Popular Maplewood range re-opened after facelift

Maplewood Golf Course in Renton, Wash. has been a popular place for many years. With its location close to Interstate-405 and near both Bellevue and Seattle, the course has always had big numbers of players throughout the years playing the course or taking a swing on the driving range.

The Maplewood driving range, built in 1995, which includes 30 covered and heated hitting stalls, is a place that has seen its share of thousands of golfers looking to fine-tune their game through the years.

The driving range got its first facelift back in 2000 when artificial turf was installed to make retrieving the balls easier. But over time, the turf had worn down, and the subsurface settled, creating large craters and making it impossible for the range equipment to pick up the balls. Maplewood staff had to resort to several additional hours every day to handpick the range in many areas.

The city of Renton, which owns and operates the golf course, knew something had to be done to the driving range to bring it back. And this year, the city went to work on the range.

The range closed in January and re-opened at the end of March, paving the way for a new look and a way to get the ball picking equipment back on the turf to pick up the range balls.

The work included flattening the subsurface and placing repurposed, used artificial field turf which was removed from a Washington State University play field complex. Additionally, the bottom perimeter border was replaced with treated wood and new chain link fencing was installed to keep the balls in play.

But that’s not all. When the range re-opened at the end of March, customers not only saw the repurposed turf, but there were also new yardage targets. The original range included raised greens and flags. The greens and flags have been removed, in their place came new yardage markers with plans to include more targets to hit at down the road.

Maplewood’s golf course has always been known for its course conditions, smooth greens, and the ability to dry out quickly after rain events and over the past several years Maplewood has purchased new maintenance equipment to give the course an even better look.

For more information on the driving range and green fees at Maplewood Golf Course, call 425.430.6800.