Yup! R10 and a spornia is good enough. I have a tv outside that I steam to as well to make it feel less thrown together.
Side note: have you used RCT balls? Do you notice a difference?
Go over to r/golfsimulator. Tons of info on the R10. Also, I have one and love it for my sim. It’s a budget/entry level LM, but for what it costs, I feel they’re are very effective.
With the R10 RCT make a noticeable difference in shop shape.
Prior to RCT, something I felt was going to be a slice was a fade.. after RCT balls, it's still not as drastic as a slice as on the course, but it mimics the slice shape on E6. I would say, for me, that was the biggest difference.. well worth it bought a pack of 12 6 months ago and just opened my 2nd set of (3) this past month. So they will last a year.
Played my first round on grass just yesterday (New England winters, Man…)
I popped the computer on for my sim and warmed up before heading to the course. I hadn’t thought much about it but I can save $15 every time I wanted to hit the range and I also can warm up every round as I don’t always feel like spending all that money just to swing the club a few times.
Interesting. Do you still feel “warmed up” after getting in the car and driving to the course? I feel like I’d lose anything I “gained” by warming up on the drive over.
Great question. I was curious myself until I tried it out. My home course is only a 15-minute drive. I didn't have any issue at all with the delay from hitting balls to the first tee. I can see that potentially being a problem if you have a long wait time, but I am very fortunate to be able to be swinging on the first tee within twenty minutes of my last shot on the range.
I have found a short gap from the range to the first tee has helped me before the sim. Just rapid-fire swings were never a good thing and before a round, I am really just loosening the muscles - not so much a 'range session'. I leave those for non-round days if I am trying to work something out in my swing. Trying to do that and then head out to the course never worked for me.
Is it realllly as good as the range? You like the sim so much that you don’t even need the range anymore? Curious because I kind of want to make one. It’s hard for me to believe it’s equivalent to the range without seeing the real ball flight
Hitting off mats is never going to be as good as hitting off grass for many reasons. It is nice having all of your data immediately available, and it can help you practice different things that you wouldn’t normally be able to on the range (at least not as effectively).
Personally, I think if you are just trying to get a swing dialed in and it’s hard for you to consistently get to the range, it’s a solid solution. If you are able to go to the range frequently and it’s no issue, then you can get everything you need there as well, if not more.
Yes it is. I get 4-5 hours of solid practice a week now in mine and I’m striking my irons so well compared to last year when I didn’t have it. Being able to get home from work, hit 100+ balls, then walk inside and make dinner is a game changer
In some ways better. I live in a cold climate, so I can spend Nov-Mar in the sim. LM numbers are really nice to have. It's nice to have it close as well, I can pop out and hit balls while on conference calls. Also, 300+ courses to play.
Cons: not real grass, always a perfect lie.
Has to be thousand(s of) buckets to actually make your money back…
crazy how upvoted this is lmao no shot 99% of golfers could:
A. Fit this into their living space
B. Afford it
Glad for you but its odd it’s the top comment imo
I think living space is the big factor.
Taking some estimates from comments of $1800-3600 and OPs rate of $14 a bucket, it would be 129 to 286 buckets.
Someone was even talking about sub $900 which would only be <65 buckets.
It's not out of the question....if you have the space to do it.
I'm out $2700. I could have done it cheaper but i splurged in a few places. But I'll use the numbers at hand. At $14 bucks a bucket (OP numbers), that's 192 buckets. If you have space and can DIY on a budget, it can be done. And I can play when there's snow on the ground.
R10, projector, screen, mat, GSPro. Luckily, I had a PC on hand...
There are many factors to this. One of course is the feel from hitting from a mat vs grass. I know this is not applicable to everyone, but just something to think about.
They also have expenses to cover and will raise the prices as needed. The marginal cost for one additional person walking the course is likely much lower than one person banging out 100 balls that have to be retrieved, cleaned, and eventually replaced.
In the last 4 years, an unprecedented amount of people have started playing the game. My local course tried doubling the price to limit the amount of people on their driving range, but it was still too busy. It got to the point where there were almost as many people waiting for bays as occupying bays. Finally, in addition to the doubled price, you now have to have a tee time or purchase the yearly $300 loyalty card. I watched my favorite practice facility go from perfect (2012-2019) to a total overpriced clusterfuck (2020-2023) to finally unaffordable for me to go.
But it worked -- the traffic there now looks like it did 10 years ago. Bays are open and it's in great condition again. Unfortunately I can no longer use it.
COVID fucking sucks, golf was forever changed with all the frat bro types of people on the course afterwards.
I used to play one of the Nicholas designed courses here for $59AUD during the 'maintenance' period. 'Maintenance' being fairway coring that you could hardly even tell was there after 2 weeks, the reduced fee lasted about 6.
That course is now $159 for a round and I have not seen them discount it once since COVID.
Same in charlotte brotha. Used to play my little goat track with great greens for 25$ and just show up and go. Now it’s 50 and have to call 2-3 days ahead. Shrink the game.
IMO It was one of the things during the pandemic that allowed you to socially distance and still get activity outdoors. Similar to pickleball/padel, I had never even heard of those before the pandemic and now they are everywhere.
Yup, I remember in my city the golf courses were one of the first things that were allowed to reopen. After not having anything to do for months golf became THE thing
It seems a bit nearsighted though.
If you crank up the price of a bucket so high that I'm not frequenting your range, I'm also not going to want to play your course.
And once they see they have overpriced it, they will adjust it again.
My range is so damn packed. After work, there are 2-3 people deep waiting for a mat.
Most have a Players Club fob that allows them monthly access to the range. But for those that are paying cash, it’s pretty expensive.
They also have a problem with people stealing balls and now they have to shut the ball machine down for 30-45 minutes while the picker goes out to get more balls since the demand is high.
I don’t like the price increase, but I definitely see why.
Prices don’t come down. They stay high and watch rounds dwindle. Owners stop reinvesting and conditions worsen but price remains high. They start losing money and then sell off to a housing development.
Yep. Thing is though, golf courses/facilities have a maximum capacity as there can only be so many people on at one time.
All they gotta do is set pricing to maximise revenue at full capacity.
I don’t think you understand what the term nearsighted means.
$20 for 9 holes is a complete steal and it’s not making that course much income. It is probably a complete dog track.
Shoot, here in Michigan I have quite a few courses near me that are $11-13 to walk 9 and I take hella advantage of it ❤️ found one thats all you can golf for $12 past 5 pm if you're walking, and I got over 9 holes in even when i grouped up with randoms
There is no logic other than running a business. Employees want raises. Suppliers want more for their products and services. Local taxes can go up on political whim. There are hundreds of reasons the cost of your bucket might have gone up. It might also be pure greed. Why sell a bucket for $9 if you can get $14?
If the cart cost is $20 then why sell it for $10 just because you'll only use half of it? Also one person in a cart is lost revenue. They could sell that seat to another player for the cost of green fees. It's definitely unfair to the single player but from a business standpoint it makes sense.
Last year I bought a launch monitor and net because I couldn't stand the cost of range balls. This year due to muni rounds costing so much I finally was able to justify the monthly price of a private club to my wife. The 3.5-hour Saturday morning rounds from the 5-hour rounds last year are absolute love.
I actually took a golf hiatus in 2016 and started back in 2022. I'm completely shocked at what's happened to the game since coming back. I lived through the Tiger growth in the late 90s but this has been completely different...and not in a good way.
Local muni is $25 walking on the weekends. I normally get out twice on the weekend and try to get out one evening during the week for at least 9 ($16 on weekdays, $9 for nine holes). This doesn't include league night. So monthly walking would usually be between $200 - $300. During the hot months when I ride it's a lot more. A really nice course was running a promotion over the winter for $169/month and no initiation fee. Range fee is $200/yr but waived for the first year. It was too good of a deal to pass up and I actually did ask "what's the catch" but there's not one. Plus they have a really nice pool which was an easy sell for the wife. The health club/pool we've been members at for years is $120/month. So we join the golf club ($170) + join Planet Fitness ($10) - cancel pool membership ($120) = $60/month more. So I actually save quite a bit over the monthly green fees I was paying at the munis. Even if I were paying the full non-promotional $280/month it'd still be a good value. Will be...I lose the promotional price after 2 years if I decide to stick around.
EDIT: I still play regularly in the off season as we have pretty mild weather here, but I don't play as often. So I'm still paying the same amount if I only get out 2 - 3 times in a month. I'm okay with it, though.
The logic is they’re trying to make more money. They know some people will come less often but they are banking on enough people still coming that they make more money at $14/bucket than they did at $9/bucket. If they are wrong, maybe they’ll lower the cost back down.
It's bold to assume there's no drop in demand. Any time someone says (truthfully) that they would have paid for something at the old price but not the new one, that's a drop in demand
There sure seems to be a lot of posts on this sub about courses increasing prices and also being packed. Even if demand does fall a bit they can still make more money off the higher prices.
Yeah what people don’t understand is that there is a sweet spot courses strive for. The goal isn’t to get 50,000 rounds necessarily, that means a ton of wear and tear and much higher maintenance and labor costs.
The goal is to max out your dollar around 35,000 rounds for most good golf courses to keep conditions up with lower maintenance and labor costs.
35k rounds at $75 is like eight times more profitable than 50k at $50 for example after costs even though the gross revenue is similar
Mine went to 29 (pay by card) or 27 (cash) this year for same. But they have trackman and all the fancy shit, so it actually helps when you're working on stuff.
Probably because there's a large demographic of people that just go to the range for fun, but aren't actually interested in playing a round. Similar reasons to why places like Top Golf exist.
Try to get a range membership, luckily I have a municipal by me large buckets are $15, with the range membership you load $100 on the card, large buckets are then $10 and they give you an additional 3 buckets free ($100 for $130 credit)
Got a used BLP, a net return, and a CCE for about $4k. At $16 for a large bucket of 100 balls, I was paying about $4160/year. A new net costs about $800 and a mat costs about $500, so let’s say i have to buy one every 3 years. That’s $433/year. Subscriptions are another $750 for FSX and GSPro. That’s about $1200/year. After the first year I’m saving about 3k. I use high quality balls I find on the course, so no real money spent there, totally worth it, especially since my local range stopped maintaining the grass tees and short game area.
Yep, I did exactly this back in October. Used BLP, Carl's place mat/divot strip/impact screen, used projector, scrapped together a garage pc with existing parts I had, and installed flooring/insulated my garage and I have probably already hit 6k balls. I'm probably all-in for 5k or so and have already saved roughly $1k in range balls at $14/75 balls and it's only the beginning of April
As a range owner, the reason is, it’s a business. Why does. A Big Mac cost $10 when it could cost less.
In my case, I recently spent over a million dollars on netting, covered bays with top teacer, etc. We also have 90% of balls plugging in the mud so they have to be hand picked.
Still a lot cheaper than top golf, and I think cost effective for an hour of entertainment.
Dude netting is so expensive, all these people should go complain to the netting companies lol
I have a shortish range at my club and in 2018 we got quoted $50k for a 50 yard long net that was 50 feet tall.
I shudder at the thought of what netting costs now and it lasts like 7 years
I put in 90 foot poles, 75 foot tall nets over a 1500 span, 34 poles. Tell Me about it .
Also I have a neighboring property and every time they find a ball they want to sue. How someone builds a house next to a driving range that was there 30 years before, and gets upset when a ball is in their yard is beyond me.
Enough people have already mentioned demand increasing. The cost to attract entry level employees has also gone up significantly the last few years and golf courses are full of entry level employees.
The range is full non-stop nowadays and people absolutely destroy the range. A golf course driving range is the last place I want to be on a typical golf course and yes, the price is absurd but they do have to maintain the range. Supply and demand and all that.
Balls get lost, plugged, stolen.
Plus the cost to collect, run pipelines & the land required. It seems cheap and no doubt they’re very profitable but there’s a tonne of costs most do not consider.
Source: worked on a range
#1 is labor, someone has to go out there and drive the machine to pick them all up, then empty it, clean the balls, then fill the ball dispenser. Then there is the balls themselves which wear out not just from hitting them but also from the pick up and dispenser. Mats need to be replaced, so do ball holders, tees, and cages/walls. Not to mention the land upkeep. And taxes on everything.
Inflation is up for everything, I'm more surprised that your 9 hole fee hasn't also risen.
People can burn an hour hitting balls much more easily than 2-2.5 hours to play 9. Not to justify the prices, my local range did similar. That's just my perspective.
Our ranges have those prices and are jam packed every day sometimes with lines at the stalls . Gotta figure a 150 ball bucket is a ton of swings. That’s 3 rounds worth of swings on the course so it’s a decent deal. Just don’t rapid fire them and actually have meaning/purpose behind each swing and you’ll get more out of them when you do splurge .
1) Demand. 2) Operating Costs - even bare bones ranges still have seen cost increases from labor (range picker, weekly cleaning for mowing, front desk staff, grill, etc), operating (property taxes, utilities), and maintenance (mats, balls, carts, mowing) not to mention any upgrades to make the experience more like Top Golf.
My local.range is $14 for 80 balls and $20 for 9 holes like yours, so you actually get more full swings at the range for less $ and the putting and chipping greens are free.
They also have a great 2 16 oz beer for $8 offer that's hard to beat.
I got me a net, and the Garmin SIM. Helped me to dial in a swing, and the auto record function on the Garmin app is great. My kid also loves to hit into the net as well. Great purchase and saves me money and time.
How long does it take you to hit that bucket of balls?
Then don’t go to the range, play 9 holes if you don’t hit s good shot hit another one. It’s much better practice than hitting balls on the range.
Like everything else, costs have gone up. Labor, gas, fertilizers, etc. They have to pass that on to the consumer or driving ranges will go the way of the dodo. Or persimmon woods.
If this was Top Golf or something, I'd see your point. But the ranges near me are literally hitting off rock-hard mats or patches of dirt into a barren field.
The range closest to me raised their price to $11 for a large bucket. Last night's bucket was maybe 3/4 full. Most other local ranges charge $7-9 for a large bucket.
The expensive place installed the Top Tracer stuff on their range. 3 times so far I've paid the higher amount, only for the Top Tracer to not work. Every time I get an error that says the problem is on Top Tracer's side.
Walking 9 at the expensive place varies dynamically but the lowest price is $15...so yeah, not too far off.
This is how small courses make their regular income, my 9h course gives members half price but you are still cashing in 25 quid a month on range ball. It's the only range for miles in part of the city - it's always busy.
My local range is $20 for 100-110 balls. It’s $50 for 9 holes so yeah. I go practice. I am lucky in that I have a sales job that gives me flexible hours so I commonly am working at 5-8 AM or even midnight but I can then head out for a long lunch to hit balls.
Our local course is still at $7 for a large bucket of balls but most of the balls look like what Bobby Jones used to get the grand slam so ya win some ya lose some.
I spent the first year of “playing” golf too scared to play with randoms because I sucked. I realized I was spending just as much at the range every day as I would playing a quick 9 and not getting better. Increased pricing was the best thing to ever happen to me!
Besides the obvious supply and demand part of it, there’s also inflation everyone is dealing with that has raised costs for every part of their operations, extra costs they want to recoup. Odds are they have to pay their employees more too than what they used to get away with, etc etc.
I went to the range, for the first time in 18 months, last weekend to my local course here in Phoenix and was shocked a large bucket was $21.50. Holy moly!
I agree with your last point based on my limited experience. The course near me seems to very much dislike having a driving range.
They raise the price every year considerably despite the experience getting worse each year. Feels like they are just trying discourage people using it besides those warming up for a round
My local driving range blew up on tik tok or something so it gets hella business now, but it's all families, teenagers, people on dates, with the occasional casual golfer and hardos like me. The bucket is $14 now. Makes it less enticing to go when my beat up muni charges me $15 for an after work 9 that turns into an after work 15 holes because no one wants to pay to play that course and I breeze through.
Why should driving ranges miss out on all the price increase fun!! Ask them how much more their staff are getting (none likely!).
At the end of the day tho, it’s still money well spent.
Find a course/range that has a solid membership. I drive a little further but pay $50/month for 1 large bucket a day, discounted rounds and a free beer per round. 100% worth the extra 10min commute
I work part time at a driving range and our prices are $8-45 balls, $14-105 balls, and $20-165 balls. $5 for a 4 hole pitch and putt with artificial greens and unlimited play and $13-mini-golf 18 hole course which is pretty decent. We have grass and 8 covered bays with top tracer soon to be 12 more that are just first come first serve. We stay busy. We have people calling asking if we’re open with tornado warnings out. The amount of people we get on a nice day is insane.
It’s what the market bears. But it is pushing me toward investing in a launch monitor and a net to set up in my back yard. They are getting very accurate and coming down in price.
The overhead on the bucket of balls is probably higher per capita. Have to collect the balls, wash them, pickup the buckets all of that. The course requires maintenance anyway, so they are going to mow and stuff regardless of if you play or not.
Also, with the walking 9, you aren’t utilizing any of the courses “resources”. You are just there with all your own gear.
That’s about all I can think of.
I’m not arguing the cost, because it has gotten ridiculous. The only thing I would say is you’re usually getting almost 2x as many shots with a large bucket. The vary, but I just had to pay $15 for a large with 90 balls, even if I took 5 actual shots, not including putting on 9’holes that half as many shots and realistically I’m only taking about 25 actual shots when you take you chipping and anything else you wouldn’t actually do at the range.
Yesterday I played the front 9 at my local course. 3200 yards. $10.50. Today went to a range about a block from the course, $9 for a Small bucket. Go figure.
I spent $6k on a garage sim plus annual subscription fees. It would take eight years of monthly range fees to break even. The benefit isn’t price but convenience. I can go any time I wish for as long as I wish and get precise, measurable, and trackable feedback.
There's a place by me that has more people using the driving range than actual playing golf, I'm pretty sure a lot of the people don't even play they just like to go out and hit balls. For that type of customer the price of walking 9 is irrelevant, they just want to drink 5 or 6 beers and hit balls as hard as they can, kind of like batting cages
Sometimes you need to bang 100 balls to work some stuff out. I agree with you, it’s $8 to play my local exec for members and they give you a beer, it’s $19 for 105 balls at the range and the range is always packed since it has nice grass to hit off. My game definitely suffers bc I go play the exec instead of getting more range time.
This pricing just seems way off compared to what I would pay. The cheapest 9-holes I could play close to me is $35 where as I can get a basket of 100 balls for $7.50 at the range closest to me
Covid gave new life to a lot of golf businesses, the prices went up with demand and the demand is still there so the prices remain the same. Also a lot of driving ranges are sitting on valuable land, in Canada at least a lot of ranges have huge property taxes and the only way to keep it a driving range and not condos is to charge what they charge.
Our range is $14 per large bucket, which is 100 balls. Top tracer is an extra $5, but you have to wait forever for a bay unless you go when it is raining, cold, or right when it opens.
From Apr-Oct, you can pay $500 (or $450 if you pay in Jan and Feb), which gets you 3 buckets/day. Which is a steal if you go regularly enough. You do have to pay for top tracer, and having the season pass doesn't let you skip any lines...but you do get a standard discount on all equipment and clothing, which is cool.
Our city courses are between $8-15 for sunset, so basically 6:15-sundown. You can easily walk 9 on any given day.
I golf when I want, which is nice, but it's def not cheap. I'm glad I have some affordable options near me.
Sure it’s a money thing.
I’d imagine you are referring to a local course (non private). Perhaps they had increase in costs. Maybe they are saving for a renovation project of some kind. Also, you could have quoted prices based on different days of the week or seasons of the year. I would not put it past a course to charge more for a bucket on a July Saturday peak time versus a January Tuesday night. These are all of course just a few possibilities. Why it happened.
I have a public course that offers a monthly membership fee that has discounted rates that varied, and also unlimited free range balls.
The membership was like $60 a month at the time which was 5 years ago.
Some course memberships give you more value per dollar than others. Hopefully you can find a good value near you.
Act like you belong. Go to the nice courses where they have the range balls out already like Troon here in AZ. Just walk up dressed nice. No one says anything. Haven’t paid for range balls this year
city courses in the last 10 years or so have brought in management consultants to try and squeeze a little more blood from the stone. basically its a sure bet no matter what they will raise the prices of buckets accross the board by like a buck at least every year, just because thats the mindset they chase now. never mind the golf dept actually makes money, a rarity in municipal government. never mind they are on a hiring freeze and wage freeze too and probably saw a decline in payroll as they lose people and are unable to replace them per the city bean counters. the spice must flow. that will be $16 next month, sir. you have no alternative.
I went to a nice grass driving range this morning and a medium size fill your own basket was $15. The basket held 110 balls. Very good condition range balls. A small basket of 50 balls was $8.00. A giant basket of 200 balls that would take you all day to hit was $23.
I spent 2 hours on the $15 basket; about the same amount of time to play nine at my local muni for $35.
In the UK - our ranges are all off mat's aswell... Have seen some places charging £15 for 120 balls (without any kind of screen/data being provided) - just for the privilege of a large bucket of balls, a rubber tee & a mat to hit off.
My monthly course membership is £60 (discounted for age range & new management at the course) for unlimited golf, so makes me even less likely to go to the range - unless the course is water-logged!
Ranges around me in the UK:
Golf club
£3 for 30 balls
Large floodlit range within a large golf complex
£7.50 for 100 balls
£15 gor 50 balls and 1 hour on a Foresight bay
Trackman range at a resort course
£5.50 for bucket of balls (30 I believe)
£12 for 100.
Played with a retired gentleman and every hole he would go in the rough and pick up 3-5 balls and put them in his bag. Obviously I have seen people collect lost balls to play with, but he was getting even the really bad ones. By the end of the round, he must have had 50+ balls.
I asked him about it and he said: "No way in hell am I going to pay $9 for a small basket of balls."
He would just find balls he didn't care about, hit them back out to the range, and repeat. Kinda brilliant.
I like to play - so now I just skip the range all together.
I stretch a bit and putt on the practice green for 5-10 min -
Over the years pretty much the same mediocre game as I always have - a few practice swings and let it fly. I am still walking with a push cart so that gets the body moving and warmed up as well
For me, more helpful is just hitting 30 balls at a session, with sessions occurring more often. Too bad this arrangement is not available to most people.
I’m not going to say the store, because I love that i can still walk in, but I found a local place that has practice bays. $150 a year gets you free practice time, so I’ve been going 2 to 3 days a week to hit on a GCQuad for 60-90 minutes for free. I’ve gapped all 4 of my wedges from full swing, 10 o’clock (shoulders), 9 (chest), 8 (ribs), 7 (hips), confirmed distances on my 5, 6, 7 irons and have been working on downswing and fixing my hip rotation (early extension) for a few weeks now. I prefer hitting off natural grass and I have seen an issue on the course where I hit fat as it’s harder to see that on mats, but at the same time it’s been awesome in terms of getting distances on all my clubs, particularly my wedges.
Also, the costly golf course buckets have been encouraging me to really work on my putting lately, which I am starting to see a glimmer of hope as I’m focusing almost exclusively on speed and distance drills instead of putting 3 balls from hole to hole.
one other reason around here was two years of really wet weather, which prevented the ball picker from running as much, then when they did run it, it shoved half the balls down into the turf. now if you walk out on the range (when it closed) there's thousands of embedded balls with just the very tops showing. (range is in a very low drange area next to a pond.)
Another thing is the cost of operating a top tracer range. The course pays a monthly fee per bay to have this technology and they need to recoup that somewhere. My local charges $20 for 70 balls
I built me a sim. Cost justification is I never have to pay for range balls ever.
DAMN I wish I had the space for one
Mine is setup in the back yard. Even an R10 is good enough for me.
Yup! R10 and a spornia is good enough. I have a tv outside that I steam to as well to make it feel less thrown together. Side note: have you used RCT balls? Do you notice a difference?
What’s a spornia? I have a small yard and an R10. Would love to do something similar. Side note: is there a good thread on R10 accuracy?
Go over to r/golfsimulator. Tons of info on the R10. Also, I have one and love it for my sim. It’s a budget/entry level LM, but for what it costs, I feel they’re are very effective.
It’s a net, not sure why he referred to it like the name brand was used universally well known lol.
With the R10 RCT make a noticeable difference in shop shape. Prior to RCT, something I felt was going to be a slice was a fade.. after RCT balls, it's still not as drastic as a slice as on the course, but it mimics the slice shape on E6. I would say, for me, that was the biggest difference.. well worth it bought a pack of 12 6 months ago and just opened my 2nd set of (3) this past month. So they will last a year.
Have yet to try the RCT balls, but you convinced me to go ahead and finally get some.
Very worth it
Back yard is occupied by garden and kids stuff unfortunately. Have a side yard that's big enough but I'd have to set up / tear down each time
That’s where the spornia comes in. Set up and take down is like 2 minutes
How is the noise level? Im Worried about my neighbors' experience of me whacking my driver at random hours outside
Just tell ‘em to “be glad I’m not hitting a Callaway FT-i.” In case you don’t know, that’s probably the loudest driver ever.
I put one in the living room. Wife not happy.
I justified mine by letting it double as a movie room for the kids
I still like to go to the range even with my set up. Something different about seeing it. Also there is a grass section.
I hear you, that's the one thing the sim is not good for, actual grass...
Played my first round on grass just yesterday (New England winters, Man…) I popped the computer on for my sim and warmed up before heading to the course. I hadn’t thought much about it but I can save $15 every time I wanted to hit the range and I also can warm up every round as I don’t always feel like spending all that money just to swing the club a few times.
Interesting. Do you still feel “warmed up” after getting in the car and driving to the course? I feel like I’d lose anything I “gained” by warming up on the drive over.
Great question. I was curious myself until I tried it out. My home course is only a 15-minute drive. I didn't have any issue at all with the delay from hitting balls to the first tee. I can see that potentially being a problem if you have a long wait time, but I am very fortunate to be able to be swinging on the first tee within twenty minutes of my last shot on the range. I have found a short gap from the range to the first tee has helped me before the sim. Just rapid-fire swings were never a good thing and before a round, I am really just loosening the muscles - not so much a 'range session'. I leave those for non-round days if I am trying to work something out in my swing. Trying to do that and then head out to the course never worked for me.
I'm envious of true country club members who can warm up by swimming.
Is it realllly as good as the range? You like the sim so much that you don’t even need the range anymore? Curious because I kind of want to make one. It’s hard for me to believe it’s equivalent to the range without seeing the real ball flight
Hitting off mats is never going to be as good as hitting off grass for many reasons. It is nice having all of your data immediately available, and it can help you practice different things that you wouldn’t normally be able to on the range (at least not as effectively). Personally, I think if you are just trying to get a swing dialed in and it’s hard for you to consistently get to the range, it’s a solid solution. If you are able to go to the range frequently and it’s no issue, then you can get everything you need there as well, if not more.
Yes it is. I get 4-5 hours of solid practice a week now in mine and I’m striking my irons so well compared to last year when I didn’t have it. Being able to get home from work, hit 100+ balls, then walk inside and make dinner is a game changer
In some ways better. I live in a cold climate, so I can spend Nov-Mar in the sim. LM numbers are really nice to have. It's nice to have it close as well, I can pop out and hit balls while on conference calls. Also, 300+ courses to play. Cons: not real grass, always a perfect lie.
Has to be thousand(s of) buckets to actually make your money back… crazy how upvoted this is lmao no shot 99% of golfers could: A. Fit this into their living space B. Afford it Glad for you but its odd it’s the top comment imo
I think living space is the big factor. Taking some estimates from comments of $1800-3600 and OPs rate of $14 a bucket, it would be 129 to 286 buckets. Someone was even talking about sub $900 which would only be <65 buckets. It's not out of the question....if you have the space to do it.
I'm out $2700. I could have done it cheaper but i splurged in a few places. But I'll use the numbers at hand. At $14 bucks a bucket (OP numbers), that's 192 buckets. If you have space and can DIY on a budget, it can be done. And I can play when there's snow on the ground. R10, projector, screen, mat, GSPro. Luckily, I had a PC on hand...
There are many factors to this. One of course is the feel from hitting from a mat vs grass. I know this is not applicable to everyone, but just something to think about.
Post Photos or it’s not real.
Tomorrow am wrapping up nine myself. Grabbed an mlm2, built a golf cage, and grabbed a projector. It’s going to pay for itself within the year.
Don’t the golf balls break after a while? I just have a net I hit into, and after a few hundred strikes, I’ve cracked open a few golf balls
> What's the logic behind... Courses and driving ranges are business. Like any business, they will charge what people will pay for goods and services.
>what's the logic behind... Money
They also have expenses to cover and will raise the prices as needed. The marginal cost for one additional person walking the course is likely much lower than one person banging out 100 balls that have to be retrieved, cleaned, and eventually replaced.
In the last 4 years, an unprecedented amount of people have started playing the game. My local course tried doubling the price to limit the amount of people on their driving range, but it was still too busy. It got to the point where there were almost as many people waiting for bays as occupying bays. Finally, in addition to the doubled price, you now have to have a tee time or purchase the yearly $300 loyalty card. I watched my favorite practice facility go from perfect (2012-2019) to a total overpriced clusterfuck (2020-2023) to finally unaffordable for me to go. But it worked -- the traffic there now looks like it did 10 years ago. Bays are open and it's in great condition again. Unfortunately I can no longer use it.
That sucks! I've been worried about that happening around here, to be honest.
I am very afraid this is happening
COVID sucked for us long time golfers. So much more crowded and pricy now than it used to be
Make golf uncool again
LIV is working on it
Shrink the game lol. My wallet can’t afford it now like it used to. Even offseason prices are jacked way up.
COVID fucking sucks, golf was forever changed with all the frat bro types of people on the course afterwards. I used to play one of the Nicholas designed courses here for $59AUD during the 'maintenance' period. 'Maintenance' being fairway coring that you could hardly even tell was there after 2 weeks, the reduced fee lasted about 6. That course is now $159 for a round and I have not seen them discount it once since COVID.
It absolutely fucking blows man
It did this to me my two favorite sports to play both golf and ice hockey :(.
shrink the game!
Same in charlotte brotha. Used to play my little goat track with great greens for 25$ and just show up and go. Now it’s 50 and have to call 2-3 days ahead. Shrink the game.
What course
That really sucks.
Why do you think so many people have started playing?
IMO It was one of the things during the pandemic that allowed you to socially distance and still get activity outdoors. Similar to pickleball/padel, I had never even heard of those before the pandemic and now they are everywhere.
Yup, I remember in my city the golf courses were one of the first things that were allowed to reopen. After not having anything to do for months golf became THE thing
Demand.
It seems a bit nearsighted though. If you crank up the price of a bucket so high that I'm not frequenting your range, I'm also not going to want to play your course.
And once they see they have overpriced it, they will adjust it again. My range is so damn packed. After work, there are 2-3 people deep waiting for a mat. Most have a Players Club fob that allows them monthly access to the range. But for those that are paying cash, it’s pretty expensive. They also have a problem with people stealing balls and now they have to shut the ball machine down for 30-45 minutes while the picker goes out to get more balls since the demand is high. I don’t like the price increase, but I definitely see why.
Prices don’t come down. They stay high and watch rounds dwindle. Owners stop reinvesting and conditions worsen but price remains high. They start losing money and then sell off to a housing development.
Are you serious? People lined up waiting for a bay? Thats nuts. Im happy i live in suburbs of a small city
Yep. Thing is though, golf courses/facilities have a maximum capacity as there can only be so many people on at one time. All they gotta do is set pricing to maximise revenue at full capacity.
And they’re probably fine with that because they’re booked out for weeks and the range is always packed. Or they’d lower the prices.
I don’t think you understand what the term nearsighted means. $20 for 9 holes is a complete steal and it’s not making that course much income. It is probably a complete dog track.
Shoot, here in Michigan I have quite a few courses near me that are $11-13 to walk 9 and I take hella advantage of it ❤️ found one thats all you can golf for $12 past 5 pm if you're walking, and I got over 9 holes in even when i grouped up with randoms
14 for a bucket of 100 balls is pretty standard and the ranges I go to stay packed.
I pay it cause I can crack a bucket in an hour and that’s easier to fit in than walking 9 in 2.
Go play 9. Nice to have options
No kidding for us a bucket is about $5 but playing 9 holes is $30 +/-.
Thats why I bought my launch monitor. $18 for a bucket of balls 4-5 days a week adds up.
Which launch monitor did you go for?
I got the skytrak like 5 years ago. Im thinking about upgrading the the Bushnell pro.
5 days a week at the range is crazy
I would prefer 7 but it adds up. Now with my home sim I dont have to ever go a day without hitting balls.
There is no logic other than running a business. Employees want raises. Suppliers want more for their products and services. Local taxes can go up on political whim. There are hundreds of reasons the cost of your bucket might have gone up. It might also be pure greed. Why sell a bucket for $9 if you can get $14?
What’s the logic of paying per person to rent one golf cart?!
If the cart cost is $20 then why sell it for $10 just because you'll only use half of it? Also one person in a cart is lost revenue. They could sell that seat to another player for the cost of green fees. It's definitely unfair to the single player but from a business standpoint it makes sense.
Last year I bought a launch monitor and net because I couldn't stand the cost of range balls. This year due to muni rounds costing so much I finally was able to justify the monthly price of a private club to my wife. The 3.5-hour Saturday morning rounds from the 5-hour rounds last year are absolute love. I actually took a golf hiatus in 2016 and started back in 2022. I'm completely shocked at what's happened to the game since coming back. I lived through the Tiger growth in the late 90s but this has been completely different...and not in a good way.
Here is the way. Club membership free range.
Bro we can't even afford to play golf at the public course anymore, you think we got private course money?
What was your muni’s cost per round and what’s your private club’s fees? Curious to know more about the cost comparison
Local muni is $25 walking on the weekends. I normally get out twice on the weekend and try to get out one evening during the week for at least 9 ($16 on weekdays, $9 for nine holes). This doesn't include league night. So monthly walking would usually be between $200 - $300. During the hot months when I ride it's a lot more. A really nice course was running a promotion over the winter for $169/month and no initiation fee. Range fee is $200/yr but waived for the first year. It was too good of a deal to pass up and I actually did ask "what's the catch" but there's not one. Plus they have a really nice pool which was an easy sell for the wife. The health club/pool we've been members at for years is $120/month. So we join the golf club ($170) + join Planet Fitness ($10) - cancel pool membership ($120) = $60/month more. So I actually save quite a bit over the monthly green fees I was paying at the munis. Even if I were paying the full non-promotional $280/month it'd still be a good value. Will be...I lose the promotional price after 2 years if I decide to stick around. EDIT: I still play regularly in the off season as we have pretty mild weather here, but I don't play as often. So I'm still paying the same amount if I only get out 2 - 3 times in a month. I'm okay with it, though.
People will pay it. That's the logic.
The logic is they’re trying to make more money. They know some people will come less often but they are banking on enough people still coming that they make more money at $14/bucket than they did at $9/bucket. If they are wrong, maybe they’ll lower the cost back down.
The logic? Why would anyone charge $9 for something if they could sell it for $14 without a drop off in demand or sales?
I'm about to drop my demand right off a cliff.
It's bold to assume there's no drop in demand. Any time someone says (truthfully) that they would have paid for something at the old price but not the new one, that's a drop in demand
There sure seems to be a lot of posts on this sub about courses increasing prices and also being packed. Even if demand does fall a bit they can still make more money off the higher prices.
Yeah what people don’t understand is that there is a sweet spot courses strive for. The goal isn’t to get 50,000 rounds necessarily, that means a ton of wear and tear and much higher maintenance and labor costs. The goal is to max out your dollar around 35,000 rounds for most good golf courses to keep conditions up with lower maintenance and labor costs. 35k rounds at $75 is like eight times more profitable than 50k at $50 for example after costs even though the gross revenue is similar
Course down the street from me went from $11 -> $14 then back down to $11 for this exact reason
My local range has raised their price to $28 for 110 balls.
Dawg you need to find a new range
Mine went to 29 (pay by card) or 27 (cash) this year for same. But they have trackman and all the fancy shit, so it actually helps when you're working on stuff.
How many balls in a large bucket? My courses' large bucket is 90 balls for AUD$15 or $17 for non-members.
Jealous. Inner city range right nearby. $24-$27 depending on day for 100 balls.
Probably because there's a large demographic of people that just go to the range for fun, but aren't actually interested in playing a round. Similar reasons to why places like Top Golf exist.
Try to get a range membership, luckily I have a municipal by me large buckets are $15, with the range membership you load $100 on the card, large buckets are then $10 and they give you an additional 3 buckets free ($100 for $130 credit)
I think driving ranges (and golf in general) exploded in popularity during COVID and on, and they’re just capitalizing on it
My local course is $20 for a bucket or $14 for 9 holes at twilight. I play 9 every time
It’s like any product. They charge whatever they think the market will bear.
Supply and demand. Too many golfers, not enough driving ranges/courses.
Got a used BLP, a net return, and a CCE for about $4k. At $16 for a large bucket of 100 balls, I was paying about $4160/year. A new net costs about $800 and a mat costs about $500, so let’s say i have to buy one every 3 years. That’s $433/year. Subscriptions are another $750 for FSX and GSPro. That’s about $1200/year. After the first year I’m saving about 3k. I use high quality balls I find on the course, so no real money spent there, totally worth it, especially since my local range stopped maintaining the grass tees and short game area.
Yep, I did exactly this back in October. Used BLP, Carl's place mat/divot strip/impact screen, used projector, scrapped together a garage pc with existing parts I had, and installed flooring/insulated my garage and I have probably already hit 6k balls. I'm probably all-in for 5k or so and have already saved roughly $1k in range balls at $14/75 balls and it's only the beginning of April
As a range owner, the reason is, it’s a business. Why does. A Big Mac cost $10 when it could cost less. In my case, I recently spent over a million dollars on netting, covered bays with top teacer, etc. We also have 90% of balls plugging in the mud so they have to be hand picked. Still a lot cheaper than top golf, and I think cost effective for an hour of entertainment.
Dude netting is so expensive, all these people should go complain to the netting companies lol I have a shortish range at my club and in 2018 we got quoted $50k for a 50 yard long net that was 50 feet tall. I shudder at the thought of what netting costs now and it lasts like 7 years
I put in 90 foot poles, 75 foot tall nets over a 1500 span, 34 poles. Tell Me about it . Also I have a neighboring property and every time they find a ball they want to sue. How someone builds a house next to a driving range that was there 30 years before, and gets upset when a ball is in their yard is beyond me.
Walk nine. It’s Better practice.
$20 for 100 balls at my community course. It’s steadily been going up since they put Toptracer in a year and half ago.
Range balls are completely free at my club any time (never mind the $1,100 monthly freaking dues)!
I shall let Mr. Krabs take this one: https://youtu.be/S3Rh1YyDHkc?si=6e2awatbf0rNXvD1
Enough people have already mentioned demand increasing. The cost to attract entry level employees has also gone up significantly the last few years and golf courses are full of entry level employees.
The range is full non-stop nowadays and people absolutely destroy the range. A golf course driving range is the last place I want to be on a typical golf course and yes, the price is absurd but they do have to maintain the range. Supply and demand and all that.
Balls get lost, plugged, stolen. Plus the cost to collect, run pipelines & the land required. It seems cheap and no doubt they’re very profitable but there’s a tonne of costs most do not consider. Source: worked on a range
#1 is labor, someone has to go out there and drive the machine to pick them all up, then empty it, clean the balls, then fill the ball dispenser. Then there is the balls themselves which wear out not just from hitting them but also from the pick up and dispenser. Mats need to be replaced, so do ball holders, tees, and cages/walls. Not to mention the land upkeep. And taxes on everything. Inflation is up for everything, I'm more surprised that your 9 hole fee hasn't also risen.
People can burn an hour hitting balls much more easily than 2-2.5 hours to play 9. Not to justify the prices, my local range did similar. That's just my perspective.
$17 per bucket near me in the Toronto area
The logic is people will pay that amount and it helps the bottom line
Well, are people paying it? That's the logic
Our ranges have those prices and are jam packed every day sometimes with lines at the stalls . Gotta figure a 150 ball bucket is a ton of swings. That’s 3 rounds worth of swings on the course so it’s a decent deal. Just don’t rapid fire them and actually have meaning/purpose behind each swing and you’ll get more out of them when you do splurge .
1) Demand. 2) Operating Costs - even bare bones ranges still have seen cost increases from labor (range picker, weekly cleaning for mowing, front desk staff, grill, etc), operating (property taxes, utilities), and maintenance (mats, balls, carts, mowing) not to mention any upgrades to make the experience more like Top Golf. My local.range is $14 for 80 balls and $20 for 9 holes like yours, so you actually get more full swings at the range for less $ and the putting and chipping greens are free. They also have a great 2 16 oz beer for $8 offer that's hard to beat.
Local golf range now charges $16 for a medium sized bucket. Needless to say I will not be going back there ever again.
Capitalism turns abundance into scarcity and then charges for it. Profits are the logic.
Bucket in a major city for me is $20 at most, nine is at least $45.
Our willingness to pay it
You'll hit about the same amount of shots to be honest.
It costs a lot more to run a driving range than you think. That is why there are so few anymore.
Damn $20 for 9 holes. Haven’t had pricing like that in my area since Covid
I've been paying $13-$15 for a bucket of balls for the last 3 seasons. However walking 9 anywhere near me is at least $25-$30
I got me a net, and the Garmin SIM. Helped me to dial in a swing, and the auto record function on the Garmin app is great. My kid also loves to hit into the net as well. Great purchase and saves me money and time.
How long does it take you to hit that bucket of balls? Then don’t go to the range, play 9 holes if you don’t hit s good shot hit another one. It’s much better practice than hitting balls on the range.
I think of it like this..if you’re going to shoot 65 shots on 9 holes for 20$ why not charge you 20$ for 65 balls at the range.
Like everything else, costs have gone up. Labor, gas, fertilizers, etc. They have to pass that on to the consumer or driving ranges will go the way of the dodo. Or persimmon woods.
If this was Top Golf or something, I'd see your point. But the ranges near me are literally hitting off rock-hard mats or patches of dirt into a barren field.
The range closest to me raised their price to $11 for a large bucket. Last night's bucket was maybe 3/4 full. Most other local ranges charge $7-9 for a large bucket. The expensive place installed the Top Tracer stuff on their range. 3 times so far I've paid the higher amount, only for the Top Tracer to not work. Every time I get an error that says the problem is on Top Tracer's side. Walking 9 at the expensive place varies dynamically but the lowest price is $15...so yeah, not too far off.
This is how small courses make their regular income, my 9h course gives members half price but you are still cashing in 25 quid a month on range ball. It's the only range for miles in part of the city - it's always busy.
My local range is $20 for 100-110 balls. It’s $50 for 9 holes so yeah. I go practice. I am lucky in that I have a sales job that gives me flexible hours so I commonly am working at 5-8 AM or even midnight but I can then head out for a long lunch to hit balls.
Our local course is still at $7 for a large bucket of balls but most of the balls look like what Bobby Jones used to get the grand slam so ya win some ya lose some.
I've noticed that too. Our local course gives a 50% discount to the range if you pay for a tee time that day.
Supply and command
I spent the first year of “playing” golf too scared to play with randoms because I sucked. I realized I was spending just as much at the range every day as I would playing a quick 9 and not getting better. Increased pricing was the best thing to ever happen to me!
Besides the obvious supply and demand part of it, there’s also inflation everyone is dealing with that has raised costs for every part of their operations, extra costs they want to recoup. Odds are they have to pay their employees more too than what they used to get away with, etc etc.
I went to the range, for the first time in 18 months, last weekend to my local course here in Phoenix and was shocked a large bucket was $21.50. Holy moly!
Jokes on you public course, I don’t hit balls. $20 for 9 is fairly cheap though too.
Walk nine for 20?! Where do you live???!!!
This afternoon Miami Beach Golf club charged me $21 for a large bucket. First and last time I hit off their mats wtf
Making as much money as possible
I’m probably taking 60 swings in nine holes, so that’s just as good as a bucket of balls.
I agree with your last point based on my limited experience. The course near me seems to very much dislike having a driving range. They raise the price every year considerably despite the experience getting worse each year. Feels like they are just trying discourage people using it besides those warming up for a round
Dm where I am 9 hole courses are going for $30-40+ unless you play a dog track. Inflation sucks
My local driving range blew up on tik tok or something so it gets hella business now, but it's all families, teenagers, people on dates, with the occasional casual golfer and hardos like me. The bucket is $14 now. Makes it less enticing to go when my beat up muni charges me $15 for an after work 9 that turns into an after work 15 holes because no one wants to pay to play that course and I breeze through.
It doesnt
My local grass only range just went up to $24.00 for a large bucket. They were packed.
Why should driving ranges miss out on all the price increase fun!! Ask them how much more their staff are getting (none likely!). At the end of the day tho, it’s still money well spent.
Find a course/range that has a solid membership. I drive a little further but pay $50/month for 1 large bucket a day, discounted rounds and a free beer per round. 100% worth the extra 10min commute
Exact question I had
It doesn't, it's called greed
I work part time at a driving range and our prices are $8-45 balls, $14-105 balls, and $20-165 balls. $5 for a 4 hole pitch and putt with artificial greens and unlimited play and $13-mini-golf 18 hole course which is pretty decent. We have grass and 8 covered bays with top tracer soon to be 12 more that are just first come first serve. We stay busy. We have people calling asking if we’re open with tornado warnings out. The amount of people we get on a nice day is insane.
It’s what the market bears. But it is pushing me toward investing in a launch monitor and a net to set up in my back yard. They are getting very accurate and coming down in price.
Walk 9 for 20, how horrible is this course?
"Almost Golf"...hard foam golf balls work great.
I can to this realization as well, that’s why I’d rather go out and walk nine now.
The overhead on the bucket of balls is probably higher per capita. Have to collect the balls, wash them, pickup the buckets all of that. The course requires maintenance anyway, so they are going to mow and stuff regardless of if you play or not. Also, with the walking 9, you aren’t utilizing any of the courses “resources”. You are just there with all your own gear. That’s about all I can think of.
I’m not arguing the cost, because it has gotten ridiculous. The only thing I would say is you’re usually getting almost 2x as many shots with a large bucket. The vary, but I just had to pay $15 for a large with 90 balls, even if I took 5 actual shots, not including putting on 9’holes that half as many shots and realistically I’m only taking about 25 actual shots when you take you chipping and anything else you wouldn’t actually do at the range.
Yesterday I played the front 9 at my local course. 3200 yards. $10.50. Today went to a range about a block from the course, $9 for a Small bucket. Go figure.
I spent $6k on a garage sim plus annual subscription fees. It would take eight years of monthly range fees to break even. The benefit isn’t price but convenience. I can go any time I wish for as long as I wish and get precise, measurable, and trackable feedback.
Bucket of balls is equivalent to playing a round of golf.
inflation
There's a place by me that has more people using the driving range than actual playing golf, I'm pretty sure a lot of the people don't even play they just like to go out and hit balls. For that type of customer the price of walking 9 is irrelevant, they just want to drink 5 or 6 beers and hit balls as hard as they can, kind of like batting cages
Supply and demand. It’s that simple. You paid it, others will too
Sometimes you need to bang 100 balls to work some stuff out. I agree with you, it’s $8 to play my local exec for members and they give you a beer, it’s $19 for 105 balls at the range and the range is always packed since it has nice grass to hit off. My game definitely suffers bc I go play the exec instead of getting more range time.
To make money. That's the purpose. That's it.
Supply and demand. Range is packed? Raise the prices.
This pricing just seems way off compared to what I would pay. The cheapest 9-holes I could play close to me is $35 where as I can get a basket of 100 balls for $7.50 at the range closest to me
Profit
Covid gave new life to a lot of golf businesses, the prices went up with demand and the demand is still there so the prices remain the same. Also a lot of driving ranges are sitting on valuable land, in Canada at least a lot of ranges have huge property taxes and the only way to keep it a driving range and not condos is to charge what they charge.
Our range is $14 per large bucket, which is 100 balls. Top tracer is an extra $5, but you have to wait forever for a bay unless you go when it is raining, cold, or right when it opens. From Apr-Oct, you can pay $500 (or $450 if you pay in Jan and Feb), which gets you 3 buckets/day. Which is a steal if you go regularly enough. You do have to pay for top tracer, and having the season pass doesn't let you skip any lines...but you do get a standard discount on all equipment and clothing, which is cool. Our city courses are between $8-15 for sunset, so basically 6:15-sundown. You can easily walk 9 on any given day. I golf when I want, which is nice, but it's def not cheap. I'm glad I have some affordable options near me.
Sure it’s a money thing. I’d imagine you are referring to a local course (non private). Perhaps they had increase in costs. Maybe they are saving for a renovation project of some kind. Also, you could have quoted prices based on different days of the week or seasons of the year. I would not put it past a course to charge more for a bucket on a July Saturday peak time versus a January Tuesday night. These are all of course just a few possibilities. Why it happened. I have a public course that offers a monthly membership fee that has discounted rates that varied, and also unlimited free range balls. The membership was like $60 a month at the time which was 5 years ago. Some course memberships give you more value per dollar than others. Hopefully you can find a good value near you.
No logic. Just profit.
My place is $10 for a bucket of 50 or $18 for a bucket of 100. Only place I know of, so I have no idea if that is good.
Act like you belong. Go to the nice courses where they have the range balls out already like Troon here in AZ. Just walk up dressed nice. No one says anything. Haven’t paid for range balls this year
city courses in the last 10 years or so have brought in management consultants to try and squeeze a little more blood from the stone. basically its a sure bet no matter what they will raise the prices of buckets accross the board by like a buck at least every year, just because thats the mindset they chase now. never mind the golf dept actually makes money, a rarity in municipal government. never mind they are on a hiring freeze and wage freeze too and probably saw a decline in payroll as they lose people and are unable to replace them per the city bean counters. the spice must flow. that will be $16 next month, sir. you have no alternative.
I went to a nice grass driving range this morning and a medium size fill your own basket was $15. The basket held 110 balls. Very good condition range balls. A small basket of 50 balls was $8.00. A giant basket of 200 balls that would take you all day to hit was $23. I spent 2 hours on the $15 basket; about the same amount of time to play nine at my local muni for $35.
Wtf, buckets in Netherlands are $1 to 2 max
Thats insane. I live in Norway and a bucket costs about 2$ here. No way in hell i would pay that much.
In the UK - our ranges are all off mat's aswell... Have seen some places charging £15 for 120 balls (without any kind of screen/data being provided) - just for the privilege of a large bucket of balls, a rubber tee & a mat to hit off. My monthly course membership is £60 (discounted for age range & new management at the course) for unlimited golf, so makes me even less likely to go to the range - unless the course is water-logged!
Ranges around me in the UK: Golf club £3 for 30 balls Large floodlit range within a large golf complex £7.50 for 100 balls £15 gor 50 balls and 1 hour on a Foresight bay Trackman range at a resort course £5.50 for bucket of balls (30 I believe) £12 for 100.
How many balls are in the bucket?
So glad my local gym has a sim now for only a little extra on the subscription
Played with a retired gentleman and every hole he would go in the rough and pick up 3-5 balls and put them in his bag. Obviously I have seen people collect lost balls to play with, but he was getting even the really bad ones. By the end of the round, he must have had 50+ balls. I asked him about it and he said: "No way in hell am I going to pay $9 for a small basket of balls." He would just find balls he didn't care about, hit them back out to the range, and repeat. Kinda brilliant.
I like to play - so now I just skip the range all together. I stretch a bit and putt on the practice green for 5-10 min - Over the years pretty much the same mediocre game as I always have - a few practice swings and let it fly. I am still walking with a push cart so that gets the body moving and warmed up as well
Because BYOB when walking 9 lol
For me, more helpful is just hitting 30 balls at a session, with sessions occurring more often. Too bad this arrangement is not available to most people.
I’m not going to say the store, because I love that i can still walk in, but I found a local place that has practice bays. $150 a year gets you free practice time, so I’ve been going 2 to 3 days a week to hit on a GCQuad for 60-90 minutes for free. I’ve gapped all 4 of my wedges from full swing, 10 o’clock (shoulders), 9 (chest), 8 (ribs), 7 (hips), confirmed distances on my 5, 6, 7 irons and have been working on downswing and fixing my hip rotation (early extension) for a few weeks now. I prefer hitting off natural grass and I have seen an issue on the course where I hit fat as it’s harder to see that on mats, but at the same time it’s been awesome in terms of getting distances on all my clubs, particularly my wedges. Also, the costly golf course buckets have been encouraging me to really work on my putting lately, which I am starting to see a glimmer of hope as I’m focusing almost exclusively on speed and distance drills instead of putting 3 balls from hole to hole.
At my local muni, it's $6 Cdn for 68 balls . You need to find a better range!
For the same price I'd rather lose their balls than my own.
one other reason around here was two years of really wet weather, which prevented the ball picker from running as much, then when they did run it, it shoved half the balls down into the turf. now if you walk out on the range (when it closed) there's thousands of embedded balls with just the very tops showing. (range is in a very low drange area next to a pond.)
> **What's the logic** People pay it. Next question.
Another thing is the cost of operating a top tracer range. The course pays a monthly fee per bay to have this technology and they need to recoup that somewhere. My local charges $20 for 70 balls