Driving Range Auto Ball teeing

bigtimecharlie

Frankfield driving range in Cork has auto teeing machines in their indoor driving bay's. I would have thought that these were a good idea in that you stand in the one place all the time and the next ball will be ready when the previous one is well away. However, I always seem to have to re-address the ball for each shot. The various tee height settings are useful and so is the ball counter. The 30 ball's I paid for in an auto dispensing machine resulted in 26 balls at the teeing machine.

Anyone any toughts/opinions on these latest golf fad?

copacetic

they have them in stepaside too, I personally think they are a terrible idea. You see people just banging away drive after drive. Nothing like you are going to do out on the course. IMO every one you hit should involve you picking a different target and lining up from beind the ball again.

jampotjim

I always set myself up before hitting any shots as you are always trying to recreate on course conditions *well as much as you can off a mat*

Also I try and restrict the amount of drives I hit as hitting too many drivers tends to affect the rhythm of your swing.

Par72

I think they are great. They have them in Leopardstown driving range as well. If I have to go to the range I always try and get a bay that have one of these machines in it. Just because the machine tees the ball up for you doesn't mean that you can't step back on each go and line up to a different target.

madds

copacetic wrote: »

they have them in stepaside too, I personally think they are a terrible idea. You see people just banging away drive after drive. Nothing like you are going to do out on the course. IMO every one you hit should involve you picking a different target and lining up from beind the ball again.

+1

Pulsar Eagle

bigtimecharlie wrote: »

Frankfield driving range in Cork quote]

just wondering where abouts in cork Frankfield is????

One Cold Hand

Par72 wrote: »

I think they are great. They have them in Leopardstown driving range as well. If I have to go to the range I always try and get a bay that have one of these machines in it. Just because the machine tees the ball up for you doesn't mean that you can't step back on each go and line up to a different target.

But you should step back from the ball each time, and re-align yourself for each shot. It's all about routine, I believe. You need to get a routine and comfortable with it. Every time you hit a ball you should go through the whole routine.

If you stand there for an hour batting balls repeatedly without standing off it, then you might as well stay at home and play Tiger Woods on the playstation.

Par72

One Cold Hand wrote: »

But you should step back from the ball each time, and re-align yourself for each shot. It's all about routine, I believe. You need to get a routine and comfortable with it. Every time you hit a ball you should go through the whole routine.

If you stand there for an hour batting balls repeatedly without standing off it, then you might as well stay at home and play Tiger Woods on the playstation.

Indeed, I don't understand why if the ball is teed up automatically that anyone would feel they must bat balls repeatedly. I usually knock the ball off the tee to play irons anyway as I would only hit maybe 5 driver shots at the range. The benefit of the machine is that it saves you having to bend over and take a ball out of the basket or have balls scattered all over the place. It also lets you know exactly how many balls you have hit.

ShriekingSheet

One Cold Hand / Par72

While OCH is right about routine (Rod & Staff, Rotella etc) that kind of practicing isn't for everyone.

And Par72 has rightly said, teeing the ball up doesn't have to be part of your routine - in fact it rarely is.

But I think it's fair to say that Par72 is the exception to the rule, ie: the majority of people will end up mindlessly beating balls and I would say that having to tee up a ball would have previously been a good way of slowing them down a bit.

Ok but like I say, people can practice whatever way they like but I'm thinkin of say my two little brothers off 2 and 4 h'caps and my dad who's off 22 (chortle!). It's a temptation to the youngest kid and my always-in-a-rush dad to just whack away.

As such, in the majority of cases it's not beneficial to the golfers to have it. Yes for an old guy with a bad back, saving him picking up balls can be good. Yes for par72 who has the cop on to practice properly but generally it's an encouragement of fast-food golf.

...and as usual, it all boils down to one thing - people can hit more balls in less time and vacate the bay quicker for more people to hit more balls = more money.

Ranges are hardly investing in these things for the good of their customers now are they!?

stockdam

It doesn't bother me as i always knock the ball of the tee for my irons and fairways woods. I try not to hit too many drivers as the temptation is to try too hard (for me).

ShriekingSheet

stockdam wrote: »

It doesn't bother me as i always knock the ball of the tee for my irons and fairways woods. I try not to hit too many drivers as the temptation is to try too hard (for me).

Absolutely. I'm the same and most guys, I'm sure, like Par72 and Graham would hit fairly few drivers in the range and a majority of shots of the mat.

But I see this as a bad thing for newer golfers being encouraged to develop bad habits in the interest of business as I outlined before. That's my take anyway.

bigtimecharlie

Pulsar Eagle wrote: »

bigtimecharlie wrote: »

Frankfield driving range in Cork quote]

just wondering where abouts in cork Frankfield is????

Frankfield can be approached from the Kinsale road roundabout, heading for the airport but keeping left and heading for Douglas. Past the Statoil garage, through the next set of light's, and take either of the next 2 left turns ( 1st one is to Frankfield clubhouse, 2nd one is directly to the driving range).

The set-up has both indoor and outdoor bay's as well as a putting green.

psorrento

I find that everytime I do a practice swing it thinks I hit the last one and tries to reload another ball which is a pain. Also I seem to go through them 3 times as fast as I don't get up properly and realign. Very tempting just to keep wacking them.

stooge

The automatic tees are good in that you dont have to go off looking for tee's to put under the mat or turn the mat around etc. Apart from that advantage, I think they encourage you to just stand there and whack balls instead of doing the proper routine.
Would be interesting to know if many pro's use them.

On a side note - I have a question for all you range-goers...

Do you start off hitting short irons them progress to longs irons and then driver? Or do you just hit whatever you feel like.

I normally keep my drives to the end but I'm just thinking that I should be mixing it up a bit. After all, that is more like playing on a course e.g. drive/long iron/short iron etc

Mister Sifter

stooge wrote: »

The automatic tees are good in that you dont have to go off looking for tee's to put under the mat or turn the mat around etc. Apart from that advantage, I think they encourage you to just stand there and whack balls instead of doing the proper routine.
Would be interesting to know if many pro's use them.

On a side note - I have a question for all you range-goers...

Do you start off hitting short irons them progress to longs irons and then driver? Or do you just hit whatever you feel like.

I normally keep my drives to the end but I'm just thinking that I should be mixing it up a bit. After all, that is more like playing on a course e.g. drive/long iron/short iron etc

I pretty much detest the driving range and only tend to go during the winter to keep the swing going.

When i do go though i start with a few short wedge shots and then work my way down through the clubs. Only hit a couple with 3-5 irons though and then maybe ten or so with the driver. Last 5-10 balls i go back to the wedge and just knock short shots to finish up.

stooge

Graeme1982 wrote: »

I pretty much detest the driving range and only tend to go during the winter to keep the swing going.

Ah yeah, theres no substitute for being out on the course hitting off the fairway (or in my case, short/long rough!)

Graeme1982 wrote: »

When i do go though i start with a few short wedge shots and then work my way down through the clubs. Only hit a couple with 3-5 irons though and then maybe ten or so with the driver. Last 5-10 balls i go back to the wedge and just knock short shots to finish up.

Yeah, I find hitting a few wedges at the start gets me confident and loosened up. If I'm there with someone else we'd normally keep a couple of balls for longest drive and closest to the pin comps. When the pressures on though I tend to fall to pieces!

steelbar

But how many times when we go to play golf, do we just get out of the car, get out gear ready and walk straight on to the tee? A few practice swings (Maybe a few putts) and then belt one down the first?

So why when we go to the range do we start off with short irons and work our way up?

PhilipMarlowe

Hate the range, almost never go. Especially hate hitting off a mat as that is not my style on the course, tend to hit down and take a divot which hurts like hell off concrete

Regarding starting off with half wedges first, it purely makes sense from a mechanical point of view to allow your muscles to warm up before unleashing with the big dog...
Pro's will often start off their routine with 30 mins of putting before going on to wedges and working through the bag before finishing up with putting again before the first tee.... and of course they've been doing stretching exercises earlier in the day

Sandwich

In favour of the auto tee myself - especially the side benefit of having nice fake grass on them for hitting all your un-teed shots. So much better than hitting of the traditional hard mat still found at many ranges.