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Short game practice w/limited flight range balls


nevets88
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Does it throw you off? The balls I recently practiced with are stamped Pinnacle practice. I am guessing these balls are limited to 75-80% of regular distances I haven't noticed a difference yet as I haven't had many short shots during a round. Wondering if I should use my own shag bag balls. I should have grabbed a couple of my own new balls and figured it out myself. Next session.

Steve

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This is a range with a short game area.

You pay extra to use it and you bring whatever balls you have left over after your full swing range session to the short game area, which has chipping, pitching and bunker sections.

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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When I practice short game and putting, I always use the balls in my own bag. Why get used to putting/chipping with rocks? I am always trying to emulate what I'm actually doing on the course when I practice. Practice with golf shoes on, hit real balls whenever I can, hit from real grass, various lies, etc.

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I think the worst part of using range balls is that fact that they don't spin at all. I suppose if you normally use distance balls anyways it won't make that much of a difference, but range balls are a far cry from a ProV. If your shag bag is full of golf balls closer to the ones that you use on the course, you should be able to dial your distance in a bit better.
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  • 5 months later...


Originally Posted by nevets88

Does it throw you off?

The balls I recently practiced with are stamped Pinnacle practice. I am guessing these balls are limited to 75-80% of regular distances

I haven't noticed a difference yet as I haven't had many short shots during a round.

Wondering if I should use my own shag bag balls. I should have grabbed a couple of my own new balls and figured it out myself. Next session.


here is my take on your uestion.

When practicing with range balls concern yourself only with swing feell contact fill and basic flight path. most commercial manufactured range balls are 38 grams vs the the playable 45-46 grams and have a very thin syerlin cover ond who knows what type of core. never judge distance of of the flight of range balls.

I always practice short approch accuracy with top line balls that have made there way into my shag bag. If you do not have acces to a short game pratice green then to practice short came approch shots (40-110 yards) at a school yard with playable balls and a blanket. A blanket will stop the ball fairly quickly if there is good grass under it. this will give you better replication of your true flight carry than the typical commercial range ball will.

That said for working on address, swing and contact aspects commercial range balls are fine. just keep in mind that if the balls are the typical commercially produced range ball the are going to fly about 12%-20% shorter than a pro playable line ball.

In the 1980s Jack Nicklaus was building several cources in the Caymon Islands. Due to limited space these cources were restriced land mass about 1/2 the sized of the typical golf cocurse. to deal with this Jack had MacGregor engineers develop a ball that flew approxamently 1/2 the normal fligh of a 90 compression balata So that a player could play his complete club set. these ball were solid hard rubbet that had pimples instead of dimples. When hit they felt close to the same feeling as a 90 compression balata ball. MacGregor retailed these in the US for a shor period of time as practice balls.

To day an other company is producing a product called AlmostGOLF balls that travel 1/3rd the distance but feel and look near a real golf ball. In fact there are some AlmostGOLF cources spring up around the country in places. More or less real miniture golf. these balls are used by Dave Pelts training centers. theu have a core that compresses to absorb energy transfer. I have yet to try but have recently recived a gross and intend to shortly.I will report back when I do. I have not weighed these balls butt expect them to be around 30 grams or maybe a bit more. But here again I would not use these for more than swing training devices. to find you mean length  and spin with any club use pro line playable balls. If they are as good as claimed I have a 150 yard long practice hole in my back yard ( I have 5 acers of land) I could theoreticly have a practicce hole that could play like a 430 yard par 4. that whould be fun

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Not to hijack this thread, but one question I have always had is this - how or where do you guys practice CHIPPING ?      I've been to a half dozen driving ranges & none have ever had a dedicated place to practice chipping onto a green.    I know of one where they let you hit off grass, but paying $12 for a hundred balls to hit 10 ft chips into the driving range seems odd to me - you'll never be able to judge a roll on high grass.

As for me, I'm fortunate that I can chip real golf balls in my backyard (far cry from a manicured fairway), but I can't judge any kind of roll.   Plus, the wife is getting pretty sick of divots throughout her yard.    I've never been to a course where they would allow you to bring a bag of balls with you & if nobody was behind you, chip a hundred balls onto a green to just practice chipping & get a feel for proper roll out distances.     Just seems like an impossible task to actually practice effective chipping onto an actual green... how the heck do you guys do it ??

John

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Originally Posted by inthehole

Not to hijack this thread, but one question I have always had is this - how or where do you guys practice CHIPPING ?      I've been to a half dozen driving ranges & none have ever had a dedicated place to practice chipping onto a green.    I know of one where they let you hit off grass, but paying $12 for a hundred balls to hit 10 ft chips into the driving range seems odd to me - you'll never be able to judge a roll on high grass.

I've never been to a course that didn't have a (free to use) chipping green.  The green itself is often pretty mangled, and I've only been to a few that had a big enough area around it to practice not only green side shots but also 50 yard approaches, but literally every course I've ever played has at least a crappy little green where you can practice shots from 1-15 yards off the green.  So maybe it's just a poconos thing?  Though I grew up near Philly and since the poconos are kind of a vacation area for people from Philly you'd think there'd be some courses with a chipping green.

To the OP, I would never practice green side shots at the range.  Use your own (real) balls at the chipping green.

For short approaches where you want to dial in distances with partial shots with different clubs and types of shots, but for which there isn't space at the range, do you have a back yard or local school or park where there's 80 yards of grass available?  If so, just go out and get yourself a little mat and practice with your own real balls.  Free that way too.  Getting a more expensive mat is worth the price though.  I got a crappy $25 one with a "fairway" section and a "rough" section, and the "fairway" section was mostly destroyed after two uses.  I know a lot of guys here hate using mats, and if you've got a nice course around with a chipping green with 80 yards of room in one direction, or are a member at a club where the grass range has all Pro V1s or whatever, then that's awesome, but I've had some success dialing in those partial shots practicing off of my little mat at the park.

Matt

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Jamo is 100% right, you should practice your short game with the same balls your use during a round.  Range balls are beat up, limited flight and won't fly or react on the greens the same way the ones you actually play on a course do.  Most of the ranges I go to that have a chipping green expect you to bring your own practice balls.  Since I am still using pre-owned NXT Tours it's not that costly to throw a bunch in my shag bag for practice.

Joe Paradiso

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The driving range I go to has the typical stations, a par 3 course, large sand trap with a net on the other side incase you blade one, and fenced in green with plenty of chipping area all around it. They charge seperately to use the green/chipping area.

Steve

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I'd say get a shag bag full of chewed up balls (whatever you typically play) from lostgolfballs.com.  They charge $20 for 50 ProV1's and a shag bag.

Dan

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Originally Posted by inthehole

Not to hijack this thread, but one question I have always had is this - how or where do you guys practice CHIPPING ?      I've been to a half dozen driving ranges & none have ever had a dedicated place to practice chipping onto a green.    I know of one where they let you hit off grass, but paying $12 for a hundred balls to hit 10 ft chips into the driving range seems odd to me - you'll never be able to judge a roll on high grass.

As for me, I'm fortunate that I can chip real golf balls in my backyard (far cry from a manicured fairway), but I can't judge any kind of roll.   Plus, the wife is getting pretty sick of divots throughout her yard.    I've never been to a course where they would allow you to bring a bag of balls with you & if nobody was behind you, chip a hundred balls onto a green to just practice chipping & get a feel for proper roll out distances.     Just seems like an impossible task to actually practice effective chipping onto an actual green... how the heck do you guys do it ??

My course has a large putting green (no chipping allowed), plus a separate chipping green with a bunker.  You can hit shot of up to 30 yards onto the chipping green.  One of the muni courses nearby has a putting green and 2 chipping greens.  All are free to use unless you want to use range balls.  When my gamers get a little chewed up, they go into a little zippered nylon bag I keep in the car.

I've never been to a course around here where you had to pay to use the practice area, except for the range balls.  From what I have read on here, this issue seems to vary depending on location/state.  My home course is on my way home, and I am always stopping by for 15-30-45 minutes to chip and putt if I have time after work.

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Note: This thread is 4460 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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