Done with the driving range

Yesterday I hit the range, literally! Today I have a mild case of tennis elbow in my right arm as a consequence. What a counterproductive waste of time it was. Not only did my new move not work this time (pushing everything), but I also sprayed the ball all over the place and miss hit loads, never felt warmed up and hit the matts far too hard too often. Seeing as our local range mats are 10 year old thin rubber directly onto concrete trying to take a divot out of them is not a very bright thing to do!

Hence forth I swear to only go to that range for practicing wood shots off a tee.

One other thing that made me laugh, I only had 3 quid with me so I got the cheap one piece balls and they really are rocks, now our range yardage is miss labelled badly, the 150 yard marker is at 130 yards, the 250 yard marker at about 190 although uphill. With the rocks I could not even get a 7 iron to the 150 yard marker. At the end of the session I put down a real ball from my bag and hit the same 7 iron and it went a very considerable distance further than the range rocks with completely different feedback from the club face.

I’m beginning to question again the value of this kind of range work. This is the time that I really; really wish the club had good practice facilities. I would not mind collecting my own golf balls if only we had a large enough space to hit them into!

I have to find a space to practice in that’s on grass, the local council run pitch n’ Putt is not open until April, however I may sneak up there and check out the conditions. I don’t need flags in the greens to practice and if it’s deserted then I can hit shots of up to 200 yards across the field, I just need a teeing off place that is not jungle rough.

It may be my only option.