More than 1.5 million golf balls have been hit at a Cumbrian golf club since January – despite it being closed for four months due to coronavirus.

With at least another month of inactivity at the club due to the country’s second national lockdown, the team at Penrith Golf Hub are still remaining positive. The club was taken over almost a year ago by director Andrew Pickering and his team.

“We redecorated the whole place and we invested in technology in each bay of our driving range,” he said. “Each bay tracks how far the ball has gone. When we joined we wanted to create a buzz around golf in Cumbria.”

With help from the coronavirus restrictions, the club has gone from strength-to-strength. “It has been great,” continued Andrew.

“Golf, of all the stuff going on in the world, has come out of (the first) lockdown in a good position, which has been really good for us. At first we thought, is golf going to come back strong? When we first came out of lockdown there was a bit of concern with people worried about going out, but then people got back into it.

“They could see the social distancing and hand sanitising and things like that. We saw a lot of new faces and a different demographic. People that were usually playing cricket, football and rugby were playing golf and really enjoying it. That didn’t stop and carried on right through. It is partly to do with what we created, but also down to other sports not being able to run.”

The club welcomed an estimated 15,000 visitors prior to the second lockdown and estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 golf balls were being hit daily.

“That is a massive amount of golf balls," he added. "We’ve had a lot of new starters and a lot of people taking up the game. So much so that manufacturers are struggling to deal with the demands on golf equipment.

“It has been very encouraging for golf and for Cumbria.”

Mr Pickering believes the first coronavirus lockdown may leave a legacy for the sport going forward. He added: “It may have saved the game I love. There are so many good venues and we’ve seen people staying in this country to play golf.”