Found a hidden LEGEND at the range

So I go to the range the other day. Start working on some stuff right away and am really focused. Notice that there’s a lefty two mats down from me. Guy in his mid-50s wearing a yellow/pink Hawaiian shirt. Looks like the kinda guy who lives on a boat and would look younger than his age if he hadn’t battled an alcohol problem in his 30s/40s. Anyway, I don’t see any of his shots, just notice his wildly flailing body parts out the corner of my eye. After a couple minutes go by I notice that this guy is just powering through a huge number of balls; 5 per minute taking a 90s Big Bertha off the deck. Forces out a loud, guttural breath at the conclusion of every swing. He’s taking big-daddy hacks, too. Every swing is max effort. I finally take a step back to catch a glimpse of the inevitable 100-yard snap hooks this guy has to be hitting.

My lord. Dude’s chucking bombs down the center of range, one after another, in exhausting succession. I’m 30 years old and long off the tee, and I can’t hit 3W as far as this guy was hitting ‘em.

At this point I’m just staring in astonishment. I notice that 3W is the only club he brought and he still has two full large buckets (~200 balls total) in front of him. Eventually I ask how he has that kind of stamina, and he shrugs. Tells me he just had his 3rd hip replacement in March (no kidding). Guy says: “I’ve always hit a ton of balls. Before the hip issues I used to hit 2000.”

”2000 what?”

”Balls per day”

When I left for the night this guy was still there crushing lasers. Thought it was my duty to share this story. Here’s to you, driving range legend. May you and your metal hips prosper.

Seems like every range has a legend - unfortunately most of them are legends in their own minds.

so that's what happened to him. jonescott lives!!!

What a cool story. Thanks for sharing it!

Several years ago I was at my favorite driving range in Augusta. It was July, about 98 degrees with humidity to match; just miserable hot. There was a guy about my age 3-4 slots down from me & he was very outgoing, talking to everybody near him & hitting a few balls now & then. Kind of the mayor of the range although I didn't recognize him as a regular. I wasn't really paying much attention although I could hear him as he talked. I'm sweating away over my bucket when I hear, "It's so GD hot I can't hold onto my leg!" Now that's not something you hear every day; startled, I looked over & saw he was sitting in one of the folding chairs holding the lower half of his left leg! He had a flesh-colored prosthesis that I hadn't noticed.

Turns out he is retired military & lost part of his left leg in the service. Augusta has a military base, Fort Gordon, so there are a lot of military & ex-military folks in the area & this driving range in particular is where a lot of them hang out. They also do a lot of work with wounded warriors, group lessons & adaptive golf. Got to talking to the guy & we hit it off, he's gone on our annual golf trip to HH the last couple of years. Just a great guy.

Could be some correlation between 2000 balls a day and hip replacements.

Cool story bro.

Personally, there's no way I could hit 5 balls per minute and consider it anything other than "Let's see how fast I can get rid of these balls". But maybe that's me.

So 2,000 balls a day ? 7 hours a day ? $200+ a day ? Sure hope he gets got a volume discount. LOL

Great story! Kudo's to his stamina

I'm a range rat, but even I'll cap myself at about 500 balls. lol

2000 balls a day? I don't believe it. Even at 5/minute, it would take nearly 7 uninterrupted hours to hit that many.

My back hurts just thinking about it. .........

but...does he have a short game?

Great story and excellent telling of it...

I have posted my story before. I was at the range a few years back. An older gentlement grabed a spot a few yards away with a large bucket. He was impeccably dressed. Picture Bob Barker from The Price is Right. Had his full set of clubs. Much to my amazement, he pulled out his wedge and preceeded to chip the entire bucket of balls about 15 yds down the range. The entire bucket was probably out there in a 15 ft circle. He never varied distance, never changed clubs. Nothing.

Picked up his empty bucket and his entire set of clubs and went on his way.

There was nobody else on the range so of course, in true range rate tradition, I preceeded to step out and start blasting his balls down range.

2000 balls a day, 3 large buckets a few months after hip replacement surgery? Perhaps hitting all those 3W shots is some form of mental therapy?

Nice.

I suppose the driving range might be more fun for some? One certainly meets more people there than on the course?

Time constraints aside, I cannot imagine hitting 2000 balls in a day. He must have a titanium back as well as titanium hips.

With giant butt muscles LOL

Back in 2016 I moved to Boca Raton and started to go to a range in Lake Wales. Came across these kids that were probably college age. All wearing tank tops and gym shorts and seriously goofing around. One of the kids was an absolute stick. Crushing 300+ yard carry drives on a frozen rope, one after another. I could just tell by his swing and his body language that he had played golf for a long time and was very well coached along with being a great athlete (he had a big upper body and looked in great shape). However, he was trying to pose off to his friends like he only dabbled in golf as these kids looked like they just came off working at a construction site probably banging sheetrock all day and he didn't want his friends to think he was some preppy golfer. Too bad because I think if he took it seriously instead of worrying about making friends he had Tour level ballstriking skills.

I do hate to throw shade, but I doubt he was hitting 2,000 balls a day. Moe Norman said he'd hit about 800 balls a day and he was as rapid fire on the range as anybody I've ever seen. I'm sure Moe had some days where he reached the 2,000 mark, but I doubt it happened very often.

RH

I don't think Vijay hit that many and he is/was a range rat

Sounds like Gary Player is making up stories again!

Yes do the math, typical large bucket holds about 110 so I doubt 2000. But more power to him. What I learned a while back is the importance of incorporating on course practice time as well. Hitting shot after shot after shot knowing there is no penalty whether water hazard, pond, bunkers and even the rough does come into play as compared to a flag in an open area. Good for him even as his current health state that he wants to get out there and hit golfballs all day.

Third hip replacement? Note to self: if hip replacement becomes necessary, ask for the extended warranty.

On 6/4/2020 at 3:12 PM, MountainGoat said:

2000 balls a day? I don't believe it. Even at 5/minute, it would take nearly 7 uninterrupted hours to hit that many.

LOL it's impossible