Biggest Driving Range Annoyances

[atlanta golfer]

What are yours?

Well, it's the off season so many of us are spending more time than usual on the driving range and practice area. Here are a few annoying things I'm seeing. What are yours?

1. The range has at least 4 dozen hitting stations, there are maybe 10 people there at most, and some guy has to pick the station directly next to yours. Why?

2. You go to the practice green / chipping area and somebody has about 2 or 3 of their own personal balls total to hit, that causes them to stop everyone else so they can go pick up what they're hitting, about every 60 seconds.

3. Somebody decides they need really good grass to hit their driver from so they back up a few yards from the teeing area. Now you're trying to work on your game and drills and you are looking behind you at someone with a driver in their hands and just hoping they don't shank it or pull it directly into the side of your skull.

My philosophy on all this, btw, is to remember what Tiger's Woods father did when he was growing up - he would try on purpose to distract him, so that in a real match, nothing would bother him. Hope that works!

[taylormadefan]

Only thing that really gets me - people who need to take an entire square foot of grass for each shot and divot they take.

Driving ranges could save so much money and not have to move the lines if people could learn how to move their divots in lines. It helps the grass heal faster and keeps things neat for the people using the range behind you as well.

[Samsquanch]

When the range is empty, miles of room to use. And some stranger comes up right beside me and starts hitting balls..... BAH Its worse if they talk to themselves

[eugd]

[quote name='samsquanch' post='823642' date='Dec 13 2007, 08:52 PM']When the range is empty, miles of room to use. And some stranger comes up right beside me and starts hitting balls..... BAH Its worse if they talk to themselves [/quote]


or on there Cell phones the whole time......................

[Konrad]

I hate the divot-jumpers.

That's what I call the ones who hit a ball, move over just enough, and then hit another. It just trashes the range, looks terrible, and costs the range countless amounts to redo it all. When I leave the range, it's often a box, 2 or 3 feet in diameter. Please do the same

[Eec55]

the dude that shows up on the grass mats dressed like a tour pro with the staff bag and hits 4 shanks!

inaccurate flag distances

young punks trying to hit the "dude in the cart picker"

the dude with the hot girlfriend who sits there and she just adores every slice he hits

and the kicker------crappy sliced defective orange rock flite range balls that i just payed 9 bux for!

i could go on

[taylormadefan]

[quote name='Konrad' post='823650' date='Dec 13 2007, 07:58 PM']I hate the divot-jumpers.

That's what I call the ones who hit a ball, move over just enough, and then hit another. It just trashes the range, looks terrible, and costs the range countless amounts to redo it all. When I leave the range, it's often a box, 2 or 3 feet in diameter. Please do the same [/quote]

I used to do this as well until I talked to a super who said that it actually takes longer for patches of grass to heal than the divot jumpers.

He said the best way to do it is separate lines ala Vijay Singh which provides enough room for others to use and still allows for easy backfilling and the grass to heal quickly.

[pingjas]

The practice range itself.

[saltcity]

No big annoyances.
However, one 'guy' that bothers me, and I've seen it happen a few times, is the guy who brings his little kids with him to the range and lets them wander around by the mats while he gets his practice in. If the kid can't hit his own bucket, leave him at home, he's not old enough to be there or old enough to enjoy it. The range can be a dangerous place, I've seen some ugly backswings.

[crew_138]

[quote name='Eec55' post='823665' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:11 PM']the dude that shows up on the grass mats dressed like a tour pro with the staff bag and hits 4 shanks!

inaccurate flag distances

young punks trying to hit the "dude in the cart picker"

the dude with the hot girlfriend who sits there and she just adores every slice he hits

and the kicker------crappy sliced defective orange rock flite range balls that i just payed 9 bux for!

i could go on [/quote]


YEP... you hit the nail on the head.

People that see you hit a bad shot and immediatly offer advice... ok but I could still school this person on the course and it sometimes hurts my ears to listen.

The basket full of rubber tees for everyones use, but there all about a half inch long and wont even poke out of the mat because people cut them.

ball machines that skims you on balls. seriously it doesn't matter.... sell time stall time or something with unlimited balls.

[g8a_golf]

[quote name='samsquanch' post='823642' date='Dec 13 2007, 08:52 PM']When the range is empty, miles of room to use. And some stranger comes up right beside me and starts hitting balls..... BAH Its worse if they talk to themselves [/quote]
lol. I always talk to myself. I really can't help it. One time, I was hitting with one of my good friends and about an hour into hitting (we'dalways hit balls for about 3 hours. the balls were free, so what the heck, right?) and he said "lets see if you can go 5 minutes without saying anything" I said "OK" only to fail the test about 4 balls in. I really have to comment to myself after every swing or I feel crazy...

Anyway, my pet peeve on the range is when they are all hacked up to heck. if people learned to make one big divot instead of 100 little ones, it would make life much easier... and nobody likes the feeling of uneven ground under their feet.

[Paully]

Nothing really annoys me at the range. It's just practice, not like you have any money on the line or anything. Probably the only thing that I can do without are when little kids are let free to roam w/out supervision. I don't like to have to constantly watch my area to make sure a kid isn't there that I might hit on my backswing. I'm all for bringing your kids to the range and getting them introduced to the game, but if you bring them, make sure you know where they are at all times and aren't wandering around unsupervised.

[hoganfan924]

The know-nothing hacker giving his girlfriend/wife/child a "lesson" that will sentence the recipient to a lifetime of bad golf. And giving that lesson so loudly, that I can hear every word from 50 ft. away. This is the one thing that I have great difficulty tuning out.

Little kids running around so close behind me that I get paranoid that I'm going to accidentally kill one of them in my backswing.

Limited flight range balls, cut up range balls, dirty range balls

[jtitleist12]

The most annoying for me is un-warranted swing advice. There is a gentleman at my local course who is there almost every-day only hitting balls. He never plays, just pounds ball after ball. He must think he is the resident swing guru because he will give advice and ask you questions like, "What were you trying to do there?", or "You had the club layed off a little at the top..." etc, etc. without you even asking.

[kitsoasis]

i love these threads lol

just off the top of my head, two things
-people who give unwarranted advice
-the guy decked out in the nicest equipment but got no game (its worse when they have clubs that aren't suitable for their ability)

[Pdougherty]

People on their cell phones. I really could care less about your business meeting tomorrow or who is in the bar while you are on the range. followed up with all the buddies coming down to the range from the bar to talk face to face about the business meeting tomorrow.

people that bring their little kids who can't hit a ball yet and walk in front of my stall to go get one they just topped while I am almost at the top of my back swing.

the people that look in my bag after a few passes and then come over to me and ask about the club and just take it out of the bag and look at it.

when I can hear one guy's heavy metal playing out of his ipod 4 stalls away.

people who say that deer are so cute and people hitting should hit away from them. gee they make great moving targets and most likely you're not going to get one on the fly.

the father that wants their kid to be tiger woods when they are 7 years old and the very last place the kid wants to be is at the driving range.

kids bragging to their friends what club they hit. "dude, I just hit my 6 iron 140" did anyone ask what you were hitting and how far it went?

that's about it for now

[Bay1524]

Mine was merely an incident. I had to take a phone call - moved about eight feet back from the hitting area, not talking loudly at all. Guy tells me to move even further away asking if I could do that somewhere else. I move back 35-40 feet and finish my call and return to hitting area. Starts to talk to me for about 30 minutes so loud entire range can hear...and he's tellin' me to move away from the hitting area because I'm on the phone? Crazy!

[idiotbox]

The father who thinks his son is the next Tiger. Cell phones are a PITA too. None of those things bother me since I started using my iPod at the range.

[d0n]

with the range - the way a sandy ball tears up a new drivers face

with people - the guy who hits it fat and the wind pushes the sand all over me. Sometimes I purposely become this guy if the wind is blowing right and someone has pulled up next to me.

The guys who duck and run out 10yds to grab the 6-8 balls they shanked.

[hoganfan924]

I should have added:

The overbearing, child worshiping, helicopter parent that thinks their child is the most talented ever to pick up a golf club and tells them how wonderful each shank, blade and chili dip were.

[kitsoasis]

[quote name='hoganfan924' post='823773' date='Dec 14 2007, 02:13 PM']I should have added:

The overbearing, child worshiping, helicopter parent that thinks their child is the most talented ever to pick up a golf club and tells them how wonderful each shank, blade and chili dip were.[/quote]

what's a chili dip?

[Samsquanch]

[quote name='eugd' post='823648' date='Dec 13 2007, 05:57 PM'][quote name='samsquanch' post='823642' date='Dec 13 2007, 08:52 PM']When the range is empty, miles of room to use. And some stranger comes up right beside me and starts hitting balls..... BAH Its worse if they talk to themselves [/quote]


or on there Cell phones the whole time......................
[/quote]


Lol, and they grab 100 balls and only hit 30 of them with 2 hands

[tburchell]

The unattended kids thing is one for sure. But the other thing that gets me is the people smoking right next to the stalls. I know I'm touching a nerve with some people, but I don't like trying to hit balls in a smoke cloud/trail. Everything else I just tend to block out.

[Charlie_Foxtrot]

The most annoying thing for me is when my swing goes bad.

But cell phones are a close second.

[LONG&STR8]

I had this old guy playing to my left who was probably 80 years old and would hit a ball every 5 minutes or so and each time he hit his dribbler no more than 20 yards he'd yell out a cuss word, mumble to himself, let out a grunt on his downswing and go sit back down. He did the exact same thing over and over again. It must have taken him an hour to hit 10 balls. Then when some Asian people came by to practice he started mumbling to himself about how there were "more of them here than in Vietnam" (they were Korean). So other than Racist geezers on the range crappy golf balls bother me the most when I pick the worst ones and use them to practice short pitches and when I'm done picking them out I only have 20 good ones left!

[juansky]

I hate smokers, especially the ones that just sit on their a** and watch others while we inhale their crap. Wish I could squirt them with gasoline.

[nxxt]

The thing that annoys me most is the way I hit the ball

[airball7]

[quote name='jtitleist12' post='823721' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:46 PM']The most annoying for me is un-warranted swing advice. There is a gentleman at my local course who is there almost every-day only hitting balls. He never plays, just pounds ball after ball. He must think he is the resident swing guru because he will give advice and ask you questions like, "What were you trying to do there?", or "You had the club layed off a little at the top..." etc, etc. without you even asking.[/quote]

This stuff is obviously the worst thing about the range and I'm laughing out loud reading it, even though when it's actually going on I want to commit capital murder.

I'm hardly a great player, but I am around scratch and the last thing I need is some 16 dispensing unsolicited swing advice to me. I've been rebuilding my swing with a pro for the last two seasons, and totally ignoring the short game, but I see enough of myself on V1 to know that I strike the ball like a plus player and have some really sound mechanics (I'd better; I've put so much time in and played so badly in the meantime it's ridiculous). Then some artard tells me how I didn't do this or that when I block a tee shot 285 and 15 yards left.

Funny thing is that because it's pretty obvious that I can play, people will solicit advice from *me*, and I always give the same answer: I'm just an amateur and don't really know enough about teaching where I feel I'd do you more good than harm - my advice is to find a capable PGA teaching pro and understand that they can really help you if you're willing to put in the time and energy to improve. Sure I can spot some obvious stuff, but what's the point? I have V1 and use it religiously, and even when I'm working on changing something small in my move, it takes literally hundreds of shots before I can see any perceptible difference - if I give a guy some solid, solicited advice he'll take 3 swings, not see a difference and give up anyway.

The other one I love is when the two clown buddies whale away at their drivers and loudly estimate distance, which is never less than 320 yards, despite the fact that I can see my 17 degree hybrid flying at least as far and I max it out at 250.

[90civicracer]

[quote name='jtitleist12' post='823721' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:46 PM']The other one I love is when the two clown buddies whale away at their drivers and loudly estimate distance, which is never less than 320 yards, despite the fact that I can see my 17 degree hybrid flying at least as far and I max it out at 250.[/quote]

This one is always comical. I went down to the range a few weeks ago to test out my 19* Rescue Mid TP that I had just gotten that day and as I was hitting this club, two guys set up a few stalls down from me and right away took out the driver. One guy hits his first ball and loudly says how it landed right around the 250 marker. My next shot I happened to take right as that guy hit, my ball went around 210 and his drive was around 180-190. This happened a few more times and I just chuckled to myself as his distances were always around 250 or so, even though his drives were always around 50 yards shorter. Maybe he just has bad eyesight

[oregongolf]

[quote name='tburchell' post='823903' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:05 PM']The unattended kids thing is one for sure. But the other thing that gets me is the people smoking right next to the stalls. I know I'm touching a nerve with some people, but I don't like trying to hit balls in a smoke cloud/trail. Everything else I just tend to block out.[/quote]


[quote name='juansky' post='823918' date='Dec 13 2007, 09:29 PM']I hate smokers, especially the ones that just sit on their a** and watch others while we inhale their crap. Wish I could squirt them with gasoline.[/quote]
Insanely frustrating! This doesn't stop at the driving range though. Good luck telling someone to go smoke elsewhere -- even though they're doing more harm to others than themselves. If I ever get to a position of judicial power, cigarettes are the first things to go.