Scenes From a Driving Range

Scenes From a Driving Range

So here's a confession.  I do A LOT of different jobs in the golf world.  Obviously I write for SwingJuice.com.  I also work the pro shop at a driving range, teach at said Driving Range, run fitness programs for Tour Pro's, ranger at a local course and finally I am one half of the Leave the Pin in Podcast.  I see a lot of what goes on in golf outside of the polished pro tours that are paraded into your living rooms and social media streams every week.  I see everything from the underbelly of golf with its degenerate gamblers and oddballs to kids learning how to hit the ball properly for the first time.

As I sit inside the pro shop of a typical non eventful Friday night I'd like to share some observations that occur routinely at Driving Ranges and Golf Courses all across the country.

"The I need to hit 3 buckets of balls before my tournament tomorrow guy"

This guy is fantastic because he hasn't played or touched his clubs in the last 500 days but he was invited to play in a scramble and A-Thinks he is going to be a help to his team and B-Thinks that somewhere in those 3 buckets of balls he will find the secret to golf.

"The I don't play golf much but can you look at my swing guy"

I'm not a fan of the chutzpah of this type of guy.  He's got no shame in his game.  I have been flat out asked to basically give a free lesson because I wasn't with a client.  Usually this is a guy who needs an entire year of lessons but even if he did want to pay he wouldn't listen to what you had to say anyway.

"The do you buy used balls guy"

I cannot tell you the number of guys who come in and ask if we will give them money for their dirty, old, no dimpled garbage can of golf balls.  The answer is usually no unless someone has a very large amount and they are in decent condition.  My question to these guys is why have you been collecting them for so long to begin with and what did you plan on doing with them.

"The can I bring my own balls and hit them at your range guy"

This is actually asked pretty frequently.  I always say yes, as long as they don't try to retrieve them from the field.  Free balls for us.

Finally, my favorite.

"The try to blast the range picker guy"

This guy has no business trying to hit a low stinger that is going to pelt the range picker but that won't stop him from trying.  I have seen guys hit entire buckets, machine gun like, towards our range picker.  Then they have to come back in and buy more balls...it's a win, win.  It is very rarely that someone actually accomplishes the task but the satisfaction when they do even makes me happy.

 

Maybe you're not a tin cup but go to the range and at least pretend you are with our local qualifier shirt.  The U.S Open is coming up so why not support the greatest local qualifier of all time.

Catch our podcast, Leave the Pin In on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/leave-the-pin-in/id1456658006

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