When practicing, do you prefer an empty range, a bustling one or something in-between?

[Rob Thompson]

I generally practice at the range associated with the place I am working...Therefore its better for me to have an empty range.  When the Pro is out practicing it seems like an open invitation for people to ask about thier own game.  I love helping people so I am not complaining about that, but sometime you have 30 minutes to work on your own game and distractions make it hard to have a functional practice.

If I am at another range where people do not know me, the number of people has no affect on me.

Don't care, as long as I have room to work and use my camera. I guess those requirements lean more towards the empty end of the spectrum, but I don't mind (and typically do) using the far end of a range to get away from a crowd.

People generally aren't a distraction to me at the range.

Where's the poll, @nevets88?

Do you get funny looks when filming your swing?   I always see people watching me

[billchao]

Do you get funny looks when filming your swing?   I always see people watching me

I honestly don't know. I'm pretty introverted when it comes to golf practice.

[David in FL]

Prefer?  Empty!

Doesn't affect me if it's not though, as long as I have room and a decent piece of turf to do my thing.....

[bradsul]

I play all winter at a golf simulator that also has a couple active pool leagues and is always playing music.  I don't think much of anything distracts me anymore so I voted #1.

My normal group of playing partners all play there too so we don't even stop talking when people are hitting anymore.  We have to be careful on the rare occasions we play with people we don't know to make sure we shut the hell up. :-D

[CarlSpackler]

I'm in my own little world. Makes no difference.

[dsc123]

I can filter out anything except little kids.  I'm afraid they'll get in the way of my club mid-swing.

Other than that, I prefer to have a stall open in front of me so I can record my swing from FO.

[Parker0065]

Headphones/MP3 Player! Greatest invention ever!

My wintertime practice facility(Golf Dome) can get pretty busy and pretty loud. There's a large number of retirees there daily who like to group together and have extensive discussions on how "Hogan did it", along with the "self proclaimed golf guru's" who like to comb the range and coach their associates in great detail, of all their swing faults and how they should be fixing them. A lot of talking, not a lot of improvement going on among them but my headphones do a great job of negating all the noise and hysteria, lol!

They're all mostly harmless, I'm just in a different place in life with family and career. I go there to get in a practice session and get out, I don't have time to just burn daylight. Maybe when I'm retired I can set around and talk about how "Tiger did it" lol!

Summer time at my home course practice range things are much more quiet and open. Most summer days I can go out there mid-day and be by myself for hours. Even then I've gotten so use to wearing headphones and listening to tunes over the winter I still use them in the summer as well. I just like to put on my tunes, zone out and get my range work done.

So for me busy, noisy, quiet, empty, it really doesn't matter.

The only time I get a little nervous and cautious is at the Dome when someone will setup next to me with a couple kids(5-8 age range) and try to hit balls. The kids are all over the place and the Dad usually spends more time trying to keep them in check than he is hitting balls. I always take a second look before I setup and swing because I don't want to bury a 7-iron in their skull because their wandering around not paying attention. Luckily that scenario has only happened a couple times over the years.

I've never said anything negative and always tried to be supportive. I think it's great to bring kids out and let them hit and get exposed to golf. It just works better if the parent brings one kid at a time until their old enough to be completely focused on whats going on.

[nevets88]

I generally practice at the range associated with the place I am working...Therefore its better for me to have an empty range.  When the Pro is out practicing it seems like an open invitation for people to ask about thier own game.  I love helping people so I am not complaining about that, but sometime you have 30 minutes to work on your own game and distractions make it hard to have a functional practice.

If I am at another range where people do not know me, the number of people has no affect on me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billchao

Don't care, as long as I have room to work and use my camera. I guess those requirements lean more towards the empty end of the spectrum, but I don't mind (and typically do) using the far end of a range to get away from a crowd.

People generally aren't a distraction to me at the range.

Where's the poll, @nevets88?

Do you get funny looks when filming your swing?   I always see people watching me

Yes. You get used to it and then it's not even a thing anymore. It boggles me this is still a thing when almost everyone has a camera in their pocket now.  I've gotten comments, mostly of the judgmental variety, I know better than you tone. One guy wanted to take a video of me to show off his phone, LOL, it never worked, which I'm glad, the Android app was too complicated.

When I do see people using a camera, most aren't using a tripod, and most definitely taking the video from a bad angle or too close.

[Rob Thompson]

I agree, I get the question "are you a pro or something?" a lot.  It is always sarcastic until I explain to them that I am a teaching pro and working on my own game.  The members at my course do not ask, but when I am traveling, I get the stares and questions.  When I have my FlightScope out it is really funny.

[Pretzel]

I don't mind, up until I the group of four to six teenagers in two carts pulls up with a single bag of rental clubs between them all. Invariably it's usually a double or triple date, and the guys are taking these massive swipes at the ball to try and impress the girls, who walk up and often end up hitting it better than the guys. Since I'm a high school kid (usually the only one on most driving ranges), I've found these groups tend to set up shop next to me, I guess because I'm their age and less "intimidating" than the adults?

These are the only kind of people that I've ever had get loud enough to bother me through my headphones. Even when the bachelor party came to the golf course I worked at (which is an entertaining story by itself), they were at least funny enough to watch that I didn't mind losing a practice session to their bizarre antics.

I do understand that people have to start golf sometime and somewhere, but I kind of wish the teenagers would at least use the internet they have at their fingertips to look up a couple things about golf. It made me want to cry when I saw some of them taking a brand new Taylormade Spider Blade putter and swinging it like a driver when the course made the mistake of giving them the new rental clubs...

[newtogolf]

I prefer white noise and a little activity going on around me.

[jbishop15]

I voted the first option. I don't mind the noise; kind of enjoy it, as a matter of fact.

I think there's also a level of cockiness that goes along with, too. When there's people around, I hit better. I start showing off without consciously meaning to.

[Zeph]

The less people the better. I don't mind others being there, but I like my privacy.

[Warren Zevon]

I don't mind a few people around. As stated before, I'm always leery of small kids. I don't use the range at my home course a lot, it's easier to go to the club that's closest to me for practicing. I've noticed at my home club there always seems to be some idiot who will back his truck up as close as possible and crank up their car stereos. That's mildly annoying.

[hlca]

In my area there are a lot of tiger parents.  Parents yelling at their kids who clearly do not want to be there.  I once moved from one end of the range to the other end to get away from these raving lunatics.  Otherwise, I can handle some bustle and white noise, i.e. the sounds of other people just hitting their balls.

Another time, there was a guy who was not doing well and he was cursing and slamming his clubs.  I was hitting well that day (right behind him), so I was afraid he was going to take his anger out on me!

[nevets88]

I don't mind a few people around. As stated before, I'm always leery of small kids. I don't use the range at my home course a lot, it's easier to go to the club that's closest to me for practicing. I've noticed at my home club there always seems to be some idiot who will back his truck up as close as possible and crank up their car stereos. That's mildly annoying.

Mildly? That's like defcon 2 bad. That would have me looking for another range, even if they were playing music I like.

[Huddo]

Option 2.  The only situation I don't like is an empty range with only one other guy and he plants himself next to me.  It is like urinal etiquette, give me some space bro!

Yeah, why is that?  The whole range is free but you always get some village idiot wanting to talk rubbish to you!  It could also be that my swing is so bloody crap that they can look good next to me..........rotten bug***s!

[WUTiger]

If the range gets too crowded, I worry about safety.

• The pre-round golfers are stacked in about 6 feet apart, and some joker tries to slip in between and almost hits me in the head on his backswing.
• Some 2-year-old runs onto the practice green while people are practicing short wedges.