The city reopened the driving range in early June. (Staff photo: Corey Buchanan)

Since opening the renovated municipal golf course in late April, the city of Lake Oswego has had some issues with its driving range — particularly balls trickling out of the facility due to seams and gaps in the netting — and had to close the range for nine days.

The city has since reinforced the netting, reopened the range in early June and put in place a number of changes including utilizing golf balls with less travel distances, aligning the hitting bays and adding range attendants to oversee use. The city also temporarily did not allow drivers and woods to be used at the range. Woods will be reintroduced Friday, June 27 and the city will continue to examine when to reintroduce drivers. The city does daily inspections to see if any balls surpassed the netting.

The parks and recreation department said there were no injuries or property damage related to the golf balls trickling out of the driving range.

“Our goal is to safely return to full range operations while maintaining close oversight to ensure a great experience for all users and our surrounding community,” the department wrote via email.

The city updated its driving range in conjunction with the renovation of the Lake Oswego Municipal Golf Course from an 18-hole par 3 course to a 9-hole executive course and the buildout of the Lake Oswego Recreation & Aquatic Center. Balls trickling out of the facility was also a problem with the old range.