminster Township.

Find out what's happening in Warminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to a press release issued by Five Ponds, the project was completed at a cost savings of $40,000.

Golf Course Superintendent Eliezer Rodriguez was present to cut the ribbon on the new facility on Friday at 10 a.m.

Find out what's happening in Warminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Rodriguez, who has been in the golf business since age 15, has been working on the project for the last five years, he said.

Township Manager Bob Tate was also at the opening. Warminster Public Works aided the project by donating and moving soil for the new course.

"We looked at the project and said we liked it," Tate said. "We put our blessing on it. It's a great addition to the course."

Some designing and building was done by Jim Waitkus and Waitkus Design of Newtown.

"We fought the rain all spring long," Waitkus said. "I'm hopeful for a lot of kids and youth groups to use the course, who might feel intimidated by the larger course."

$1,500 worth of turf was donated by Jim Morgan of Seeton Turf. Morgan said that he was approached by Rodriguez about the idea and was instantly interested in helping build the facility.

"It seemed like a no-brainer," Morgan said. "[The facility] is gorgeous now, certainly more than I expected and it's only going to get better."

Gary Deetscreek, who runs a golf camp at Five Ponds, was the first to play the new facility, breaking it in with a chip off of the front approach.

Deetscreek then brought members of the golf camp to try out the new practice course.

Art Blank, of Doylestown, a 40-year golf veteran, has been a customer at Five Ponds for 23 years.

"It's very unique for a public course" Blank said. "It raises the bar."

Blank has been coming to Five Ponds since it first opened, he said. "The course was all mud and grass at first, we didn't think it had a chance," Blank said, "It has certainly come a long way from that.

The practice facility is available to all patrons of Five Ponds during regular golfing hours, 8 a.m. to dusk, the press release said.

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?