Driving ranges in Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire

Where they are

Three of the six sit in Merseyside: Liverpool Golf Centre in Netherley, Aintree Golf Centre in north Liverpool, and Moreton Hills Golf Centre over on the Wirral, at Moreton. One, Croft Golf Centre, is in Cheshire, near Warrington. Two are in Lancashire: the Preston Golf Club range, attached to the golf club of the same name at Fulwood, and Bluebird Golf Centre in Blackburn. None of our six driving ranges currently sits on the Fylde coast or in Southport, going by our own directory.

Photo to followA golfer hitting from a covered Toptracer bay at a North West driving range

What a range session costs

Every range on our list sells balls by the bucket, and prices differ more than the bay technology does. At the lower end, Croft Golf Centre, in Warrington, charges £4 for 50 balls or £6 for 100. Aintree Golf Centre charges £6 for 30 balls, rising to £9 for 120, plus a separate Toptracer rate of £4 for 30 minutes or £6 for an hour. At Preston Golf Club's range, 25 balls cost £4.50, or £3.50 for members, up to £11 (£7 for members) for 100. Liverpool Golf Centre is the most expensive of the six we checked: £6.50 for 35 balls, up to £15 for 100. Moreton Hills and Bluebird don't list prices on the pages we checked, so none are given here for those two.

What to expect

Four of the six ranges have Toptracer bays: Liverpool Golf Centre, Aintree Golf Centre, the Preston Golf Club range (in all 16 of its bays) and Bluebird Golf Centre. The other two, Moreton Hills and Croft, don't have it. Floodlighting is the more common feature: Liverpool Golf Centre, Aintree, Moreton Hills and Croft are all floodlit for an evening session, useful once the clocks change and daylight runs out early. Bay counts vary a lot where they're published at all: Moreton Hills has 69, Aintree 30, Croft 20 and the Preston range 16; Liverpool Golf Centre and Bluebird don't state a total.

Five of the six mention some form of coaching. Liverpool Golf Centre, Moreton Hills, Croft and Bluebird each name PGA professionals directly, and Croft's own site quotes lessons from £15; Aintree offers lessons with "the centre's professional" without naming the PGA specifically. Only the Preston range doesn't mention lessons at all. A pro shop sits on site at Liverpool Golf Centre (an American Golf flagship store), Aintree, Moreton Hills and Bluebird; Croft and the Preston range don't list one. Preston's range is also the one place here that's explicitly turn up and play, no booking needed.

Opening hours

Hours mostly run longer in British Summer Time than over winter. Liverpool Golf Centre, for example, opens 08:00 to 22:00 on weekdays from April to October, cutting to 09:00 to 21:00 from November to March. Aintree runs 09:00 to 21:00 on weekdays year-round, with shorter weekend hours. Most of the six open seven days a week, though exact times differ enough between them that it's worth checking the specific range's own hours before you set off, especially in the evening or on a Sunday.

For beginners

A range bay is a lower-pressure way to try hitting a golf ball than a first round on a course, with no one waiting behind you and a pro often on hand if you want a lesson. Five of our six ranges mention coaching, and three of the four that publish prices, Aintree, Preston's range and Liverpool Golf Centre, sell a small bucket of 25 to 35 balls for £4.50 to £6.50, cheap enough to try a session without committing to a full round.

When to go

A range session doesn't depend on booking a tee time the way a full round does, and four of the six ranges here are floodlit, so an evening session after work stays an option through autumn and winter. None of the six sites we checked states whether its bays are covered, so if shelter from the rain matters, it's worth asking the centre directly rather than assuming.