Pickering Playing Fields — Attraction in Pickering

I came here as a kid when it opened and PPF was the “awesome” mini golf and batting cages for many years. I returned today after 25+ years and it’s barely a shell of its former glory.

Hole 12 (which is arguably the best one) was closed entirely as it’s been trashed (and seems it’s been completely unplayable for years). Hole 4 is also broken and largely unplayable.

It seems this place has become a place people have come to drink and vandalize during the night as there’s empty weathered beer cans littered in the bushes and elsewhere, obviously there for some time. That’s a real shame, but I’m disappointed that nobody has bothered to do even a general cleanup.

I was thinking of a round in the batting cages, but the bats were all broken, had no grip left, or were in horrible condition, not to mention there were two teen employees just throwing balls at the pitching machines and laughing. Based on other reviews, I’m glad I didn’t.

While I had a lot of nostalgia coming back, I left saddened at its current state of disrepair. Running a place like this sure can’t be easy, but a little pride in ownership goes a long way and that seems to have disappeared. Sure, some of these repairs won’t be easy or cheap, however so many issues could be resolved with some trash bags, a few screws, and a couple hours of effort.

I suspect money is tight as simple things are now going unfixed, but that’s only driving away the little bit of business that remains. I’d hate to see this place close for good, so I’m truly hoping that ownership takes the off season to fix the place up a bit. Recalibrate the batting cages, fix those two holes, repair the windows that are broken, get the lighting fixed, and replace the things that are heavily worn, -please-.

Heck, just pulling all the reeds and unsightly growth in what used to be cool water features would be a big improvement that costs only time and effort.

I hope I can return one day in years to come to find it restored to its former glory.

Sadly, 2 stars for now.1 by default, and one...

I had one reservation for the batting cage 2 from 4 PM to 4:30 PM, we arrive at 3:30 PM, 30 minutes early, the Batting Cages was totally EMPTY, All of the cages, nobody batting in any cage, I ask to the staff to start playing immediately and they Deny me, I ask why??, they got the argument that my reservation start at 4 PM, I said "Ok give me another 20 dollar, I would like to purchase another 20 dollar to start playing now and again they deny me with the argument that the reservations are just online, all the batting cages was EMPTY, Is curious because the day before I been there and we did batting play and we purchase 20 dollar ticket online and 40 dollar cash at the desk, but this time look like something change, I got upset and told the person at the desk to refund my money and they deny again because they can't do that, the only way was through the email, we went outside and write email to the Manager, he answer back after 30 min with the excuse Of Covid-19 regulations from Ministry of Heath, that suppose to be the excuse to don't sale time to play, Could you believe that???, one Place totally EMPTY can let the people to purchase "Time to Play" because Covid-19 regulation??, this is a Joke, I really think this place has very Serious Management Problem, they promise me the money back if I give to them back the tokens that I purchase online and didn't used, but this is not he point here, they will have tomorrow the Tokens back, the point here is Why if the place is fully EMPTY nobody can purchase Batting time and play, what kind of Covid-19 regulation stop business to sale when the place is totally empty???, if we can purchase time online why we can not purchase time on the from desk at the place???, Totally understandable, this is not Covid-19 problem or government regulations, with all the respect this is Serious Management Problem, they waste my time and destroy our enjoyment

Thank you very...

Staff were not great. The experience alone was fine, not great. We were a large group with a mix of adults and kids. Trying to get snacks, equipment, and tickets was not an entirely smooth process. When there were a backlog of people, we paid for a group of 12 and were asked to wait as they ran out of golf balls for the mini putt. As we were waiting, smaller groups who got tickets after us were getting balls and moving on but here we are, waiting. Four rounds of people who paid after us were served despite us waiting. Mind you, we were asking for balls each time we saw a new couple/family get served. We were just told to wait. Had to raise our voice enough for other couples to speak up too for us to be served. Not an ideal situation.

Another incident was when we were waiting for refreshments. The staff there don’t seem to know what the meaning behind “please”, “sorry”, and “excuse me” are. They’re just pushing through people when they’re trying to walk through the doorway. Bumping into people and not stopping to apologize. Part of me thought it was a skin colour thing (us, visible minority, them, not) but then they were behaving the same with Caucasian folks too. I get it, they are kids and this is probably a minimum wage gig but damn! Customer service, among other things, needs...