[Garland Bayley]

My club is real estate poor. Therefore, we have limited area for practice.

DrivingRangeBoundaries by Garland Bayley, on Flickr

Currently we have the driving range and chipping green pictured. The driving range slopes away from the hitting mats seen in the upper right. Therefore, most shots beyond a wedge cannot have the landing seen. One of the city's main water mains runs under the range so we cannot move earth to alleviate this problem. Since ground slopes away, the boundary fences of 40ft are inadequate as perhaps their tops are only 25ft above the hitting area. Obviously we cannot hit driver on this range even if the person hitting driver can only carry the ball 200 yards, because slices with the club face open thereby raising the effective loft of the club can easily escape over the fence to the right.

I'm looking for suggestions including those using advanced technology that would make better, and perhaps more varied, use of the land we have.

[MCirba]

Limited distance golf balls is the only thing that comes to mind, Garland.

[David_Elvins]

The 2nd and 4th holes suck.  Get rid of them and play a straight hole from 4th tee to 2nd green/ fairway.


This hole and the 3rd you can play after the current 18th whilst you go straight from current 1st green to 5th tee.


Add a par 3 on the back nine to get back up to 18 holes. 


Expand the driving range to take over the 2nd and 4th holes.


Kill 3 birds with one stone.

[Alex Miller]

The 2nd and 4th holes suck.  Get rid of them and play a straight hole from 4th tee to 2nd green/ fairway.


This hole and the 3rd you can play after the current 18th whilst you go straight from current 1st green to 5th tee.


Add a par 3 on the back nine to get back up to 18 holes. 


Expand the driving range to take over the 2nd and 4th holes.


Kill 3 birds with one stone.

I have to agree from looking at the google maps aerial. Will think about this and give you a discount on my design fee 

[John Kavanaugh]

Why not create a new profit center or reason to join with indoor simulators. Hit some warm up shots on Pebble before you go play the pits.


In all seriousness. North Berwick just had a net to warm up in. Perfectly adequate.

[Kalen Braley]

Yea looks like a tough gig there Garland.

My only recommendation would be:

Relocate the facilities shack to the far east portion of the parking lot right up against the road (and as far south as you could tolerate), then push the range tees as far back as you can.  Then you'd probably need more netting to protect the parking lot from your wicked push slices! 

P.S.  Can you bring in dirt to make the back of the range more visible, instead of moving the existing dirt?

[SL_Solow]

How much of the problem is caused by the down slope?   If the far end could be protected, reversing the direction would llow hitters to se the landing area nd effectively lengthen the range.  However, it appears that there would be an unacceptable increase in danger/damage.  My problem with the net (lso used at the Dunes Club) is that there is no place to practice. 

[Alex Miller]

Worth looking up this course on google maps - David Elvins idea really does seem like the best move. Half of the 2nd green could be transplanted to the alternate one to make a new 4th hole. The back 9 does have a couple spots for a short 3 too...

[Garland Bayley]

When I said we are real estate poor, I mean nothing on the course is to be sacrificed to enlarge the practice area.

[Garland Bayley]

How much of the problem is caused by the down slope?   If the far end could be protected, reversing the direction would llow hitters to se the landing area nd effectively lengthen the range.  However, it appears that there would be an unacceptable increase in danger/damage.  My problem with the net (lso used at the Dunes Club) is that there is no place to practice.

The idea of reversing the range has been rejected because it would undoubtedly result in property damage.

I seldom practice there, because I only can see the direction of the ball, not the distance. When the pros teach there, they have trouble ascertaining how much good is being obtained from their instruction.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Go digital.


A virtual driving range is the way forward, for practice and especially for teaching.


3 or 4 bays with Toptracer or equivalent hitting into a net maybe 20 yards away.


Turn the rest of the existing range over to a really good short game area.

[Garland Bayley]

Add a par 3 on the back nine to get back up to 18 holes. 

Every attempt to move a hole from the clubhouse side to across the road has been rejected ever since the second nine was built there in the 70s.

[David_Elvins]

Add a par 3 on the back nine to get back up to 18 holes. 

Every attempt to move a hole from the clubhouse side to across the road has been rejected ever since the second nine was built there in the 70s.

Seems like it's not real estate that the club is lacking then.

[Kalen Braley]

...

[Jason Topp]

Convert the land into a par 3 and put a range in across the road where it looks like there is more room?

[corey miller]

Does anyone know of any club that made changes in holes to accommodate a range/bigger range where the course itself improved?

[Adam Clayman]

Move the parking lot so all those stupid trees can be used to shade the vehicles.

[Pete_Pittock]

Limited distance golf balls is the only thing that comes to mind, Garland.

Looking at everything I think Mike is right.  Link to product 30% less distance, about $75/12 dozen. https://www.golfworks.com/top-flite-super-range-restricted-flight-golf-balls/p/rfrbv/




 I can't see any land east of the road which is not already golf or a public park. Jiggering holes would mean at least a  200 yard transition. The range is expandable toward the south and Hole 1 but moving the net would likely be costlier than the limited distance balls.


Kavanaugh's suggestion has a lot of merit, especially in the winter, too muddy, or east wind periods.

[Carl Rogers]

7 pounds cannot be jambed into the  5  pound bag....,..  Caledonia has a terrific short game practice area...... multiple greens w/ bunkers.

[Peter Flory]

Why not create a new profit center or reason to join with indoor simulators. Hit some warm up shots on Pebble before you go play the pits.


In all seriousness. North Berwick just had a net to warm up in. Perfectly adequate.

Carnoustie has a nice stable of simulators.  They were great for stretching out and warming up in before the round. 

[Garland Bayley]

Move the parking lot so all those stupid trees can be used to shade the vehicles.

However, I usually manage to park in the shade without moving the parking lot.

[Alex Miller]

Don't have the photo shop tool to do it right now, but I'm pretty sure 11 could be turned into a ~515 yd par 5 doglegging right toward the lake. It would still play safely around 17 & 18 and require just a couple trees to be felled... and a new lake-adjacent green.


Then a 130 yd par 3 could be built to the existing 11th green to make up for losing #2.


It's already a short course, so I don't think leaning in and making it shorter while improving potentially 3 holes would be a bad move.


It would take tree clearing for the extended range and a couple for better corridors for the would-be 7th (southwestern 6 get played first now), new 10th, and new 11th. Green transplant for the new 8th, new tees for the new 11th, and a single new green for the would-be 10th.

[Garland Bayley]

Go digital.


A virtual driving range is the way forward, for practice and especially for teaching.


3 or 4 bays with Toptracer or equivalent hitting into a net maybe 20 yards away.


Turn the rest of the existing range over to a really good short game area.

I like the idea of investing in technology as prices of technology go down while infrastructure like nets go up.

Plus technology will demonstrate differences in distance clearly swing to swing.

Any ideas for a short game area?

[Garland Bayley]

Add a par 3 on the back nine to get back up to 18 holes. 

Every attempt to move a hole from the clubhouse side to across the road has been rejected ever since the second nine was built there in the 70s.

Seems like it's not real estate that the club is lacking then.

Take it up with Alister Mackenzie who had returning 9s in his principles.

[Garland Bayley]

Convert the land into a par 3 and put a range in across the road where it looks like there is more room?

The Astoria Country Club solution! Club has to maintain a group of golf carts to take to the range for warm up. I haven't examined this idea in detail, but off hand I can't think of land on that side that would be suitable.

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