From a young age, going to a driving range was always exciting. The big basket of balls. The sound of the ball dispensing machine, and then the sound of golf balls being whacked in the bays beside you.
But after 10-15 minutes of hitting balls, that excitement would slowly start to wear off.
I always felt at the range it was a bit bland and there was a lack of purpose to practising. Some ranges didn’t even have distance markers, just a couple of targets or flags, maybe a net to hit at – it was a bit unfulfilling. The only real excitement was when the tractor came out to collect the balls and then you had a moving target to aim at. There were some courses which didn’t even have a driving range, where you would just take your own bag or tube of balls, and then hit them in to an open field, 150 yards long, with a pin or two to aim at. It was very one dimensional.
All you were really working on was alignment and ball striking, which was fine, but it did become quite boring and made practice sessions a bit stagnant. Your mind tended to wander, which led to boredom. And, to me, that’s just not golf.
SLOW IMPROVEMENTS
Over time, ranges started to develop and gradually improve with more standard yardages and targets, starting from 100 yards going all the way up to 250 yards which became pretty standard.
Short game areas also started to pop up more, giving the ability to play a wide variety of shots like you would on the golf course, but it still wasn’t the same on the range when hitting full shots. You’d be back standing on that square bit of AstroTurf, hitting balls at flags and yardage markers.
It would feel like there was something missing, it lacked in purpose. Not much had really changed but just a few more visuals here and there, still delivering the same thing over and over again.
BIG TECH SHIFT
Now we have…
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