Celbridge Driving Range

Suspicious Dave

Anyone else go here? It's fairly useless but it's 5 minutes from my house so I go there around once a week. I'm having a real issue in reading how far i'm hitting the ball there, especially with the longer clubs.

I'm only playing golf properly for a few months and only in the last month or so have i (finally!) started to hit the driver well. On the range, no matter how well I hit it I rarely go past the 200 marker but when i'm out on the course I'm calculating good drives between 230 and 250 yards.

On the course I comfortably hit a 7 iron about 150 yards but there 150 markers out on the range and I am landing 7's way short of that.

Even if the markers are (as I assume) in metres, it still leaves me a good bit short of how i think I should be hitting. It can't be just the rubbish balls can it?

Myksyk

Yes it can. Range balls are more compressed I'm told and are manufactured to travel about 20-25% less than standard balls. Amongst other things this allows ranges to have shorter tracks of land.

madds

Was up there for the first time in +8 months on Saturday on my way to South County GC for a match as it was handy. I've been using the GUI facilities in Carton over the Winter and I have to say it will be a while before I go back to Celbridge.

The feedback from the few initial irons I was hitting had me worried my technique & rhythm were all out, but after a while I put it down to the soft balls and decided to just concentrate on getting warmed up and forget about where the ball was going.

OT & I understand that this may not be possible for everyone, but I'll be spending most of my practice time on the course if at all possible this Summer. I find that I lose my rhythm after hitting ~50 balls in a range and much prefer walking the course hitting 2/3 balls from tee to green if the course is free.

Mr. Larson

madds wrote: »

OT & I understand that this may not be possible for everyone, but I'll be spending most of my practice time on the course if at all possible this Summer. I find that I lose my rhythm after hitting ~50 balls in a range and much prefer walking the course hitting 2/3 balls from tee to green if the course is free.

Remaining O/T for a few more seconds, I totally agree with that.

I only went to the range once this year and couldn't hit the ball out of my way the round after I was at the range. My tempo got totally messed up - I had 7 points on the front 9 the round after and it was really embarassing. It took me 9 holes to find my natural rhythm again and made a huge dent in my confidence off the tee which took about 4/5 rounds to totally clear out of my system.

Never again will I go to a driving range unless it's to try out new irons.

Suspicious Dave

Great, thanks lads, that makes sense.

Likewise I do most of my practising on the course but weather just doesn't allow for it sometimes so the range is handy if I haven't got out in a week.

Haven't been to the range in Carton, is it very expensive? Anything I should know before I go up there?

madds

I'm not a member in Carton and I think it's about a tenner for 90 balls. There are about a dozen covered bays and another dozen bays/mats out in the open. It's a little early yet for them to let punters hit off grass. There's also an excellent short game area which you'll find if you follow the path leading to the right keeping with the putting green on your RHS.

Only thing to remember is that it can get busy up there with peak times being from 7pm to 8pm. Oh yeah, if you're coming in the main gate watch out for the speed ramps - they're pretty severe. Use the back gate instead.

the_syco

Yeah, I go there before the summer. Pretty much to get the balls back to "going straight" :P As for range, I aim for the meter signs. Nothing beats a satisfying "thunk"

If you have a car, goto the 3 par near the Springfield Hotel in Leixlip, or, for what I think is a better, and often quiter course, there's one South West of Newcastle. If you know the pub that got burnt down a few years ago; go there, and take a left, take a right at the fork in the road, and it'll be on your left. Sure, the weather helps, but if it's a nice day not raining, I find I feel better getting the balls into the green, than aimlessly hitting balls. That is, when I get off my lazy ass

As I said, I goto the driving range to hit the balls straight, the 3 par* above to improve my game.

*Anywhere can be called a 3 par. There is no set size. The 3 par I talk about above, I've found to have longer holes.

The one near Newcastle
The one near the Springfield Hotel

Suspicious Dave

yeh, the par 3 near newcastle is called athgoe, know it well, played there for a good while before i progressed to full courses. still play there the odd time, great little spot.

wouldn't be a huge fan of liffey valley par 3 in leixlip, most of the holes are a PW or a 9 iron and the ground is generally terrible.

jampotjim

Why not head across to the academy in Carton house??? Much better setup..

I was up in Celbridge yesterday with my daughter and the balls are crap they seem to die in the air...

slumped

jampotjim wrote: »

Why not head across to the academy in Carton house??? Much better setup..

I was up in Celbridge yesterday with my daughter and the balls are crap they seem to die in the air...

Saw this thread earlier and went up to Celbridge and the Carton to hit some balls. Hit 45 or so in each.

Hadn't been to Celbridge for a while and my comments would be

1. More bays at Celbridge but poor balls and mats
2. Celbridge is cheaper but you get what you pay for. Academy balls are class.
3. Celbridge seems to be dedicated to Soccer Pitches and not golf. Just an observation.

Asked the lad behind the counter in Academy when grass tee in front was opening and he said it would be "any day now" and that they are cutting it three times a week.

He said that members will get a text when it opens.

S

jampotjim

slumped wrote: »

Saw this thread earlier and went up to Celbridge and the Carton to hit some balls. Hit 45 or so in each.

Hadn't been to Celbridge for a while and my comments would be

1. More bays at Celbridge but poor balls and mats
2. Celbridge is cheaper but you get what you pay for. Academy balls are class.
3. Celbridge seems to be dedicated to Soccer Pitches and not golf. Just an observation.

Asked the lad behind the counter in Academy when grass tee in front was opening and he said it would be "any day now" and that they are cutting it three times a week.

He said that members will get a text when it opens.

S

Sweet as hate hitting off mats so have limited my full game practise..

WHIP IT!

I use Celbridge regularly and find it fine tbh. It's a driving range so you adjust your expectations of how far your irons will go accordingly. It's no big deal.

They also have a Special Offer at the minute, 90balls for €4 before 1.0pm on a weekday which i think is a goood deal. They're prices are fairly competitive anyway. Also, the people who run the place are always friendly and welcoming in my experience, which coutns for a lot.

madds

slumped wrote: »

Saw this thread earlier and went up to Celbridge and the Carton to hit some balls. Hit 45 or so in each.

Hadn't been to Celbridge for a while and my comments would be

1. More bays at Celbridge but poor balls and mats
2. Celbridge is cheaper but you get what you pay for. Academy balls are class.
3. Celbridge seems to be dedicated to Soccer Pitches and not golf. Just an observation.

Asked the lad behind the counter in Academy when grass tee in front was opening and he said it would be "any day now" and that they are cutting it three times a week.

He said that members will get a text when it opens.

S

Slumped, do you have any association with Carton House, the GUI Academy, or the GUI? It seems to me that the majority of your posts are related to one of these. Not looking for aggro, just an honest question. Thanks.

slumped

madds wrote: »

Slumped, do you have any association with Carton House, the GUI Academy, or the GUI? It seems to me that the majority of your posts are related to one of these. Not looking for aggro, just an honest question. Thanks.

I'm a member of the Academy and I lease a membership at Carton House.

Trampas

I have used both places and Carton is much better.

You can get balls in Celbridge with a chunk taken out of them.

The balls are much better in Carton than Celbridge but you get what you pay for.

the_syco

When comparing Carton to Celbridge: which one would be used by the general public longer, and which one would have more usage? I ask because if Celbridge was open twice the length time as Carton, had twice as much people using it, I'd say the balls would be a lot more worn.

And if I had a worn golf ball, I'd replace it, to ensure that it doesn't effect my game of golf. When you think about it, many of the golf balls will probably be used at least once a day, every day, and thus wouldn't be great. You pay more for the golf balls, they may replace the balls more often.

jampotjim

the_syco wrote: »

When comparing Carton to Celbridge: which one would be used by the general public longer, and which one would have more usage? I ask because if Celbridge was open twice the length time as Carton, had twice as much people using it, I'd say the balls would be a lot more worn.

And if I had a worn golf ball, I'd replace it, to ensure that it doesn't effect my game of golf. When you think about it, many of the golf balls will probably be used at least once a day, every day, and thus wouldn't be great. You pay more for the golf balls, they may replace the balls more often.

They are both driving ranges in a similar area so no matter how long they are running etc they are in competition...

Also The academy (Carton) change their balls quite reguraly as they have a deal with Acushnet who sponsor the range

paulanthony

WHIP IT! wrote: »

They also have a Special Offer at the minute, 90balls for €4 before 1.0pm on a weekday which i think is a goood deal. They're prices are fairly competitive anyway. Also, the people who run the place are always friendly and welcoming in my experience, which coutns for a lot.

Is that offer actually on right now? I know they were doing a "Medium Bucket" for the price of a "Small Bucket" (which is effectively the same offer) before 12:00 weekdays a while ago and then it stopped.

Is the offer on again now up to 1:00pm?

Cheers

P