The best and worst driving ranges you've been to

[noleyo]

Just wanting to hear some range layout stories. I'll start. The best I've ever been to only had grass. Not a mat anywhere to be seen. The markers were either miniature greens with the yardage painted on/around the mound (for shots under 200 yds) and larger knolls with the distances painted on them (for shots over 200 yds). It was very nice to see.

The worst was probably this place that had basically zero grass, mostly dirt. No markers insight, just an open field. The best thing about it was it was unmanned and worked on the honor system. A small camper/trailer was parked out front. Inside was a folgers coffee can and buckets of balls on the floor. Walk in, put $4 in the can and grab a bucket of balls. The balls were beat to crap, but it served it's purpose for the most part.

 

[caeye0710]

My Top 2:

Knollwood Fairways in Southern Pines, NCOakmont (Yes, THE Oakmont) Note: not overly impressive layout, but due to the fact it was Oakmont and the grass was perfect....

The worst: Anything with a cheap rubber-base mat and ping pong balls.

[Shawn Paul]

Pictures should be required in this thread.

[Cachaulo]

Public course in a big city, range stalls on clubhouse side and opposite side of the range is the teaching area with greens for chipping and stalls that hit towards the public side. Tees on the public side are mats but during the season the grass in front is used...from here you can bomb drives all the way to the teaching greens which was fun like trying to drive a par 4 but if someone were hitting down there I’m sure it was distracting and potentially dangerous. If both sides were in use it was crazy to be hitting at each other even if it was 300yds apart

[justasgood]

My course has........5 matts that barely have any surface left and a nasty green net that hangs 10 feet away to hit at. Pictures to follow....

[tsecor]

worst one was in NY.......a huge hill (looked like a small mountain with rocks jutting out) was approx 150 yards out. it took up half the range....the other half was wide open and was only 200 yards long. As kids it was the most fun as you tried to shoot stingers off the face of the rocks so the balls would riccochet into the next county, but as we got older, it was horrible

 

the best was in NC where you had interactive targets and you would win a prize when the ball collector took the VW bug out to collect all the balls....the car had a bullseye on it and it had a huge sign that said "HIT ME".......

[DinoD90]

Worst range was one with only matts that were at least 10 years old. I understand matts can be expensive but they had cheap ones to begin with, besides not replacing them that long is inexcusable.

As far as best range, probably the one was either Marietta Golf Center or Georgia Golf Center. Haven't been to the Marietta in a long time, but it was a long range with plenty of flag markers and tons of space to hit from the ground. Georgia Golf center was smaller, but well kept and they had great range balls.

[bradski]

worst- Torrey pines is bad for what the course is. small range that is full often. Worst I have been to would be one in Carnation WA. they had only grass(which is normally preferred) that was so thin and the ground was either rock hard clay or when it was wet it would grab your club really bad with any divot. the balls were what seemed like 20 year old balls they dragged out of the ponds.

Problems I commonly see with ranges

garbage balls- old, limited flight, random mix

terrible mats

bad lighting

no short game area

too close of hitting bays(driver might hit wall behind you or person)

just dirty areas for landing (messes up balls and nothing to hit at)

bad grass- all hit out or really thin.

 

best ranges have

good targets

good lighting

Top tracer or other tracking technology

great short game area's.

new balls regularly

good grass- much better than mats.

 

 

 

 

[BogeyBoogy]

Carter Plantation was best....

Abita Springs Golf Course was probably the worst...

[Loki]

Spirit Hollow, IA has a great range. Lighted targets, etc.

Worst? Any course without a range or just a net to hit into. Why bother?

[LeoLeo99]

I've never seen a range with Top Tracer or any technology.

Best range I've been to is in Del Mar near the horse track. But it doesn't check your good range check boxes.

Other favorite range was the Pennington Golf Center in NJ. The mats are up high so it was really easy to see where your ball went. As long hitting teenagers, we could drive balls past the end of the range and into the trees with wooden drivers. We can't do that anymore at our age even with titanium.

[golfman79]

Best was Firar's Head. Pick any golf shot you can think of, and you can hit it, often to a green. Pro V1's for the range balls. Worst was Ash Brook in New Jersey. Had 5 mats, and a huge net across about 3 feet in front of the mats. Was there early in the year and tried to sell some clubs. Wound up sitting in my car all day since I couldn't see where the ball went!

[mcputter]

Best has got to be World Woods in Brooksville, FL. Hitting areas around full 360 degrees, 3 practice holes (Par 5, Par 4 and Par 3), 36 hole 2 acre practice putting green.

Honorable mention to Gateway Country Club in Fort Myers. Hitting areas on North and South ends, good targets since redesign, short game area and two practice holes.

 

[Edward_Majorwin]

The one I go to most often is both the best and the worst. I will not name it for I love it so, but it might be what some would call a dump.

Best feature : after prolonged periods of rain much of the field becomes flooded and they stay open no matter what. Nothing better to spot your exact distance than a lovely splash of water shooting up upon impact.

Worst feature: now, at the same time, there can often be a large gathering of ducks just floating around with nothing to do and nowhere to go. These creatures do not have a clue that they've entered a live fire range and even the closest near-miss barely stirs them out of their oblivious state. I've got my 150 balls and I'm not going home until it's empty, so I just hit and hope I do not injure any of them.

 

[spbrooks]

Liberty National's range is primo. Immaculate grass teeing area, great targets and shiny new Pro V1s in a leather bag.

[farmer]

Best was new course in Colorado that closed after only two years. Free balls, brand new grass, practice bunkers identical to the ones on course, and free water. Worst was in Stephenville TX, no grass to speak of, old beat up balls and the range had a distinct slope from back to front, with a little quartering slope as well.

[MtlJeff]

I havent been to too many extremes. There's some nice grass ones around here at some of the private courses, like huge areas with targets and well maintained grass

I'll say the worst one considering the course has to be Torrey Pines. For a world class course i would say it would probably be among the 10 worst on-course driving ranges i've ever been on. There are public courses around here that cost 40$ that are way nicer

[MaineMariner]

I don't think I've ever been to a truly nice driving range. The ones near me are just okay, but they suffer from the same problems:

Old or cheap mats that might as well be concrete.

Patchy grass that's worse than my backyard, and I barely maintain my yard.

Weird elevation changes in the range area so that your distances are a total mystery.

[cbbaron]

Troon North in the morning as you face the rising sun is the worst considering its a world class facility otherwise

[bradski]

yep. not going north to south or vice versa is a huge mistake. the range closest to me is directly west facing so it is worthless every evening.

[RichieHunt]

Legends Resort in Myrtle Beach is one of my favorites. No mats (although I don’t mind hitting off good mats) an incredible short game and putting game area. Also had these huge movable tents so you can be in the shade and hit balls on the grass during the summer. 

 

Orange County National is amazing from the sheet size of it. Range balls are always in great condition, but they sometimes don’t have you hitting from the flattest of lies. Short game area is pretty good. Putting green is good, but could be closer to the driving range. I remember the mats being really hard as a rock. The size of the range is what makes it more special than anything.

 

Osprey Point is really good, right up there with Legends. They take incredible care of the grass and there are no mats. Great short game area and a pretty good putting green. Wish the putting green was a little flatter.

 

Pine Needles is pretty incredible as well. I don’t like their main putting green, but David Orr had them construct a putting green near where his academy is at that is almost perfectly flat. The grass range is a little lopsided, but they have stalls for mats and they are under a roof so you can practice in the shade. Also had a short 3 hole course that is a blast to play. 

 

I concur on World Woods. It’s just a really neat practice area. Only problem is the balls are okay and I wish the putting green was flatter. But as far as the driving range goes, it’s really cool as you can hit from so many little tucked in areas.

 

The same with Grande Vista in Orlando (formerly the Faldo Institute). I like it better than World Woods because it has a better Short game area and flatter practice green. It also has a short exec course that’s really fun.

 

LPGA International is great, too. Great range, plenty of balls, great short game area, short course and putting green.

 

But out of all of these, the best I’ve ever been on is Lake Nona. It has almost all of the features except for the short course. However, there’s a TrueSpec Golf on site and that helps the golfers out. Just fantastic.

 

Some of the worst I’ve ever seen, based on the course:

 

Caledonia Golf and Fish Club. Just have a net and a crappy short game area. Practice green is incredibly small. Great course, god awful range.

 

One of the clubs I grew up on had a terrible range. It was a double deck range. If you were on top of the hill, you could only hit drivers and woods. On the bottom of the hill you could only hit irons. If somebody was on the bottom of the range, you couldn’t go to the top of the range in fear of you topping one and hitting the guy below. Crappy balls, no short game area, dinky putting green.

 

I don’t know where I would put Sara Bay CC’s range. They had a range that you could only hit it 170 yards (or 150 yards depending on what they had that day). However, the short game area was good and the practice green was awesome. They had regular cups and then cups about ½ the size of a regular hole. I thought it would help me with my putter, but instead I had the yips that week. I still thought it was cool.

 

There's another horrible range I've been to that's on a quite famous course, but I can't remember it. I'm sure it will come to me, soon.

 

 

 

 

 

RH

[nevets88]

Metedeconk's range has everything, full swing, short game, putting, super well maintained and it's just huge, a lot of space.

I don't want to think about the worst range, lol.

[bitt03]

Medalist’s range is one that sticks out as my favorite. Not overly huge but immaculate

[MK7Golf21]

know of a couple ranges where the grass is basically like in your backyard and the balls are very rubbery to prevent going far.

I went to an awesome range somewhere in Wisconsin one time, was at the PGA and wanted to hit a range so I asked some locals and they told me of this place that was the best. The layout was great from what I recall and huge, some of the best short game areas, nice greens and the range was best I had ever been on. This was a picture of the course there, very Wisconsin feel

 

[MelloYello]

Haha, the worst range is one of those 'don't ask, don't tell' sorts of things.

[Gata]

Sawgrass has an elevated "island green" about a hundreds yards out or so depending where they have you hitting from that day. It is a nice play on their most famous feature and allows you to get a practice run on the shot you will surely be thinking about all round.

[mocokid]

I've found yellowed top flites and Dunlop blue max surlyns from the 1970's, and balata era club specials, hogans, titleists, wilsons, etc in my bucket in a NJ range. However, it's always open in winter and has heaters. LOL

[jonsnow]

Did the OP mean driving range as in public range not attached to a course? When I'm talking about a range on a course I refer to it as a practice tee. If we're talking about either, both of mine are at Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head. The Arthur Hills course has probably the best practice area I've encountered; the George Fazio course has an old, ratty mat (just one) & netted area about 10 yards deep that you hit Birdie Balls into.

[Darth_Blader]

Another vote for Torrey Pines.

[mikpga]

Just came back from Orlando and stayed at Marriot's Grande Vista Resort...

Great Practice Facility...

 

And I will also include Meadow Links & Golf Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio...I am a bit biased admittedly...