photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Plans for a large, new clubhouse to serve a high tech driving range have been filed for the Twin Oaks Golf Complex east of Lawrence. New netting and greens are shown in the background, while the dirt area in the foreground would house an expanded parking lot.

If you are still finding your way around the world of golf (don’t go more than chest-deep into the pond, lest it impact your backswing,) you may not know that there are a couple of different types of driving ranges.

There’s the traditional driving range where you put a ball on a tee, hit the ball, watch the ball, curse, and then repeat. But there’s also the high-tech driving range full of cameras, sensors and other technology. At the high-tech range, you can do all of that and more. You’ll get real time data on the distance your ball traveled, the speed it came off your club, the height of its path, and other pieces of information. You also can play various games where you get points for driving the ball a certain distance or hitting a certain target.

Plus, most of the high-tech ranges also come with a full lounge area where you can have some food and cold drinks.

Thus far, the high-tech ranges also have come with something else for Lawrence residents — a drive, most often to the K.C. metro. Now that might change. The drive soon maybe shift to a location between Lawrence and Eudora on Kansas Highway 10.

Development plans have been filed with county planners to convert the Twin Oaks Golf Complex at 1326 E. 1900 Road — the first K-10 interchange east of Lawrence — into a high-tech golf range facility.

We’ve been reporting on a renovation project underway at Twin Oaks since 2022. The driving range and adjacent nine-hole pitch and putt golf course have been completely reseeded, including new bent grass greens. New netting has been installed for the driving range, and lights have been added that will allow for evening play. All that work has been approved and largely completed.

Now, though, a new set of plans has been filed to build a nearly 14,000-square-foot-building on the site, which is about five times the size of the existing clubhouse. That new building would open onto about 25 driving range tee boxes. Owner Brandon Yates told me those driving range spots indeed will be equipped with the high-tech equipment similar to what you find at TopGolf or other franchise driving ranges.

“It will have all the latest and greatest tech,” Yates said. “It should be pretty useful for all type of folks — people who want to get better with their game or people who just want to come out and have fun and play some games.”

Yates said his intentions are for the facility to offer some food and drink, but he still is working to win final approval for the new building project. He said the fact that project already has won key approvals — the lighting and the tall poles for the driving range nets — has him hopeful that the building project will make its way through the approval process as well.

If approvals come quickly, Yates said he would like for the facility to reopen in the fall. He has the building components already ordered, he said.

“Really, I’m just wanting to tear down three dilapidated buildings and build a nice new one,” Yates said of the existing clubhouse and a couple of maintenance sheds.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The clubhouse at Twin Oaks Golf Complex is pictured in May 2025.

The one new building, though, will be large. Plans submitted to county planners list a capacity of nearly 350 people for the building. Plans call for the parking lot to expand to a little more than 115 spaces. It would be an L-shaped parking lot located partially on the existing lot and also along the west edge of the property.

The latest expansion plans fit with Yates’ original goal for the facility, which was to make it a higher quality complex for area golfers and those who want to get exposed to the game.

“I think it is going to be a pretty premiere facility,” Yates said. “People who have been there before are going to be shocked.”

While the driving range and its technology would be sure to get the attention of area residents, Yates said he’s really excited about how much the nine-hole pitch and putt course has changed.

“It is a real gem, as far as that goes,” Yates said of the course. “It has been under-appreciated because of the condition it has been in for many years.”

The course will make the complex unique. Most of the high-tech driving ranges in the Kansas City metro, don’t have an actual golf course connected to them. The presence of the course will allow golfers to more fully practice all parts of their games, while the course also will serve as an enticement to those folks who came out for the high-tech driving range games but have become curious about playing an actual round of golf.

“I think the course suits a player that is maybe a really low handicap, a good golfer, but also the person who just wants to come out and have fun,” Yates said.

Yates has been working on making improvements to the course since 2022, when he bought it from a group led by Jeff Burey, a retired PGA head pro who is a big name in the regional golf world. Yates told the Journal-World in 2022 that his background was different. He’s the president of an electrical construction business in Kansas City and had grown familiar with Twin Oaks as his kids started getting into golf.

The project has perhaps taken longer than expected, but Yates said he is pleased with how it is progressing.

“It has been a lot of work, but I would rather take our time and do it right,” Yates said.