Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Golf in the North

I drove by an outdoor heated golf range yesterday, and the parking lot was filled with a bunch of SUV's. The range has a sheltered area divided by wooden partitions into stalls, each stall with its individual infrared heater, from which golfers can hit golf balls in relative comfort, protected from the elements.

I don't partake in such activity. I hate hitting balls off of artificial turf. On artificial grass, usually the bright green bristles known back in the day as Astro-turf, a slightly fat hit, that is, hitting the ground behind the ball with the club before impact, instead of resulting in the clubhead digging into the ground, results in the clubhead bouncing off the artificial grass or skid along the turf and striking the range ball rather cleanly. There's no big chunk of mud and grass, a divot, flying farther than the ball, which the clubhead may or may not actually hit. The ball, instead, flies fairly true and nearly as far as if hit properly. So, the ordinary golfer may think that he or she is hitting the ball well, when, in the world of real grass, he or she will be hacking up the real estate on the way to triple-digit scores and a lot of frustration.

Practice of this nature is counter-productive. The mistakes in a golf swing are difficult to detect and correct by oneself at a golf range. Without a true outcome to help detect a mistake, a golfer simply reinforces the swing error by repeating it again and again and again.

I find that going out to the course and playing when the weather breaks produces far better results than in-graining poor swing habits for a few months at a heated driving range.

Of course, there are others who swear by going to the heated golf range several times a week, no matter what the weather, and hitting golf balls. They claim that simply hitting ball after ball causes improvement. I think it's more that they are looking for something to do, rather than working on their golf swing. As I've said before, we are all born with a limited number of good golf swings; so, why waste them at a driving range.

Since about half of the shots one makes in any given round of golf are putts, these fanatics would be better served to practice putting on the living room carpet.

Or maybe I'm just lazy.

Posted by Bill at February 22, 2006 08:49 AM