A Place I Live: The Islands Golf Center

You can’t even imagine my excitement at finally getting to hit some balls at The Island Golf Center in Anaheim. After passing by the driving range several times I had a feeling it would be fun, but had no idea how much fun until I was actually there. I’m no serious golfer, so if you are, take this all with a grain of salt.

At The Islands driving range, golfers tee off a ridge above the range which isn’t a typical range at all, but part of the Orange County reservoir system off of the Santa Ana River. That’s right; you are hitting balls into a 10 acre lake filled with manmade islands and boats which are obviously perfect targets to hit.

 

Since we were in the middle of our bike ride of the Anaheim Coves we took our large basket of balls, loaner clubs and bikes down to the middle of the golfing platforms and went to work. I was a little rusty since I don’t think I’ve been to a golfing range in about a year. Maybe longer.

I used to accompany my dad to the golfing range growing up and for me the best part about the range was seeing how far I could hit the ball. At traditional golfing ranges your ball gets lost sometimes and you don’t quite see where it lands on the grass. It is totally the opposite when you are hitting into water! Seeing the splash when the ball hits the water is fantastic. Even better is trying to land the ball on one of the floating islands or inside one of the boats.

 

The golf balls are pretty neat. They are called Floaties and are buoyant so that they can be recovered by the Island’s recovery boat. According to the pros Floaties don’t have the distance of traditional golf balls, but who cares when you are having so much fun. Did I mention our visit was on a Saturday afternoon and it wasn’t too crowded? Perfect!

If you need the perfect blend of serious golfing and miniature golfing silliness, The Islands is the place to be.

Aloha!