New firm harnesses the North West’s love of golf at Ebrington

Mr Keay put his money where his mouth was and established Party Golf just over a year ago. He is now one of the only commerical enterprises regularly doing business at the former Ebrington Barracks.

The firm specialises in the hire of portable crazy golf and caters for all occasions across the North West and beyond.

As well as being a regualr feature at Ebrington - including this weekend September 8-9 - the new idea was recently a hit at the Stendhal festival in Limavady and has also featured at the Altnagelvin Children’s Ward, The Stroke Unit, a number of old peoples sheltered housing complexes and private parties.

Speaking recently Mr Keay said the venture was only just getting off the ground but has already proved really popular amongst the golf-mad Londonderry public.

“The success of Irish golfers on the international stage has given the sport a real shot in the popularity stakes,” he said. “I’m hoping the Irish open gives me a few opportunities in the months ahead.”

He explained how in order to make his dream of setting up the business a reality he approached Invest NI and enlisted on the state enterprise company’s ‘Go For It’ programme.

“I was looking at premises for indoor golf when I met a guy who sells these courses. It looked and sounded great so I invested,” he said.

After writing his business plan with the aid of Invest NI, gathering together a “significant personal capital injection” and with support from Enterprise NI and the bank; “last August I got the go ahead and left my call centre job at HML. I knew that I needed to give it a real push and it’s been slow but things are starting to happen now.”

Party Golf will be at Ebrington over the forthcoming weekend but is also available for birthday parties, weddings and corporate events.