What is Your Oddest Driving Range Experience?

[theworldengine]

Newtogolf, you saw Earl Woods at the range? Awesome story

[nevets88]

There's this guy on a hot day will lift his shirt up to his chest and unfurl a huge pot belly and hit balls repeatedly pulling up his shirt when it falls down like someone who hitches his pants.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by nevets88

There's this guy on a hot day will lift his shirt up to his chest and unfurl a huge pot belly and hit balls repeatedly pulling up his shirt when it falls down like someone who hitches his pants.

lol.

Reminds me of a transient type who used to come patronize the self-storage business I used to work for about 7 years ago.  It was nearby downtown and we would get some homeless-ish persons that would buy storage space and then basically loiter there most of the day.  Anyway, one guy who was like 275lbs and 6 feet tall with a huge pot belly would come in with a cutoff shirt.  I couldn't stand to look at him.  It would be 100 degrees outside and he'd have beads of sweat dripping down his huge belly!

[nevets88]

Not on a driving range, but on a course, this guy... He brings one ball. Uno. Un. Eins.

[David in FL]

Not on a driving range, but on a course, this guy... He brings one ball. Uno. Un. Eins.

Does he need more?

[cipher]

There is a guy at the range I go to. Apparently he buys a bucket of balls and then hits them until he has a few left. Then I guess he steals the last few balls. Obviously as much as I go there, the owner has gotten to know me and told me about him. I have been trying to figure out who he is so I can go and set up next to him sometime and watch to see if he does it. I will confront his a$$ if I see him do it. But who steals Wilson driving range balls anyway?

[Brakkus]

I remember once a mate of mine was given some old clubs woods and irons etc. We were trying them out at the range. This range had a raised platform in each bay with a mat on top. Anyway I'm hitting an old 3 wood or driver and smack the head into the edge of the raised platform and the head of the club flies out further than the ball and we just look at each other and laugh our heads off. Another one was my old landlord who is a miserable old so and so. Saw him at the range and I mean this guy depresses you speaking to him for 5 minutes. Nothing remotely positive comes out of his mouth. Anyway he's hitting balls and he's just dropping the F bomb after every swing berating his swing. Saying I've been playing for 25 years and I'm still rubbish. Highly embarrassing for everyone else there because you can hear him at the end of the range 6-7 bays away.

[newtogolf]

Had a crazy one today at local range.  Kid (approx. 10 years old) and mom show up at range, kid has a youth set of your clubs (mostly woods).  They pick a stall about 6 stalls away from where I'm at so mom can sit on a bench, drink her coffee and watch.

I'm practicing, so only randomly paying attention to them and notice the kid hits some nice shots but mostly shanks.  I then hear mom start to coach / yell at him that he's not concentrating, wasting her time, etc which gets him angry and he starts swinging harder (I can hear the shanks bouncing off the metal railing between each stall).  She gives one last rant and out of corner of my eye I notice he's addressed the ball, but facing her not the range.  Next thing I hear him ask her is "What am I doing wrong?", I hear the club head hit the ball and I hear her scream.

Luckily he hit her in the arm and not the face, she's crying, covered in coffee and he's just staring at her with a completely indifferent look on his face.  I call over the range staff, run over to make sure she's okay.  She was saying her arm was broke but I don't think it was.  The range staff took over and they eventually calmed her down, she refused to let them call an ambulance and they left.

I couldn't get the image of the kid just staring, he never even apologized.  The scene reminded me of the Omen movie when Damien watched the sister fall through the ice.

[Al B Tross]

Wow... Just WOW, NewToGolf. Way to make your point, kid. Just a hunch but I'm guessing that those issues run waaaay deeper than her over coaching. :-). Disturbing to hear - can only imagine what it was like seeing it live.

[Lihu]

I was going to say something like "I've seen it all...", but no.

[rkim291968]

I was trying out a used club I've bought.  I was hitting balls on the 1st floor stall and it was jammed packed with people.  The grip was pretty old and slippery, it was raining, and I am wearing both gloves (left, right).   The very first swing with it, the club flies out of my hand, goes straight up and shatters couple of lights on the ceiling.   The lights shattered into thousand pieces and rained down on my head and folks unfortunate enough to practice next to my stall.  Nobody was hurt but it took a while to clean up the mess.  It was so freaking embarrassing.

[nevets88]

Does he need more?

Oh yes, oh yes he did.

[Nutter]

I was on our range early one morning (didn't feel like playing already) and the range was completely full so i end up hitting right behind the tee box like thing that holds the ropes tight.  Sure enough I skull my very first shot, it hits the block, come back and strikes me in the shin.  The I have a bruise that looks like a golf ball (dimples and everything) raising up on my shin immediately.  That's what I get for my crappy attitude.

[LSXG8GT]

Recently it was this Friday at the range. There was a guy there with some seriously expensive clubs, all kinds of crazy golf clothes, and all the get up you can imagine to go with it. Out of all those high priced clubs he hit the driver for 90% of his shots. The first two went straight up and bounced off the ceiling, no lie. A few of his other balls somehow wound up 10 feet in front of me where I was standing several mats down. His average range was around 50 yards at best... I guess this might be kind of typical where people think spending lots of money on equipment = good at golf. He should be spending that money on lessons instead. Next item in my golf bag is gunna be a hard hat!

[Parker0065]

This is not necessarily odd or strange but a couple years back I was on vacation at Myrtle Beach at a Driving Range hitting balls with my son. When I got to the driver I was hitting them pretty solid down there about 275-280 yards. The range ended at 300 yards with a fence and there was a utility shed beyond the fence about 320 yards away. There was an older gentleman next to us and for whatever reason he stopped and watched me hit a few drives. He came over to talk and told me that there use to be a high school kid that practiced here on a regular basis and he would bounce balls off the utility shed 320 yards away.

Now normally I take pretty much any and all tall tales at the driving range with a grain of salt knowing that the average golfer is semi-delusional, especially when it comes to distance, but then he told me the kids name. Dustin Johnson, yes, I believed him!!!!

[bplewis24]

This is not necessarily odd or strange but a couple years back I was on vacation at Myrtle Beach at a Driving Range hitting balls with my son. When I got to the driver I was hitting them pretty solid down there about 275-280 yards. The range ended at 300 yards with a fence and there was a utility shed beyond the fence about 320 yards away. There was an older gentleman next to us and for whatever reason he stopped and watched me hit a few drives. He came over to talk and told me that there use to be a high school kid that practiced here on a regular basis and he would bounce balls off the utility shed 320 yards away.

Now normally I take pretty much any and all tall tales at the driving range with a grain of salt knowing that the average golfer is semi-delusional, especially when it comes to distance, but then he told me the kids name. Dustin Johnson, yes, I believed him!!!!

If I heard a story like that, I would have expected that the kid went on to at least play college golf or something.  So I wasn't surprised by how your story ended.

[Strandly]

I was trying out a used club I've bought.  I was hitting balls on the 1st floor stall and it was jammed packed with people.  The grip was pretty old and slippery, it was raining, and I am wearing both gloves (left, right).   The very first swing with it, the club flies out of my hand, goes straight up and shatters couple of lights on the ceiling.   The lights shattered into thousand pieces and rained down on my head and folks unfortunate enough to practice next to my stall.  Nobody was hurt but it took a while to clean up the mess.  It was so freaking embarrassing.

Now that's funny.

[rkim291968]

I was hitting  range balls one night.  All of sudden, out of  corner of my eye, I see a long stick slowly creeping out of stall left of me.  It was a guy next to me using a golf ball retriever, fully extended, to retrieve range balls in his front.   I was just starting out my golf career (?) and have never seen a ball retriever.  At the time, it struck me as so odd that I burst out laughing.   Since then, I have never seen another person doing that.