Most ridiculous thing heard on the range

[dwboston]

Thought about this thread last week while I was on the range...

 

Two guys I had never seen before were hitting a couple of spots from me. One was a younger guy (early 20s probably) with a pretty awful swing. I wasn't paying much attention to him because of the other guy, but the early 20s guy cold-topped most everything, except for the handful that he skyed...he hit a driver shot or two that went twice as high as anybody's PW and about half the distance.

 

Anyway, the other guy next to him...an older guy...I kept noticing after every shot that he would run out onto the range and run back. I guess he was picking up tees to hit the next shot with. So I paused a minute to watch him, and OMG...the swing was HILARIOUS. So he took this major whack at the ball and somehow ended up on his back foot near impact and literally sprinted backwards after impact (I guess because all of his weight was shifting so hard to the back foot that he had to run away from the ball to not fall straight backwards). So I just laughed to myself a little bit. It was impressive that he actually made contact with the ball.

 

But after a few minutes I heard him say to the kid next to him "Wow, you skyed that one...that was a bomb." And the kid smiled. And the older guy said "So we can just use your drives and we can use my putts and we will be in pretty good shape today". So I guess they were preparing for a scramble. That comment caused me to pay attention to the kid again...next drive...cold topped...next one after that...cold topped...next one after that...apex of about 150 feet and traveled to the blue flag on our range (135 out). They are going to have fun with those bombs today :taunt:

 

So wait, they were just hitting balls at the range and giving each other compliments? What's the problem with that? Their ability? Who cares how far they hit it, as long as they're having fun and not bothering anyone. Bobby Jones would have agreed.

[Hateto3Putt]

Not to pile on, but that's like making fun of the fat guy at the gym..you know, at least he's trying..

[Ure1978]

Best thing I heard last summer on the Range!!!

 

These two guys just swinging away ...... one guy goes ..... WHY ARE WE HERE!! Hahahaha.

 

Just watching them swing was priceless. At least they gave it a go but I had to laugh !!!

[3_Jack_Par]

Felt bad for a guy yesterday. Right as I was getting ready to start hitting, a guy came walking by from a few stalls down, and pointed to the 3/4 full bucket he'd left behind and said something to the effect "I've made enough terrible swings, you can have those." Must have been quite a struggle to bail after about 25 balls.

[Exactice808]

How about this.... its not what I heard... but I swear I was practicing next to a Camel, almost every swing, he would spit..... WTF is going on, Swing, spit, Swing, spit....... he seemed normal other than that..... his swing was ...ok at best..... but why you gotta spit so much... jeez

[Eidolon]

Assistant from the shop is working the range trying to drum up lessons. Down the line, 5 minute free lesson for each person! Good idea. Come to the guy by me. Hes been hitting pulls, tops, push, thin , fat. He has every shot. Just doesn't know when they are coming. The young pro gets him hitting it nice in no time flat!! 20 minutes later it is back the way it was. I ask the guy why he stopped doing what the Asst. Showed him. Response: I was only hitting my 7 iron 140 doing it his way!!

[slimeone]

Was at the range recently with a friend who borrowed my Nike Machspeed a few years ago and never gave it back, which has really bugged me all this time. Anyway he hits his drive then whacked it into the metal beam next to his booth on the follow through. The sound of impact was ridiculous. Had that familiar "toaster on a stick" sound that all Nike drivers have. The toe was completely crumpled. No apology. Then he asks me if I want the driver back now, after all these years.

[Jwin323]

Was at the range recently with a friend who borrowed my Nike Machspeed a few years ago and never gave it back, which has really bugged me all this time. Anyway he hits his drive then whacked it into the metal beam next to his booth on the follow through. The sound of impact was ridiculous. Had that familiar "toaster on a stick" sound that all Nike drivers have. The toe was completely crumpled. No apology. Then he asks me if I want the driver back now, after all these years.

 

You need a better class of friends.

[BillyZ2]

Assistant from the shop is working the range trying to drum up lessons. Down the line, 5 minute free lesson for each person! Good idea. Come to the guy by me. Hes been hitting pulls, tops, push, thin , fat. He has every shot. Just doesn't know when they are coming. The young pro gets him hitting it nice in no time flat!! 20 minutes later it is back the way it was. I ask the guy why he stopped doing what the Asst. Showed him. Response: I was only hitting my 7 iron 140 doing it his way!!

I feel your pain. I have a friend who took a series of lessons from a local pro who corrected some of his serious swing issues. He was setting up aiming 30* right of his target with exaggerated strong grip and attempting to pull/hook his shot into the green. He actually turned a 9 iron into a 6-7 iron, and bragged about how far he could hit his 9. Well the pro straighted him out to square to his target, but that only lasted a couple rounds before he was back to his distorted alignment. He ego just couldn't handle the fact he couldn't hit his 9 iron as far, even though he was more accurate. Why take the darn lessons in the first place?

[Lime Shark]

"Nice shot."

 

I won't go into the gruesome details of what the shot actually looked like.

[BogeyBrian]

An old guy said to his friend "I'm just too flexible, I have to be careful that I don't take it back to far..then I'm fine" I assure you, he had neither problem.

[HeadCase1]

I have 2

 

First one honestly maybe already said since its origin is in an iconic golf movie, apologies if it has been. Anyways, 2 buddies, one seems like a stick the other wasn't great. So the player is walking back to the range from the clubhouse and his buddy was still out there hitting. He's on the left side of the range and hits a sharp shank that skitters all the way across to the far right side. The guy walking back up pretty much yells out "who hit that shot?! We're supposed to be professionals out here!"... I laughed out loud

 

2nd one: 2 middle-aged dudes, not particularly very good but seemed to be having a good time. I kept seeing one of the guys using some kind of weird looking glass thing to pick out spots on the range. I couldn't help but hear some pretty heavily inflated distance comments "oh yeah bro you crushed that one, had to be about 280!". So a couple minutes later I'm getting a distance with my rangefinder and the guy asks how far it is to the blue flag, so I tell him about 185. He looks at me and says "you sure that's right? Using the height of that flag and my looking glass it should be about 230". I told him that the bushnell is usually pretty reliable. They were so crestfallen I felt a little bad to be honest lol

[slimeone]

Was at the range recently with a friend who borrowed my Nike Machspeed a few years ago and never gave it back, which has really bugged me all this time. Anyway he hits his drive then whacked it into the metal beam next to his booth on the follow through. The sound of impact was ridiculous. Had that familiar "toaster on a stick" sound that all Nike drivers have. The toe was completely crumpled. No apology. Then he asks me if I want the driver back now, after all these years.

 

You need a better class of friends.

Yeah tell me about it!

[JoseR]

I was at golfsmith and it was really slow, so im hitting in one of the bays. In the one next to me there were 2 employees one was hitting and the other was the peanut gallery. The guy hitting was hitting some really good drives going about 270-300 and the guy watching said o i can hit 300-350 if i snap hook em, i watched him hit a few and he was definitely snap hooking them, with the farthest going 225, but probably 225 left too

[ccheezy]

I would have played in college but...

[LeftDaddy]

Thought about this thread last week while I was on the range...

 

Two guys I had never seen before were hitting a couple of spots from me. One was a younger guy (early 20s probably) with a pretty awful swing. I wasn't paying much attention to him because of the other guy, but the early 20s guy cold-topped most everything, except for the handful that he skyed...he hit a driver shot or two that went twice as high as anybody's PW and about half the distance.

 

Anyway, the other guy next to him...an older guy...I kept noticing after every shot that he would run out onto the range and run back. I guess he was picking up tees to hit the next shot with. So I paused a minute to watch him, and OMG...the swing was HILARIOUS. So he took this major whack at the ball and somehow ended up on his back foot near impact and literally sprinted backwards after impact (I guess because all of his weight was shifting so hard to the back foot that he had to run away from the ball to not fall straight backwards). So I just laughed to myself a little bit. It was impressive that he actually made contact with the ball.

 

But after a few minutes I heard him say to the kid next to him "Wow, you skyed that one...that was a bomb." And the kid smiled. And the older guy said "So we can just use your drives and we can use my putts and we will be in pretty good shape today". So I guess they were preparing for a scramble. That comment caused me to pay attention to the kid again...next drive...cold topped...next one after that...cold topped...next one after that...apex of about 150 feet and traveled to the blue flag on our range (135 out). They are going to have fun with those bombs today :taunt:

 

So wait, they were just hitting balls at the range and giving each other compliments? What's the problem with that? Their ability? Who cares how far they hit it, as long as they're having fun and not bothering anyone. Bobby Jones would have agreed.

 

Wait, so we have 56 pages of posts in this thread about a yahoo or two saying funny things at a range about their shots (or others' shots), yet mine is the one singled out as "picking on two guys who were just being nice to each other"? Interesting.

 

Anyway, I never said these two were jerks or anything. I just thought it was funny. It was very interesting seeing the guy sprint out onto the range after every single shot. I've never seen anyone do that before.

[TomBomb51]

This was more of a "what I saw at the range" story, but here goes.

 

Me and a buddy went to the local golf dome for a Taylormade Demo day. I was next in line and got the hitting bay with the Flightscope, which was awesome as I have never really been on a monitor before. I show him my current driver and he gets me in an M2 with a non Handcrafted HZRDUS Yellow 6.5. My swing speed is about 108-110 with driver, poking it out about 275-280. While my friend waits for me to hit a few, he was going to step in. A young kid comes up behind him and starts talking to him, looking at my numbers on the iPad. Questioning what it was, how cool it was, like hes never seen one before. After I wack a few, he asks if he can give it a shot. Sets up, real narrow stance, pipes one with a draw and it hit the back of the dome in a heartbeat. I didnt even look at the iPad at first and as soon as he hit it I just say "you sandbaggiin son of a b****"...He just smirks and says "WHAT!?". Look at his numbers, 120 clubhead speed, 320 carry, 335 total.

 

Dude was a plus 2 handicap at one of the harder local courses and the NJCAA D3 National Champion. Weirdest moment of my 20 year golfing life.

[Matzi]

This was more of a "what I saw at the range" story, but here goes.

 

Me and a buddy went to the local golf dome for a Taylormade Demo day. I was next in line and got the hitting bay with the Flightscope, which was awesome as I have never really been on a monitor before. I show him my current driver and he gets me in an M2 with a non Handcrafted HZRDUS Yellow 6.5. My swing speed is about 108-110 with driver, poking it out about 275-280. While my friend waits for me to hit a few, he was going to step in. A young kid comes up behind him and starts talking to him, looking at my numbers on the iPad. Questioning what it was, how cool it was, like hes never seen one before. After I wack a few, he asks if he can give it a shot. Sets up, real narrow stance, pipes one with a draw and it hit the back of the dome in a heartbeat. I didnt even look at the iPad at first and as soon as he hit it I just say "you sandbaggiin son of a b****"...He just smirks and says "WHAT!?". Look at his numbers, 120 clubhead speed, 320 carry, 335 total.

 

Dude was a plus 2 handicap at one of the harder local courses and the NJCAA D3 National Champion. Weirdest moment of my 20 year golfing life.

 

I'm the buddy...The kid was nice and didn't come off like a jerk or anything. I was just standing there and he's asking me questions about what the Flightscope tells you. I figured this kid just was there to rip drivers and was going to have an ugly swing. Tom comes back to look at the numbers and I hear the kid say "what stiff is that?"(immediately lost faith in him hitting a good shot). 30 seconds later the dude, steps up and just rips a drive. Just bizarre. Some people might think he was there to just "show off" but talking to the kid, I think he truly just didn't understand equipment and just played the game. He had Titleist 716MB he said. I said "Let me guess, 3 iron, huh"(I just think its crazy people play that 3 iron, and only usually get that club when you buy off the rack). He responds with a chuckle "yeah, that thing is pretty sweet" in like a surfer/meathead kind of voice. I still laugh when I think "what stiff is that?".

 

Oh and yes I know everyone on here is hitting Titleist MB 3irons with XX stiff Dynamic Gold X7 hardstepped ;)

[chilllwave]

I was stuck next to a high school golfer a few weeks ago, who's grandfather was sitting behind us talking about how he needs to find a company to custom make a shaft for him due to his "extreme clubhead speed".

[Stonewalled]

The most ridiculous thing i ever heard was the sound off my buddies Cleveland Hi Bore Monster driver.

 

It was fairly busy at this particular range and my friend cranks one off the Hi bore and everyone at the range kinda ducts for cover and looks over at us like we shot off a canon. Dang that thing was loud.

 

I purchased one of these a few years later and would always surprise the heck out of anyone standing within a 100 yards. Think my ears started ringing around the same time. Go figure.

[Neverfadeaway86]

This didn't happen at the range, but it happened just behind it where the batting cages are. I was young when this happened, probably 10 or 11, and this guy came storming up to the batting cage I was in and walked in without a helmet or a bat! He then proceeded to use the fastball pitching machine (90 mph) without a helmet OR a bat!!! And I was like "mister you gotta wear a helmet!" He's all like "don't worry about it!" And proceeded to take pitches right to the chest! He even took one right off his head!! It was unbelievably awesome!! He kept muttering about next seasons hockey tryouts and how he bad to toughen up!! This guy was nuts!!

Then! This giant dark skinned fella came barrelling over to the cage and unplugged this psychos machine. The guy was very displeased with this man and I remember him distinctively still talking about toughening up for hockey tryouts. The darker skinned man, who had a wooden hand btw, kept repeating that he had to give this s*** up and focus on golf!! These 2 wackos kept bantering all the way to the psycho guys' car which was a total POS beater. At this point I was out of hearing range but the psycho guy literally whipped a hockey stick out of his trunk and started blasting slapshots around with beer cans!! It was truely unbelievable!!! Nobody believes me when I tell this story!!

I believe you

This didn't happen at the range, but it happened just behind it where the batting cages are. I was young when this happened, probably 10 or 11, and this guy came storming up to the batting cage I was in and walked in without a helmet or a bat! He then proceeded to use the fastball pitching machine (90 mph) without a helmet OR a bat!!! And I was like "mister you gotta wear a helmet!" He's all like "don't worry about it!" And proceeded to take pitches right to the chest! He even took one right off his head!! It was unbelievably awesome!! He kept muttering about next seasons hockey tryouts and how he bad to toughen up!! This guy was nuts!!

Then! This giant dark skinned fella came barrelling over to the cage and unplugged this psychos machine. The guy was very displeased with this man and I remember him distinctively still talking about toughening up for hockey tryouts. The darker skinned man, who had a wooden hand btw, kept repeating that he had to give this s*** up and focus on golf!! These 2 wackos kept bantering all the way to the psycho guys' car which was a total POS beater. At this point I was out of hearing range but the psycho guy literally whipped a hockey stick out of his trunk and started blasting slapshots around with beer cans!! It was truely unbelievable!!! Nobody believes me when I tell this story!!

I believe you

 

of course they don't believe you CHUBS didn't have his wooden hand yet at the time

[Hondabuff]

Was at my local range about 4 stalls down from the ball machine. A guy walks up, puts his credit card in the machine and selects the large bucket which is about 105 balls. Balls start coming out at a rapid pace and he is like Sh$t, Sh%T, Sh#t! I looked over and there where no more baskets left and the machine was puking balls all over the concrete. Pretty funny!

[Hateto3Putt]

This didn't happen at the range, but it happened just behind it where the batting cages are. I was young when this happened, probably 10 or 11, and this guy came storming up to the batting cage I was in and walked in without a helmet or a bat! He then proceeded to use the fastball pitching machine (90 mph) without a helmet OR a bat!!! And I was like "mister you gotta wear a helmet!" He's all like "don't worry about it!" And proceeded to take pitches right to the chest! He even took one right off his head!! It was unbelievably awesome!! He kept muttering about next seasons hockey tryouts and how he bad to toughen up!! This guy was nuts!!

Then! This giant dark skinned fella came barrelling over to the cage and unplugged this psychos machine. The guy was very displeased with this man and I remember him distinctively still talking about toughening up for hockey tryouts. The darker skinned man, who had a wooden hand btw, kept repeating that he had to give this s*** up and focus on golf!! These 2 wackos kept bantering all the way to the psycho guys' car which was a total POS beater. At this point I was out of hearing range but the psycho guy literally whipped a hockey stick out of his trunk and started blasting slapshots around with beer cans!! It was truely unbelievable!!! Nobody believes me when I tell this story!!

I believe you

 

of course they don't believe you CHUBS didn't have his wooden hand yet at the time

 

Sure he did.

[Neverfadeaway86]

This didn't happen at the range, but it happened just behind it where the batting cages are. I was young when this happened, probably 10 or 11, and this guy came storming up to the batting cage I was in and walked in without a helmet or a bat! He then proceeded to use the fastball pitching machine (90 mph) without a helmet OR a bat!!! And I was like "mister you gotta wear a helmet!" He's all like "don't worry about it!" And proceeded to take pitches right to the chest! He even took one right off his head!! It was unbelievably awesome!! He kept muttering about next seasons hockey tryouts and how he bad to toughen up!! This guy was nuts!!

Then! This giant dark skinned fella came barrelling over to the cage and unplugged this psychos machine. The guy was very displeased with this man and I remember him distinctively still talking about toughening up for hockey tryouts. The darker skinned man, who had a wooden hand btw, kept repeating that he had to give this s*** up and focus on golf!! These 2 wackos kept bantering all the way to the psycho guys' car which was a total POS beater. At this point I was out of hearing range but the psycho guy literally whipped a hockey stick out of his trunk and started blasting slapshots around with beer cans!! It was truely unbelievable!!! Nobody believes me when I tell this story!!

I believe you

 

of course they don't believe you CHUBS didn't have his wooden hand yet at the time

 

Sure he did.

 

DANG ALIGATOR

[onlyomar]

Went to a demo day last year at a local driving range where one of the gentleman at the Nike tent explained to me that the 1800 spin I was getting with my gamer (SLDR at the time) was too low for my fade and "fit" me into their Pro driver with the stock Diamana that I hit shorter and with a bit worse dispersion. All with limited flight range balls I might add. Even said I'd get 10% off if I purchased "today". I nopped out of there real quick!

 

Well he's not all wrong. Depending on your launch angle and ball speed, 1800 for a fade is quite low. If you needed to draw one I'd be afraid you'd drop sub 1500 or so and the ball would just be falling out of the air.

 

Idk about you, but I wouldn't ever put stock in spin numbers using limited flight range balls.

 

Also, just out of curiosity, why would a draw with the driver have less spin that a fade (or even a straight ball)?

 

Indeed, the club I work at even has NXT Tour balls for the range, but I finish every fitting indoors by hitting the ball that they play. I notice a 300-400 decrease in backspin on those balls vs the Chome Soft X that I game. That is the difference between someone justifying the Sub Zero or the regular Epic head.

 

As for a Draw spinning less, it's just usually a shallower path, leading to less spin.

 

And a closed face meaning less effective loft.

[adam667220]

My range is usually empty so I rarely hear much of anything. However, today I got to listen to some high school kids argue over whether the 100 marker was yards or feet. Legit, didn't think it was "as long as the football field" so it must only be feet. Had to chime in that from the current stalls it was in fact 95 yards.

[thegrayman]

Was at my local range about 4 stalls down from the ball machine. A guy walks up, puts his credit card in the machine and selects the large bucket which is about 105 balls. Balls start coming out at a rapid pace and he is like Sh$t, Sh%T, Sh#t! I looked over and there where no more baskets left and the machine was puking balls all over the concrete. Pretty funny!

 

I do this at least once a year.

[elwhippy]

Yesterday. About 430pm. The Hazardus is too whippy for me. By a 10 handicapper who slices the ball. He has X100 in his irons and strangely hit everything thin and right...

[BreakingPar]

Went to a demo day last year at a local driving range where one of the gentleman at the Nike tent explained to me that the 1800 spin I was getting with my gamer (SLDR at the time) was too low for my fade and "fit" me into their Pro driver with the stock Diamana that I hit shorter and with a bit worse dispersion. All with limited flight range balls I might add. Even said I'd get 10% off if I purchased "today". I nopped out of there real quick!

 

Well he's not all wrong. Depending on your launch angle and ball speed, 1800 for a fade is quite low. If you needed to draw one I'd be afraid you'd drop sub 1500 or so and the ball would just be falling out of the air.

 

Idk about you, but I wouldn't ever put stock in spin numbers using limited flight range balls.

 

Also, just out of curiosity, why would a draw with the driver have less spin that a fade (or even a straight ball)?

 

Indeed, the club I work at even has NXT Tour balls for the range, but I finish every fitting indoors by hitting the ball that they play. I notice a 300-400 decrease in backspin on those balls vs the Chome Soft X that I game. That is the difference between someone justifying the Sub Zero or the regular Epic head.

 

As for a Draw spinning less, it's just usually a shallower path, leading to less spin.

 

And a closed face meaning less effective loft.

 

Not to divert this thread off topic, but the correct answer is: nothing. Absolutely nothing. And there are hundreds of threads on WRX explaining this misconception.

[Rusty1885]

A guy next to me asked his friend what shaft he's using. His friend replied regular flex. He said you need a stiff shaft, it's faster swing speed. Both hits their drives about 140 yards. Priceless.