Range balls....i digress.

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Jim Kobylinski

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So i head out to the range after a long day at work fulled with frustration. Planned on hitting some balls and having some fun. So i buy my token and get the range balls out of the machine.

To my surprise, they are wonderful new range balls and i get excited. But the opposite happened. These felt so hard and spun so little, i didn't know whether i was actually hitting the ball good or not.

I mean i'd hit the ball and think, wow that was horrible and had to be on the toe as it flies righ to the target and contact says sweetspot.

ugh
 
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JohnThomas1

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The balls are so bad around here i barely go to the range. You finally put a perfect swing on a drive and it ducks south about 80 meters out. Nearly a waste of time.
 
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dodger

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What is really frustrating is when you find out the range is using toned down balls so the distance will be limited. When you know you hit a pw 110 and all of a sudden at the range they struggle to reach 90 yards. Soon, you start swinging harder, lose your alignments and tempo, then you are toast. Oh well, paying 10 bucks a bucket makes me sick too, imagine the cost if the balls were any good.
 
Michael Jacobs

Michael Jacobs

Super Moderator
As a range concession owner

Insurance costs are through the roof, land is more valuable than bucket sales

Its a dying business, just so happens mine is at the course -- but stand alone ranges will be a dying breed
 
self-mastery

self-mastery

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dodger said:
What is really frustrating is when you find out the range is using toned down balls so the distance will be limited. When you know you hit a pw 110 and all of a sudden at the range they struggle to reach 90 yards. Soon, you start swinging harder, lose your alignments and tempo, then you are toast. Oh well, paying 10 bucks a bucket makes me sick too, imagine the cost if the balls were any good.
Click to expand...

I was hitting 200 balls per day at the beginning of the summer to cement my swing changes and didn't play any golf. My range work had my distances out of wack. The range balls had me hitting every club 20-30 yards shorter. I don't believe in spending too much time on the range. Playing 9 holes with a singular focus will probably help more so than bashing balls from a near perfect lie.
 
tourdeep

tourdeep

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Michael Jacobs said:
Insurance costs are through the roof, land is more valuable than bucket sales

Its a dying business, just so happens mine is at the course -- but stand alone ranges will be a dying breed
Click to expand...

In my area, I can think of 3 golf courses that have purchase contracts in hand going thru feasibility studies or litigation. Another sold land occupying six holes. I've seen two stand alone ranges going by the wayside with new homes on em, and a Lowe's on another.

The range/course I frequent went to a new compression ball a few years back, cuz too many were being blasted outside the range or too close to golfers playing. At first, I thought there was something wrong with my swing. But, it may be a moot issue.

Competition has driven this course to lose on average, 100k per year. Knowing the owner, the owner's kid who is a teaching pro, I understand their economic frustration versus their passsion for the game as a business owner and teacher. But to make millions upon millions for the value of the land versus annual losses, the decision to sell was a hard one, but at the end of the day, fairly ez...
 
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Leek

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self-mastery said:
I was hitting 200 balls per day at the beginning of the summer to cement my swing changes and didn't play any golf. My range work had my distances out of wack. The range balls had me hitting every club 20-30 yards shorter. I don't believe in spending too much time on the range. Playing 9 holes with a singular focus will probably help more so than bashing balls from a near perfect lie.
Click to expand...


I sort of agree. I go to the range a lot, but I tend to get sloppy on the range. Playing 9 with either the wife or alone seems to be more valuable.
 
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joeparr

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I have to disagree with this one. We have a large driving range half grass and half artificial. 60 hitting arteas constantly in use day and night. Most guys just love to hit balls and forget about everything but theirswing its like seeing a psychiatrist. Its on farm land and I dont ever see this going anywere. There is alot of hidden money in this bussiness...jmo
 
EdStraker

EdStraker

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joeparrr said:
I have to disagree with this one. We have a large driving range half grass and half artificial. 60 hitting arteas constantly in use day and night. Most guys just love to hit balls and forget about everything but theirswing its like seeing a psychiatrist. Its on farm land and I dont ever see this going anywere. There is alot of hidden money in this bussiness...jmo
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In areas like California where land is limited, the land is expensive. Most driving range owners end up selling the land to a developer because they will make much more off of that than continuing to use the land for a driving range.
 
Erik_K

Erik_K

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I live in MD, and it's damn near impossible to find a range with grass tees. I used to work part-time at a driving range in FL and one of the managers said it's tough to make a profit with ranges nowadays. So much money is tied up with insurance and upkeep. I know some places marry batting cages, arcades, to ranges with artificial mats. Perhaps that's the way it's going.

It seems that I get more bang for the buck if I play 9 holes, using 2 balls.
 
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