What are the most important considerations when a builder is setting up a golf course driving range?

Ideally a driving range should be a golf learning center. This can include a putting green, some practice bunkers, possibly a place for some indoor lessons.

The nicer your practice facility, the better positioned you will be at attracting new members, especially if you are a private club. It really is a benefit and an asset. If we can do something more than just a driving range, it will serve the golf course well.

What are the kinds of things you look at when setting up an exceptional driving range?

In this day and age, with the developments of technology, we often have to set up the range to be about 330 yards long because people are simply driving the ball that much farther these days.

So we start with a driving range, then we like to set up an area at the back of the tee where we can set up mats. This is helpful because sometimes you may need to work on the driving area and you might want the turf to be able to recuperate.

We also like to see a good putting area that is about 10,000 – 15,000 square feet.

We also encourage some sort of short game facility. That could be another practice green that would have some chipping areas, some practice bunkers, something that you could hit something 20 – 60 yards.

We generally try to provide some sort of a facility that would allow you to practice all aspects of the game, including: Driving, chipping, putting and sand shots.

I’m sure safety has to be an important consideration when you are setting these up?

Orientation is obviously important and you have to be able to have the space to set it up right. We generally would not want to have a driving range that would have a golf hole or the clubhouse or houses on the right side of the range, the slice side of the hole. So we always try to separate that a little bit.

What about driving range nets?

When ever possible, we try to put the practice facility where we don’t have to put nets. It’s a little more expensive so if we can set up a range by just using the land, it’s much better.

What about how the range stalls are set up and the design of actual facility?

There’s some common sense issues like circulation on and around the teeing area, things that we do about radiusing the tee (pointing the tee a little left of center), looking at the overall orientation, the prevailing winds, the rising or the setting sun. Ideally we would like to set the range up to the northeast – we don’t like it pointing directly to the east or the west.

We also like to set up some target greens down the range so that there is something interesting for people to aim for.

What about considerations for the actual landing area? There can be problems with the golf balls getting beat up if the surface of the driving range is not in good condition. Problems like rocky surfaces, poor drainage, etc.

This is really a function of turf quality and maintenance and proper construction. You want to make sure that rocks and debris are removed before you put the seed in the ground. You need to also make sure that you have a quality stand of grass out there. Irrigation, fertilizer, maintenance and drainage are all important to make sure you have good healthy turf.

Any other considerations that a developer should consider when they are developing a driving range?

I think if people are thinking about a practice facility they should find themselves an architect, someone who can work them through the process of developing more than just a driving range, something that includes a practice facility. I would encourage them to get detailed plans and work out all the details of drainage and safety issues.

You can see the complete golf course design article as well as the mP3 audio interview at Golf Course Designers Herfort Norby

Colin Goehring
http://www.articlesbase.com/ask-an-expert-articles/golf-course-driving-range-design-127547.html

Having the right golf ball is important. There are two basic types of balls (spin and distance) and two basic ball coverings (balata and surlyn). This set of tips will explain them.

Spin

As its name dictates, a spin ball is designed to spin. These balls have 3 parts to them:

A central core (liquid, most of the time)
Rubber windings
A cover made of a thin, soft material called balata

Distance

A distance ball, made for longer shots, has a much harder core and a harder cover. The core is made of a firm synthetic material, and the cover is a hard durable material called surlyn. This combination allows the ball to travel greater distances.

Dimple Myth

There’s a popular myth that says more dimples on a golf ball means a higher trajectory. This isn’t true. The average golf ball has between 350 and 450 dimples, and this number doesn’t make any difference in the path your ball takes. Trajectory is actually determined by the dimple’s depth and not the number.

GOLF TERMS

The game of golf seems to have a language of its own. This next set of tips will give you some common golf terms and their definitions.

Par

Par is the number of strokes a player should take to complete a round. It’s calculated by yardage and then gives you 2 strokes at the green. For instance, a par 5 hole gives you three strokes to get on the green, and then two putts to get your ball in the hole.

Tee

A tee is normally a wooden or plastic peg that the ball is placed on for hitting the first shot of each hole. Originally this was a pile of sand used to elevate the ball for driving.

Green

According to the official golf rules, the green is the whole golf course. However, it more popularly refers to the putting surface at the end of each hole. Greens vary in shape and size, but most are oval or oblong in shape.

Fairway

The fairway is the area that runs between the tee and green of a golf hole. This area is well maintained so the ball will move well on it. The grass on the fairway is usually cut at a height from 3/8 of an inch to a half-inch.

Handicap

Handicap is a number that represents how well a golfer plays. This number is the number of strokes a player may deduct from his actual score to adjust his scoring ability to the level of another golfer. The lower a golfer’s handicap, the better the golfer is.

Divot

Most shots from the fairway will scrape off the top of the turf where the ball was sitting. A divot is the turf that is scraped up, and the scarred area in the fairway where the turf had been. It is polite to replace and stomp down the turf afterwards.

Lie

Lie has two meanings:

Where the ball lays. A common expression would be a good lie, which means the ball is on a great piece of grass. A bad lie, would mean it’s on a rough piece of grass, or a hazard.

How many strokes it took to get the ball where it sits.

Address

The position a golfer takes as he or she stands over the ball, ready to hit it. The club must be grounded (touching the ground) for a golfer to be considered at address.

Hazard

A hazard is anything on a golf course designed to obstruct play. These hazards can be:

Sand traps
Water
Rough

Flagstick

A flagstick is a movable marker to show the location of the hole. Many courses will color code the flags on flagsticks to tell you if the hole is near the front, center, or back of the green.

Fore

Fore! is what you yell if your shot is in danger of hitting or landing by another player or group of players on the course. You yell fore! to warn players to watch out.

Mulligan

You won’t find this is in an official rule book, but when you’re playing a friendly game of golf, sometimes you or someone else will swing and miss, or a make really bad shot. A mulligan allows you to take that swing over without penalty.

Allan Wilson
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/different-golf-balls-and-basic-golfing-rules-95413.html

This cherry wood, handcrafted putting set includes: a wooden golf hole target, two golf balls and a wood-shafted putter with metal club head. The putter unscrews into 3 parts to fit snuggly into an easy-to-carry 12-1/2 x 5-3/4 x 2 vinyl case, making it an ideal travel or office companion. Gift boxed.

Read more…

By Olympia Mini Golf Putt-O-Cups Sold in set of six Come in six colors Close to a true golf hole Requires proper stroke to keep ball in cups similar to real golf experience Allows for multiple direction play, therefore multiple players Removable flags Includes fun activities guide

Read more…

The Putting Peg & Pod For years, professional golfers have practiced putting to targets smaller than the regulation 4.25″ hole. The drawback? No audio feedback. The Putting Peg & Pod now give you that important feedback. When struck, you will be rewarded with the sound of the ball falling into the hole! This 3 step system is guaranteed to improve your putting. Begin with the largest ring 3.25″, then move to the smaller 2.25″ ring, and finally practice to the Peg (1.25″) by itself. Improve your putting with The Putting Peg & Pod! Two years in the making. The Putting Peg & Pod are 1.25″ inches in diameter, and has a state-of-the-art and patent pending mini-speaker system that is fueled by three powerful Toshiba quartz batteries. Once the aid is bumped by a golf ball, a motion sensor within the unit immediately activates the MP3 sound file and the golfer is rewarded with the sweet sound of success, the sound of the ball rattling in the bottom of the cup. This design was over two years in the making, with Fuzzy testing a number of prototypes before perfecting the sensitivity of the motion sensor, as well fine tuning the volume and clarity of the sound file. “Practice with The Putting Peg for just a few minutes before each round, you WILL make more putts” Fuzzy Zoeller PGA Tour Champion Use The Putting Pod invented and perfected by Fuzzy himself for just minutes a day at your home or in the office and you cant help but become a better putter. Then, prior to teeing off, use The Putting Peg for just a few minutes on the practice putting green. This two-step approach will make a regulation golf hole look as big as a coffee can. If you are looking for a unique golf gift for a friend or family member, you have found the right product. They will thank you over and over for the gift of good putting. If you have any questions about this product or would like to order by phone, please call us Toll Free at 888-733-8383. We look forward to

Read more…

Chipping has three main ingredients for a great golf shot. It requires finesse, imagination and memory. Take the example of a great artist with a paintbrush. Have you ever noticed the finesse with the stroke of his or her brush? An artist does not complete a great drawing, without remembering prior dos and don’ts. Notice how their imagination creates a great drawing in the end. What has this got to do with golf?

These are the necessary ingredients required to make a great golf shot happen. The only difference in comparing the two artists is the type of tool they are using to perform the task. If you have finesse with the golf club, along with imagination, the results will be a great golf shot, just like an artist using the finesse and imagination in a great drawing.

Learning to finesse a golf club is a very delicate task. Next time you’re watching a golf tournament on TV, watch the pros chip around a green. It looks like their golf swing is in slow motion. The professional golfer guides the head of the club on the takeaway, creating the precise amount of weight necessary to make the ball bounce off of the face of the club for the intended landing area.

To help accomplish this delicate shot, ingredient number two has to be in place. The imagination is the preparation prior to this finessed shot. It helps complete the physical motion and timing necessary for proper weight distribution for the club head speed. When you actually visualize the golf chip before everything is in motion, it triggers the memory in guiding the muscles and timing to create the perfect shot.

So how do we create finesse and imagination with chipping? Practicing over and over again, until chipping becomes a sixth sense. It may seem disappointing at first, but try and pick up a paintbrush and create great artwork with the first couple attempts. Make this following practice drill your favorite pastime if you want to zone in on the golf hole out on the golf course.

Take your golf bag and pull out your favorite lofted golf clubs and rest the bag lying flat on the ground. Take out as many golf balls as possible, if you’re not in the middle of a round of golf. The more golf balls you use, the more enjoyment you will receive out of this drill and less time walking back and forth. You will lose interest if you have to constantly gather a small amount of balls all the time.

Try practice chipping the ball just over your golf bag or hitting it. Move the bag away from the golf balls about 5,10 and 15 yards to start. This will be your intended landing area when you are out on the course. The golf bag will be your target to hit, or go over for distance memory. The key goal here is to train your memory for the distance of a chip shot with certain clubs.

If you want to learn to pick up the golf ball fast, move the bag closer to you standing it upright, or distance the bag away from you for those longer lofted shots. Do not change clubs until you have accomplished a certain goal in mind, like the number of times you hit the bag, or by dropping the golf ball slightly over it. If you want to learn the distance on running an accurate 7 or a 6 iron, move the bag a least twenty to twenty-five yards from your hitting area.

As you progress in your chipping skill, try different techniques on bouncing the golf ball off the face of a golf club to see how the ball reacts with a variety of short irons, and see how high and far the ball travels with an intended target and a goal in mind.

This practice drill will help build your confidence out on the fairway when you have to chip over hazards. When you are unable to hit greens in regulation, regulate the amount of times you use your putter by practicing this drill often. Instead of getting frustrated waiting for the group ahead of you on a slow day, try practicing with one or two golf balls alongside a tee box, if you are not playing a match or in a tournament.

You will eventually notice a lower scorecard, even on a bad day when your longer golf clubs and putter let you down. It is a good feeling when obstacles like sand traps and water hazards, become part of the scenario on the golf course, and not an obstacle to potentially ruin your great round.

George Gabriel
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/the-art-of-chipping-with-a-golf-club-127917.html

If you want to be rather hardcore about it, you could buy one of those LINKSPUTT systems–you can fiddle with them so you’re putting uphill, downhill, on a slope, you name it! You can get them up to sixteen plus feet long!!!

They’re obscenely expensive, though–I can’t help but think you could probably build something that does the same thing at a much cheaper price. I suppose if you knew someone who had one, you could look the thing over and get a few ideas from how it is constructed.

See the link:

Golf IQ Putt Pocket The Golf IQ Putt Pocket is designed to help you more accurately see your line and speed on putts of all lengths . The Putt Pocket fits in a standard golf hole and has a 2.75 inch opening, forcing you to make putts in the high side of the hole. A standard golf hole is 4.25 inches in diameter so when you take the Putt Pocket out of the hole and it will appear as though you are putting into a bucket. Who Needs It? The Putt Pocket is a great product for the golfer who misses a lot of short putts and has trouble reading greens If you lip out a lot of putts you should try Golf IQ Putt Pocket. The Putt Pocket is also great for the golfer that likes to practice their putting indoors at home or the office What Can It Do for Your Game? The Putt Pocket will improve your putting by teaching you to make putts in the high side of the hole. This is important because putts that catch the low side of the hole are more apt to lip out than those that hit the high side of the hole. If you lip out a lot of putts chances are you are not playing enough break and the Putt Pocket could be for you. The Putt Pocket also provides a smaller target than a standard golf hole. If you can make it in the pocket, a golf hole will look like it needs a manhole cover.  The Putt Pocket is also the perfect target for practicing at home or in your office  • Fits in any standard golf hole  • Great for indoor use  • Use it as a practice hole on a crowded practice green  • 2.75 inch opening makes the hole appear larger once you get out on the course If you have any questions about this product or would like to order by phone, please call us Toll Free at 888-733-8383. We look forward to hearing from you!

Read more…