There’s something about Aqua Golf Range & Learning Center. Site of a key scene in the 1998 movie “There’s Something About Mary,” the famed range is an important outpost for South Florida golfers.

Hallandale, Fla., native Dave Breslow took ownership of the facility two years ago and quickly set about rebuilding the reputation and the physical infrastructure of the popular lakefront practice center. Located on an unnamed 29-acre lake, Aqua Golf Range, as its name implies, is a range right on the water.

“We’re a little bit of a dinosaur,” notes Breslow of the 50-year-old facility. The center is the only free-standing range in approximately a 30-mile radius since its closest competitor seven miles away went out of business about two years ago. “The real estate market down here is insane, and it seems like all the old ranges have been scooped up for commercial properties,” says Breslow.

Aqua Golf Range is keeping its head above water and more these days, though, thanks to a two-year $250,000 renovation. New range balls, artificial turf golf mats, a tee cover canopy and tee dividers and new windows, tiling and renovated bathrooms in the clubhouse/pro shop are just the beginning. There’s also a new short game practice area for the plethora of local players who don’t have many choices for honing their skills in the greater Hallandale region. The only two local public golf courses just east and south of Aqua Golf Range don’t figure into the practice equation very well. One course doesn’t have a range, and the other doesn’t allow players to use drivers on its range.

Breslow is tapping into the market of serious practicing players as well as the “bogie golfers,” as he calls them, people who like to just come out to hit balls into the water—on purpose.

“I do a decent amount of advertising, but most of our business is through word-of-mouth,” says Breslow, noting that many customers are longtime regulars. “I think we appeal to everyone—all levels of players from low to high handicappers. That’s what we want to do.”

Loving That Lakefront Property
Aqua Golf Range is a phenomenon in the industry, with obvious pros and cons. The pastoral lake setting is enjoyable for most range customers; however, serious golfers are a more difficult sell because of the lessened flight of the floater balls that must be used.

“Some golfers want perfect conditions but that’s hard to find. Even ranges at the premier golf courses aren’t idyllic,” says Breslow. “Hitting here is fun, and kids really like it.”

Breslow, who has taught the game for almost 20 years, thinks the waterfront setting more than compensates for the lack of a true grass landing area. “It’s the swing, the mechanics you’re working on at a range,” he says. “And you can do that here as well as you can anywhere.”

The water provides for some unusual operations, though. Not every range has staff wear life vests to retrieve range balls or re-anchor floating targets after a storm. The huge lake is home to nine targets floating at various distances, from a couple of barrels at 25 yards to several colorful, simulated target greens farther out.

“They’re mesh netting on a circular frame on PVC pipe,” says Breslow of the target greens slanted toward the tee-line shore. “The shape simulates a tiny green and we have flags. We anchor them but when you’re dealing with 40-mile-per-hour winds, it can get tricky. They can move on you.”

Typically, though, the South Florida winds are helpful, blowing the floaters to one corner or another in the lake. “The trouble is on the days when there’s no wind and the balls stay out in the middle [of the lake],” says General Manager Nick Fortunato. “That makes it tough. We do rely on the wind around here to help us out.”

Riding in a small horsepowered johnboat, employees fish out the balls with a net and then drop them into a garbage can. Back on shore, the range balls are cleaned and returned to the Wittek ball dispenser near the center of the tee line.

“It can take up to two-and-a-half hours to pick up what on a dry range might take 30 minutes,” says Breslow. “I’ve looked all over the country and nobody has created any kind of advanced deal for handling this kind of job.”

The lake does have its benefits, though. For example, Aqua Golf Range never shuts down because the landing area is too wet. In fact, with the extended canopy covering the tee line, the range never closes for inclement weather short of a hurricane.

“Rain or shine, we can play here,” says Breslow. “Even if it’s stormy, you can hit. We’ve always done a lot of business when other ranges are closed.”

Perfect Man for the Job
Trees along the far shore of the lake add to the scenic backdrop and the homey feel of the old range, which was originally a rock quarry, a long, narrow strip of land, probably no more than a half acre. Breslow, who began working at the range 12 years ago, running the golf academy and the pro shop, leases the land from an ownership group that handpicked him to revitalize the property.

“They said I was the only one they wanted to deal with,” he says. “The place had run down a little bit. The previous [range] owners had let things go, so there was a lot of work to be done.”

The automated tee line, which had a starring role in “There’s Something About Mary,” as Cameron Diaz and Matt Dillon hit balls into the picturesque lake, is gone. But now, with an extended canopy over 16 of the 28 tee stations and new Synthetic Turf International EZ Tee mats spread out in five of the key covered stations, arguably that tee line is better than ever.

Breslow took out the automatic teeing machines because of wear and tear from wayward swings from kids, as well as from adults. It’s easier now, he says, just worrying about replacing the mats.

“I replace some of my mats every few years and rotate others to keep the costs down,” says Breslow. “But these new mats, the better players really like those. I’ve gotten a lot of new customers because of them. I’m the first one down here to have something like this.”

The EZ Tee mats, on the market for about two years, are a nylon blend that’s as thick and plush as real grass, allowing golfers to hit off real tees. Without permanent tees as part of the mat, left-handers and right-handers can both hit without turning the mats.

“The low-handicap players, when they come in, they usually wait for those mats,” says Fortunato.

But the mats are just a part of the quarter-million-dollar facelift that Aqua Golf Range has undergone. Updated appointments on the tee line and in the small clubhouse/pro shop have given the grand old range a new lease on life. And just in time.

“There was some consideration for just tearing the whole thing down and starting over,” says Breslow. “But that was going to cost well over a million dollars. We decided just to renovate it, and that has worked out. Business has picked up very nicely, probably a 40 or 50 percent increase.”

Now, Breslow’s tender loving care of the facility is evident everywhere. The green tee line canopy matches the new tee dividers, the plastic chairs behind the line and the fencing around the facility. White concrete benches and tables with inlaid tile designs also spruce up the place and offer additional seating along the tee line as well as on the patio. Classic white pebbles outline some areas, and Fortunato has been instrumental in adding colorful plants and flowers along the back of the tee line. Palm trees interspersed throughout the facility complete the laid-back Florida feel.

“We’ve put in all new plants and flowers and that really looks nice,” Fortunato says. “But those 30-, 40-mile-per-hour winds around here make us work hard to keep everything clean and fresh looking.”

Tropical storms in the Gulf this summer have sent those rugged winds into Hallandale often and slowed some of the changes Breslow and Fortunato want to make. An old tiki hut on site has been dormant for quite a while but could become a center for barbecuing and offer a more complete menu of items than what’s available at the pro shop snack bar.

The range also just recently regained its liquor license, and Breslow and Fortunato are planning to host special promotional nights for adults. Fortunato also is developing monthly membership packages, something for the large contingent of wintertime Floridians, many of whom come down from Canada.

“Oh, the snowbirds love this place,” he says. “I think the membership packages could work really well for them.”

Go Ahead and Fence Me In
Membership packages could be a real boon, especially since the addition of the synthetic turf short game area along the facility’s south side less than two years ago. The fenced-in 2,800-square-foot area offers a chipping and putting green and large and small sand bunkers.

Customers pay $4 to use the area, which includes a shag bag of balls to practice with. That price is cut in half if customers also opt to hit a bucket of balls on the range.

Synthetic Turf International supplied the huge, inviting synthetic turf for short game practice, and the area has proven a popular amenity for the facility.

Before, “people would just come out here to hit balls, but now we can teach short game techniques and use the area for special clinics,” says Fortunato. “It’s synthetic turf, but it’s an unbelievably good surface.”

Fortunato wants to create another package that offers serious golfers easy access to range balls on the tee line and for short game practice. But ace players aren’t the only ones enjoying the new practice spot. Breslow loves to pull up all the pin flags and turn kids loose in the fenced-in area for parties. The synthetic turf is resilient enough for impromptu games of football, soccer or baseball. He’ll also occasionally bring in inflatable moonwalk enclosures where kids can just bounce and play. Parents can sit in the shade near the clubhouse, where they can keep an eye on the kids, and enjoy a snack or drink.

“I have kids of my own and you’re always looking for something new or creative for them to do,” says Breslow. “This is ideal, and while the kids are having fun, the parents can hit a bucket or just sit down and have a beer and relax. Parties are big for us.”

Fortunato, a PGA instructor who prior to joining Aqua Golf Range last November spent 28 years teaching at Williams Island Country Club in Williams Island, Fla., loves the teaching applications the new short game area provides the center’s Breslow Academy. And as a Hallandale native who took his first lesson at this range in 1972, Fortunato has a personal motivation for growing the academy’s lesson base.

Half-hour lessons from the academy’s PGA and LPGA instructors cost $50, but there are an array of packages and clinics at discounted prices to attract players learning the game, including a 25 percent lesson discount for juniors and coupons that offer a free half-hour lesson with the purchase of a bucket of range balls.

“Some people would rather hit and watch the ball on land, but as far as teaching the game, we’ve got everything we need here, especially with the short game area,” says Marty Maisa, another PGA-certified veteran on staff at the academy.

Renovating Customer Service
Teaching is one of the many hands-on offerings that Breslow has targeted to improve customer service at the facility, a point of emphasis that was as rundown as the 50-year-old structure before he took over operations.

Breslow, who also gives lessons and can be found at the range most days, says personal contact with customers is important, and improving service was as essential to him as making all the tangible improvements.

Fellow golf veteran Fortunato has the identical mindset, and part of his job is to improve retail service. Despite the small pro shop, packed into the 450-square-foot main building, Aqua Golf Range offers a full range of services, from club fitting and club repair to supplying customers with just about any type equipment they might need.

“We don’t have much space so I really can’t stock too much but I can get whatever I need in two or three days,” says Fortunato. “We’ve increased our business quite a bit with that kind of attitude, and that’s all part of providing the best customer service.”

Fortunato eventually wants to change the way customers buy balls at the facility. Instead of using tokens and an outdoor dispenser, he’d like for customers to buy buckets of balls from pro shop staff.

“Sometimes a customer will get six tokens at once and they’ll walk in and hit two buckets and leave,” he explains. “I’d like to set it where we have the buckets set up in the pro shop, and that’s another way to increase traffic and sales there.”

The pro shop offers a wide selection of clubs and irons and putters, golf bags, gloves and other accessories. In the renovation, new counters and new tile were added to spruce up the shop and make it warmer and more inviting.

Likewise, just out the backdoor of the shop on the tee line, there’s an area under the covered patio filled with tables and chairs to create a social setting that any customer can readily enjoy. Portable fans cool the tee stations on the hottest Florida days, and a drink vending machine is only a few steps away from the tee line.

“It’s the kind of place I think people enjoy hanging around,” says Breslow.
Eventually, he and Fortunato hope to run “There’s Something About Mary,” or at least key parts of it, on a loop on the television on that back patio. Fortunato also wants to hang “Mary” posters in the pro shop to let customers know that they’ve just walked onto a former movie set. Of course, it seems like a lot of them already know.

“You’d be surprised,” he says. A lot of people look up the range because of the movie. “We had two guys in here the other day who moved here from Germany and they wanted to come in and see.”

These days, though, the refurbished range is becoming known for a lot more than its big-screen cameo role.