Question from a curious range rat

[putterboy75]

I'm very interested to hear what others think about a specific question I've been thinking about as I've visited lots of different practice tees recently. Growing up this never really crossed my mind as I assumed it was alright to spend a long time on any range no matter how big or small (likely youthful ignorance mixed with a type-A personality) After playing in several different regions of the country, it seems that many older courses have smaller driving ranges (or no range at all) which are often shorter in distance with only a handful of slots for players to hit. It seems pretty obvious that someone shouldn't set up for a 2 hour range session at one of these - they're assumed to be for a quick warm up for players about to head out. As the practice tee space increases though it might be alright to hang around for awhile or even come there to just hit balls, but I'm guessing protocol differs from course to course / club to club since everywhere has its own little unspoken rules.

 

Any comments / thoughts / experiences on how to discretely discern when you can hit away for hours or when to hold off would be good to hear.

I don't have a specific club where I'm questioning "can I or can't I" hit, I'm just curious to hear what's out there.

[Hawkeye77]

Not sure I understand.  There are lots of older courses with "full size" ranges, not sure how the age of the course fits into the equation, but the courses I've encountered with no range at all have been older courses, and most often, nine holes courses, or just about any course we've played in Scotland - doubt anyone wants to spend more than a few minutes in one of those oversized dog kennels with crappy astroturf on concrete, lol. 

 

I don't know anyone who spends hours on a driving range nor have seen an issue where there is someone on a range seemingly for hours getting in the way.  

 

You pay for a bucket you get to use the range, some people pay for more buckets.  

 

I suppose if you intend to take a spot on a range all day and there are very limited spots, and lots of demand, your own conscience will give you the answer, but if there are no rules against it, either way isn't the "wrong" answer.

[caniac6]

I think you need to "read" the day. If it is a small range, and the tee sheet is busy, don't spend a lot of time. If it's not a busy day, spend more time.

[phil75070]

A course I used to belong to had a PLP, Practice/Learn/Play program, which offered a reasonable monthly fee (IIRC $70 or so) for unlimited use of the practice facility including range and range balls with deep discounts on greens fees after certain times of the day. I swear I saw people there that were set up for the day! It was a good sized range but even then one often had to wait for a spot to open up. Membership in the PLP program was well over 1000!

[nsxguy]

3 hours ago, caniac6 said:

I think you need to "read" the day. If it is a small range, and the tee sheet is busy, don't spend a lot of time. If it's not a busy day, spend more time.

 

This. Ya gotta "read the room".

 

AT the golf course most players on the range are getting ready to play. As such they shouldn't be there very long. If the range is fairly large one can get bucket after bucket and knock oneself out; otherwise one needs to allow room for the players ready to go out.

 

AT a driving range (sans course), same rules really apply. I've seen a 2 tier range on Long Island (maybe 120 or so stalls) be SO popular on a warm Spring pre-season Saturday day that every stall was occupied AND many of them had someone with a bucket of balls waiting patiently(?) behind the occupant (with only 15 or 20 balls left) for them to finish.

 

If the current occupant was going to get another bucket he'd just tell the person lined up behind him that he was going to do that and the person would find someone else to wait behind.

 

Basically, if it's really busy and you want to hit another bucket, stop and eat lunch and/or get something to drink and wait for another turn - it's seldom all that long/crowded. 👍

[ArtMBgolf]

I don't think we would pick a course range with limited tee slots, for a long
practice.    They are mainly for hitting a warmup bag of balls.     
 
If it's a large range on/off course, where you pay for the range balls, then it 
should be OK to hit as many buckets as you want.    Maybe you should buy 
multiple buckets, so nobody parks behind you.    
 
I don't think you should hit away for hours at a course range that provides
balls free to those playing there.   I have seen some courses take the free 
balls off the range at noon, because some will try that.     
 
I have seen range memberships advertised for a yearly cost, but use is 
limited to one hour, which makes sense.    But if you buy bucket after
bucket, you should be able to hit all day.       

 

 

 

[ChasenLogan]

I live in an area that is highly populated and the range is always busy.  During peak hours they usually advocate that an individual should only take 30 mins per stall/bucket.  My father who is 70+ and absolutely loves golf can never finish a full bucket in that time.  He was told multiple times to either hurry up or get out of the stall.  He chewed their a** out.  Saying that a full bucket (lets say 60 balls) if he wanted to finish in 30 mins would be hitting a ball every 30 seconds. I mean someone could finish a bucket easily if they just want to rapid fire each ball and swing.  

 

We all want to golf, we all want to practice and we all want to do it on our own time and not be rushed.   Id say be reasonable with your range time.  Sometimes it the only "me" time we have.

[Kmagnuss]

At my course it's a rare day when the range gets backed up but if it does I'll let people take my slot while I go work on short game and wait for it to calm down some... knowing they're typically just wanting to warm up before their round.

 

I'm one of the people that will hang out at the range/putting green/chipping green for a few hours at a time and balls are free so it's no big deal to bounce around and stay out of the way.  Also... NOBODY practices hitting out of the practice bunker (simulated fairway bunker) so that's always a good time to work on that part of my game.

 

-Mag

 

[jobin]

These situations can be avoided by renting the stall by the hour.  Take the stall at 9am, when the bell rings at 10, vacate. That's the way in Hong Kong where flat land at a high premium, golfers plenty.

 

The trick is to be able to supply unlimited balls to every customer for that time period.

 

Would you pay $10/20 per hour, unlimited balls?  The range in HK offered 3 hour slots for set fee with uncountable balls.  3 hours wore me out.

[putterboy75]

On 9/12/2021 at 8:19 AM, Hawkeye77 said:

Not sure I understand.  There are lots of older courses with "full size" ranges, not sure how the age of the course fits into the equation, but the courses I've encountered with no range at all have been older courses, and most often, nine holes courses, or just about any course we've played in Scotland - doubt anyone wants to spend more than a few minutes in one of those oversized dog kennels with crappy astroturf on concrete, lol. 

 

I don't know anyone who spends hours on a driving range nor have seen an issue where there is someone on a range seemingly for hours getting in the way.  

 

You pay for a bucket you get to use the range, some people pay for more buckets.  

 

I suppose if you intend to take a spot on a range all day and there are very limited spots, and lots of demand, your own conscience will give you the answer, but if there are no rules against it, either way isn't the "wrong" answer.

 

I agree - age doesn't imply anything about the practice range's size or if you can / can't hit for a longer time. Sorry if it read that way. I think the consensus seems to be "read the situation"...which is what I thought it would be (and what it should be) but was hoping maybe some other readers would have wondered about this too and might share how they went about discretely deciding what to do.

 

I probably should have also included in the OP that I was referring to ranges where balls are already provided (i.e. resort courses / private clubs / higher end public courses)... for example: (not the only time I've come across such a situation, but the most recent) I played at Arcadia Bluffs in Michigan this past week. It's a destination course and has a high price point worthy of one. The practice range and short game area are both well thought out and thorough. They're included with each player's round, as they should be. Hypothetically (we're barely able to make a tee time much less have any time to practice before a round) could I arrive 2 hours before my round and have a practice session, then go play? The range is large and hasn't ever been busy any of my visits. Further, could I play my round, then go hit balls afterwards for an hour?

 

Hopefully this provides a little more color on my original question.

[ArtMBgolf]

If you are at a high priced course and paid your greens fee, then it shouldn't 
be a big issue if you warm up long or practice afterwards, as long as you are 
not making other warmup players wait.    This probably happens, but not a 
lot.   You might not be noticed, unless the starter is right there or the pro
shop can watch the range easily.    
 
Balls on the range is usually a premium course, with a large range.   Many courses
avoid the 2 hour practice session by providing a bag of balls per player .       

[Dpavs]

If a club really doesn't want anyone to use their range for practices sessions, wouldn't it just save a lot of trouble if they would simply post that somewhere? (club rules, signs, etc.)

 

If they don't have any such rule or posting... then good judgment and etiquette do come into play... both of which are not always common or reliable. 😉

[larrybud]

On 9/12/2021 at 12:04 PM, phil75070 said:

A course I used to belong to had a PLP, Practice/Learn/Play program, which offered a reasonable monthly fee (IIRC $70 or so) for unlimited use of the practice facility including range and range balls with deep discounts on greens fees after certain times of the day. I swear I saw people there that were set up for the day! It was a good sized range but even then one often had to wait for a spot to open up. Membership in the PLP program was well over 1000!

 

"back in the day" it wasn't too uncommon for me to be at the range for 2-3 hours. I'd bring the camera and laptop, take time between shots, get a snack, etc.

[raynorfan1]

Our range has, I think, 10 hitting bays. Most of the time it's fine, but it's not entirely uncommon that you have two groups warming up at the same time (the on-deck and in-the-hole groups) and the third group is arriving ~20 minutes before their tee time to find not enough slots. It drives me nuts when somebody has set up shop to practice for 3 hours while guys who are getting ready to play have to wait. 

[putterboy75]

I don't blame you and I bet you're not the only one. How could anyone not notice there's increasing flow towards the practice area? I'd feel horrible having someone waiting behind me knowing they're about to tee off in just a few minutes and haven't hit any yet. Some people are either in their own little bubble and haven't a clue what's going on around them, or worse, they know, but just don't care. I doubt this person has many regular playing companions, my guess is the courtesy (or lack of) shown to fellow golfers doesn't change much when he decides to finally leave his spot there.

[dokex]

On 9/13/2021 at 7:40 PM, jobin said:

These situations can be avoided by renting the stall by the hour.  Take the stall at 9am, when the bell rings at 10, vacate. That's the way in Hong Kong where flat land at a high premium, golfers plenty.

 

The trick is to be able to supply unlimited balls to every customer for that time period.

 

Would you pay $10/20 per hour, unlimited balls?  The range in HK offered 3 hour slots for set fee with uncountable balls.  3 hours wore me out.

What are uncountable balls?

[DaveLeeNC]

2 hours ago, dokex said:

What are uncountable balls?

 

I guess that would be a set of balls where the number of balls exceeds the number of real numbers (which itself is an infinite set). That would be a lot of golf balls 🙂

 

dave

[jobin]

May i ask how many balls could you hit in one hour?  If i provided you with a 55 gallon drum of full of clean balls, could you hit more than contained therein, in one hour?

Quote

 

 

[MountainKing]

I think like anything else in life, just read the room.  If it's a small range and a busy course, probably shouldn't be taking up a bay for hours on end.  If you know you're going to be having a multi hour practice session, why not just go to a range or a course with a big practice facility that can support this with no impact to those looking to warm up?

[2bGood]

I agree with the 'read the room' advice. I also visited a few private clubs with small ranges where it would frowned upon to hit for hours even if there was no pressure for the hitting area as they have limited turf to get chewed up, so even if there is no one waiting on you you extended session may mean that stall can't be used for the rest of the day. 

[Medson]

On 9/12/2021 at 9:04 AM, phil75070 said:

A course I used to belong to had a PLP, Practice/Learn/Play program, which offered a reasonable monthly fee (IIRC $70 or so) for unlimited use of the practice facility including range and range balls with deep discounts on greens fees after certain times of the day. I swear I saw people there that were set up for the day! It was a good sized range but even then one often had to wait for a spot to open up. Membership in the PLP program was well over 1000!

 

Yeah, I have been to courses have this type of arrangement. It created a huge bottleneck as people bring their friends and spend hours at the range to hit balls. 

 

The good thing is the course got rid of it at the beginning of COVID and never (thankfully) restart the program. 

[putterboy75]

On 9/20/2021 at 8:05 PM, jobin said:

May i ask how many balls could you hit in one hour?  If i provided you with a 55 gallon drum of full of clean balls, could you hit more than contained therein, in one hour?

 

 

Not very many. I'm a normal paced player on the course, but on the range it takes me forever to get situated and lined up, then I need to change my glove or something else, after this usually I've seen a friend (or competitor) on the tee and decide to say hello.... 20 min later I've hit 5 balls in total.

 

It's an area where I should implement a process, but sometimes hitting balls is just a relaxing escape from life and it is what it is!