As some Canberra sports facilities are closing down or left in a crumbling state, a state-of-the-art revamped venue is set to be unveiled in Narrabundah.
Canberra International Golf Centre will complete stage two of its redevelopment by December and be relaunched under the Swing City brand, becoming the biggest of the Swing City venues in Australia.
The complete facelift will see the famous clubhouse fully renovated, with bars, a bistro and function rooms to connect to the refurbished 18-hole pitch-and-putt, 18-hole mini golf course and interactive driving range.
The Narrabundah site was sold to new owners in April last year and the 64-bay driving range was the first thing to get a Top Golf-esque glow-up, with ball-tracking and social gaming technology added to make the sport more accessible to all ages and skill levels.
The clubhouse lease was only acquired this year and between now and November "significant investment" will be undertaken to finish Canberra's newest sports facility.
"It will have all the full elements of a Swing City, like entertainment and the food and beverage component, and to allow us to do that, we have taken an additional premises next door to the driving range, the clubhouse," Jason Foxman, part of the new ownership group Mulpha-Swing City, told The Canberra Times.
"It's a really nice environment that will tie in everything for the traditional golfers, the entertainment golfers, and bring in a new generation of people into the sport.
"It will be a massive premises with an upstairs function room, a downstairs bistro, multiple fireplaces, an alfresco dining space, pool tables, outdoor yard games, and table tennis.
"There will be a kids party area and entertainment options, which then will lead into the driving range and wrap around with the mini golf and pitch-and-putt."
The new golf complex comes as Canberra sports facilities like the Kaleen Indoor Centre are set to close, and as the Tuggeranong ice rink, Casey hardcourts and Throsby playing fields projects have been shelved.
The first round of upgrades at Narrabundah was completed last September, and included new radar-based range technology with screens and seating areas added to bays, and 12 new artificial turf targets were also installed on the 220-metre-long range.
Boasting golf data accuracy within one per cent covering spin rate, launch angle, ball flight, and individual club performance reviews, it was a major improvement from the beloved old Narrabundah facility which hadn't received upgrades of this magnitude before.
The mini golf course is still receiving upgrades with more obstacles and features being added, and the pitch-and-putt has had extensive grass and tree maintenance. Graeme Moore is the on-site club professional.
"Since the first stage the preparations for stage two and the rebranding of Swing City is underway, so we intend to launch in late 2026, towards the end of November or early December," Foxman said.
"We always thought that this driving range is a real key piece of Canberra sports. We've been bringing it up to modernize it, and have accessibility for everybody.
"Working with Golf Australia we want to be getting people into the sport, and the measure of golf take-up has changed. It's not traditional on-course golf anymore. That's actually about 50 per cent of the makeup and half is off-course golf, like mini golf, simulators, and venues like ours.
"We think that it's going to be around for a long time and continue to grow as a community asset with a real link to other sporting groups."
