Money towards the range, or the course?

It's about 10 bucks to get a large bucket of 100 balls at the range. At a cheap course here, 8 bucks will get you a round at super twilight, I usually am able to finish 18. Would you guys spend the money at the range, or the course more often?

Allow me to indirectly answer your question with a short tale of my most recent golf membership purchase.

As a young graduate student, I don't have a lot of money. So little, in fact, that $300 is, more or less, my golf budget for the year. There happens to be a student membership for $300 at a nearby country club, a nice place by the looks of it, but no driving range, and no chipping area. Meanwhile, there is a different country club that offers a $300 driving range membership. This place has a chipping area and a putting green bigger that my apartment complex. The question I faced was: Do I spend my $300 on unlimited rounds of golf, or on unlimited driving range and practice? To decide, I had to ask myself what my biggest goal for the year was. Was it playing as many rounds of golf as possible? Or was it making real changes to my mechanics that would improve my skills forever?

Since then, I've chosen the driving range. After school hours I head to the range, practice chipping and pitching for an hour, practice my big sticks on the range for an hour, and practice putting for an hour. Because I'm not focusing on scoring as high as possible (as I would be on the course), I am free to tinker with my processes and discover what techniques are moving me forward as a better golfer, and what techniques I have been using that have actually been holding me back.

If it's not a grass range and the course isn't overly crowded and reasonably maintained I'd play the course.  I spend a lot of time at the range (mats) and it's not the same as playing on grass with different lies, turf textures etc.

Holy christ you can play 18 holes for 8 bucks? My god I thought I was getting away like a bandit for 9 holes at $11.

Anyway, any chance I get Id rather play. Its so much more fun, and I think I get more out of it. Real putting, the pressure to score, tracking stats, etc....

Even if the range would be better for improving, its just so much more fun playing, which is the point.

Why is this an either/or situation?    Go to the range when you need to work on something specific and go to the course when you want to have some fun playing.

Totally agree..............for me it also depend on what I am working on, if I am working on course managment, then obviously a round is where you need to be. if I only have time for say an hour or a little more or something specific I am working on then the range.  A good drill for the range if you do not want to play around as you practice is to play a round at the range, i.e. hit your driver, then hit a 6 iron then a wedge; simulate the club order you would hit while playing a round and play that imaginary round on the range........If its mats they have I personally would rather just play a round though, I hat mats. Good luck.....and those prices are amazing!

-Steve W.

" Keep it on the short grass "

It's a not a very nice course, but I will admit, the greens are the best part. I play there often just because of the price, and golf is golf, even if the course has no true fairway/rough lol!

I understand what you guys are saying about why choose one. I guess I was just wondering what you guys would do. Seems like the round is the best way to go usually.

If the course is half way decent, I'd play over the the range most of the time.  Just curious, what course is this... I'm in SoCal and if it's anywhere near me, I'd like to know about it.

There's Saticoy Regional, which is the course I was referring to being 8 bucks, but it's a nine hole course and isn't really worth a trip up here to Ventura, but then there's Soule Park which is in Ojai, which is decent and is only 12 bucks at 3 pm.

There's also Riverridge and Victoria Lakes, which are right next to one another and are pretty nice. Riverridge has a cool island par 3 for the 18th hole. Then there's Olivas, but it's on the expensive side, and is probably the nicest kept public course here. (http://www.olivaslinks.com/layout9.asp?id=220&page;=7210)

The nice thing is, Riverridge, Victoria Lakes, Olivas and BuenaVentura are all really close to one another. Three are pretty much touching, and the other just down the road a mile or two.