The Oakland University Athletics department revealed plans for a new Varsity Golf Training Facility last month. 

According to a press release, the new state-of-the-art facility will feature a putting and chipping green, in addition to driving range bays and a team room with a nutrition station. Both men’s and women’s locker rooms will be on-site. The facility will also include head coach offices and a team lounge.

“This golf facility will be an amazing addition for our golf programs,” Women’s Head Golf Coach Alyssa Gaudio-Guss said in the press release. “The facility will allow our student-athletes the ability to practice year-round with state-of-the-art technology. We will be able to work on our short game skills and come out in the spring ready to play. We are excited to add to our already great golf courses and have all the resources at our fingertips.”

Associate Athletic Director for Development, Ben Fielder, said this project was “a few years” in the making.

“Both head coaches, Nick (Pumford) and Alyssa (Gaudio-Guss), had brought this up as a space that was really needed for them to get the golf program to the next level,” Fielder said. “I’ve been in athletics for two years now, and when I came in we were talking about this new facility. [We’ve since] identified some key donors to get behind it and now we’re at the [point] where we’ve identified the construction team and the architecture team to start moving forward with the project.”

Fielder said the donors have raised $2.4 million toward the facility.

“We’re entering into the last stretch of — what I would call — our final phase of fundraising to get to the final dollar amount that we’re anticipating the building to be at. [That’s] really not even known yet,” Fielder said. “The construction company is currently surveying to figure out the exact location of the new facility. We know it will be out with the golf courses, somewhere in that proximity, but they’re trying to figure out the exact location and finalize those details.”

Fielder mentioned there will be a substantial expense to configuring the terrain.

“Once they’re able to finalize those (location) details, we can have a better idea of what the cost of building will be,” Fielder said. “There’s going to be quite a bit of expense potentially in just moving the land around to get a flat state to put the facility in.”

Men’s Head Golf Coach, Nick Pumford, said he “couldn’t be more excited” about the facility.

“This facility is going to be a game changer for our current and future student athletes and hopefully put our program into national contention,” Pumford said. “This could not have been possible without our supporters and the golf alumni who paved the way.”

Once they break ground, Fielder expects the project to take 18 months to two years.

“The next phase for us is to bring it before the Board of Trustees,” Fielder said. “[We’re hoping to do that] in either November or December and then potentially break ground early in the spring next year.”