A Whole New Meaning for “Net Worth”

When the need is barrier or containment netting, organizations including the Golden Bear courses, The Sea Pines Resort, DubsDread Golf Course, the Boston Red Sox and the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex have entrusted their projects to Golf Range Netting. The Tarpon Springs, Florida, based company provides turnkey ready, transmission powerline-grade netting structures and refurbishments in which the entire structure (both nets and poles) are custom engineered and built to meet building wind codes. For refurbishment projects, the structure, if not already in code, is brought up to the same high standards the company sets for its new-build projects.

In contrast to the hollow, five-sixteenths inch rope border with 1200-pound break strength used by many companies, each hand-built net is woven using a three-eighths inch, solid rope border with a 6000-pound break strength. Whereas some netmakers weave the border through the netting, Golf Range Netting uses a clove hitch to secure the border at eight-inch intervals, with stitching at one-inch intervals.

Golf Range Netting’s guywires are made of extra high strength galvanized steel versus the aircraft cabling that some netting companies use. While aircraft cabling at five-sixteenth inch can be purchased at the local hardware store and has a holding strength of 9000 pounds, the powerline grade, galvanized steel employed by Golf Range Netting has a holding strength of 11,200 pounds at five-sixteenth inch. With larger sizes of powerline grade galvanized steel, holding strengths are even greater, yielding 15,400 pounds at three-eighths inch, 20,800 pounds at seven-sixteenth inch and above 75 feet in height, 26,900 pounds at one-half inch and above 75 feet in height and 35,000 pounds at nine-sixteenths inch and above 100 feet.

Although some golf and sports netting installers rely on single anchors with a 10,000-pound holding capacity, Golf Range Netting installs double helix anchors for structures below 75 feet in height to create a 50,000-pound holding capacity or triple helix anchors for structures over 75 feet in height to deliver a whopping 69,000 pounds of holding capacity.

The strength and resilience of Golf Range Netting’s installations mean structures that are stable and 100 percent maintenance free. Golf Range Netting’s products and installations achieve the client’s objectives and meet code requirements. They are designed with both structural integrity and integrity of purpose. Clients can count on this dedicated company to show them how increasing net heights proportionally to distance can save the client big money and to offer meaningful details, like a skirt system along the net’s bottom border to make mowing and trimming easier.

Withstanding the Storm You Never Expect to Encounter

Canadian born Mark Ramsay founded Golf Range Netting in 1995. He had worked for Ontario Hydro Canada since 1981 and in 1986 became a certified lineman and engineer. After supervising the Toronto Hydro apprenticeship program, training more than 200 apprentice linemen, in 1988, he headed to the Sunshine State to work for Florida Power.

A year later, Mark was part of the Florida Power crew sent to make repairs in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, and in 1992, he worked long hours repairing damaged powerlines in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. His firsthand experience with the power of the storm no one ever expected to encounter reinforced his commitment to engineer and install only the highest quality transmission powerline-grade netting structures.

To date, Golf Range Netting has installed netting at golf courses, ranges, sports facilities and other applications, across the U.S. and Canada, Costa Rica, the Caribbean, Bermuda, the United Kingdom, Kuwait and Singapore. Their products have been field tested under conditions of rain, heat, snow, ice and winds of 145-miles per hour and have yet to fail.

Mark explained, “Because our business was born from the industrial power industry, we continue to outlast, out innovate and outperform all others. Since we follow the powerline industry, we cannot exceed powerline specs.

“We use only an in-house crew, never outsourcing our work, and all our crew members are power transmission linemen who are certified to install support poles from 25 feet to 150 feet. All together, they have more than 63 years of experience in the sports netting industry and 140 years of collective experience in power installations.”

Related: Keeping it All Together

Would You Like Lights with Your Nets?

Qualified and experienced in sports lighting design and installation, the team at Golf Range Netting will design and install a custom lighting solution for facilities as part of a netting installation or refurbishment. Although they do not offer stand-alone lighting projects, the company recognizes that when its experienced crew is already on the job installing nets and poles, it is often time and cost effective for clients if they handle lighting installations and updates as well.

Beyond Sports Netting

Golf Range Netting offers many interesting netting applications that go beyond nets for golf courses and ranges and sports fields. Safety netting, warehouse pallet netting, barrier netting and wind screens are a few of the many other types of netting installation the company is called on to handle.

One of the fastest growing markets is netting for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone enclosures. From utility companies checking lines to border patrol monitoring, mapmaking, agricultural crop surveillance, search and rescue efforts, weather tracking and countless uses by police and military, drone use is booming. In the golf industry, drones are shooting videos and stills for course marketing as well as being used for course maintenance surveying, mapping and monitoring.

With drone usage on the rise, companies now need netting enclosed areas for refining their UAVs, testing new ways to utilize drones and training the employees who will operate the drones. At the same time, universities are installing drone fields to their campuses and adding drone studies to their curriculums in order to educate the next generation of drone operators.

Among the locations that rely on Golf Range Netting for their UVA and drone enclosures are Kansas State University’s UAS Laboratory, Big Bend Community College in Washington and the Tennessee Department of Energy.

Netting installations, however, aren’t always about containment. The team at Golf Range Netting has created and installed netting at jails and correctional facilities where a barrier is needed to prevent contraband from being tossed, dropped or shot into prison yards. At the Pasco County Jail in Land O Lakes, Florida, cross galvanized cables were used to “sew” barrier netting into the jail’s existing barbed wire, while at the Coffee Correctional Facility in Nicholls, Georgia, a perimeter of fifty-foot steel poles topped with barrier rooftop netting was installed to cover the facility’s open areas and courtyards.

This Could Be the Best Warranty in the Business

Mark Ramsay passionately believes that the warranty offered by Golf Range Netting is the best available today. While many companies extend a pro-rated warranty, a UV-only warranty or simply expect customers to rely on the unpredictable timing and responses associated with a manufacturer’s warranty, Golf Range Netting stands firmly behind its products and services.

Golf Range Netting offers a 100% warranty on materials and workmanship that covers five to seven years, depending upon the project and the materials selected.

“Our ability,” said Mark, “To offer a full 100% warranty justifies the fact that our structures are above other company’s specifications and can out-last their structures. We are confident in our work and if you contact any of our previous customers, you will see that they are pleased with their results as well.”

You could say that the decision to choose Golf Range Netting for your golf course or range comes with its own safety net. To learn more about the company that is committed to long lasting structures, long lasting nets and long lasting client relationships, visit www.golfrangenetting.com.