IT is impossible to imagine how many balls have been driven in the direction of the River Severn since Margaret Moses and her late husband Ron took over Worcester Golf Range back in 1978.

More than 30 years on, Mrs Moses still looks back fondly on her time there and insists it is the ideal place to go and work on your game now the winter nights are drawing in.

After 10 years as the club pro at Worcester Golf and Country Club and a five-year stint working in Redditch, Mr Moses, a former three-time Worcestershire champion, came across the Lower Wick-based driving range.

Nowadays, the Weir Lane facility, which also boasts a nine-hole par three course, is currently working towards RangeMark accreditation — a national scheme designed to help driving ranges promote their facilities and meet the national standard.

Such schemes were a long way off when The Moses got involved, though. Mrs Moses remembered: “The range opened in 1972, but never really got off the ground.

“When we came in 1978, it was half under cover and half out in the open, but as we went on we realised we had to have the canopy extended to cover all the bays.

“I can remember my late husband had been playing in a tournament and we were sat in the bar afterwards with all the other pros and I can still hear them saying ‘what’s the point of a range? Hitting a ball down a field?’ “They said it was not the way to play golf and it wouldn’t get off the ground.

“Wherever Ron went, people always followed him because of his teaching ability. An old pupil phoned up needing a lesson, but Ron couldn’t do it as he had nowhere to teach from. Then he had the idea to come down to the driving range and ask if he could use it for the lesson.

“He asked the manager, but he replied ‘Well you could, Ron, but we are closing down’.

“Ron said the problem with the range was that it had never had a golf pro, so we decided to go and speak to the owner Mr Bennett.

“We persuaded him to rent the range to us for three months to see if we could turn it around.

“With Ron’s expertise and the people he knew, it started to take off and soon after we bought the place.

“Then, one day, Ron came to me and said he’d measured out the perimeter and thought there was a enough space for a nine-hole par three course and we never looked back from there.”

Nowadays, current professional Mark Dove, who holds the course record with 19, spends his time coaching all levels of golfers with a real emphasis on teaching the sport to youngsters.

Mrs Moses added: “Ron always encouraged the children to play because he used to say ‘they are the golfers of tomorrow, so we have to look after them and teach them the etiquette’.

“We have a junior group on Sunday mornings, which Mark takes from 9.30am to 10.30am — people can just turn up, they don’t have to book.”

During his coaching days, Mr Moses worked with all the brightest talents in Midlands golf.

Mrs Moses said: “Ron was the pro at Boughton for 10 years, as well as being with the English Golf Union (EGU) for many years and the Midlands coach.

“He had all the Midland greats through his hands — people like Sandy Lyle, Peter Baker and Martin Poxon. He always said the potential of Sandy Lyle as a 16-year-old was amazing.

“They all went on to play against America in the Walker Cup before turning pro and Ron had been there for them all at the beginning.”