Does your range close when it rains?

[gregsandiego]

My "home" club in San Diego closes the range every time it rains  - even lightly - like today. The problem is the ball picker gets stuck in the mud.

I'm wondering how other parts of the country deal with this. Surely Portland OR and Seattle don't close their ranges.

[Patch]

They close them around here (SoNv) during thunder storms with flooding, and lightening. However, those are rare instances since we only average +/- 4 inches of rain per year. 

[David in FL]

If it gets so wet that the balls plug, or they can't pick them.  Not necessarily just because it rains...

[bkuehn1952]

We close them when it snows.

[chilepepper]

It's frustrating to drive out to practice and have the range closed due to light rain. The Vineyard is pretty good about staying open, the range is all grass. They do move you to mats usually though. That might be a bit of a drive for you. River walk might be a good option. 

[gregsandiego]

2 hours ago, chilepepper said:

It's frustrating to drive out to practice and have the range closed due to light rain. The Vineyard is pretty good about staying open, the range is all grass. They do move you to mats usually though. That might be a bit of a drive for you. River walk might be a good option. 

It's Tecolote I'm talking about.  We got another light rain last night so I expect it will have to close again. There are many of us that joined "Players Club" for the range deal that will be put out. The $30/month is a great deal when the weekends are dry.

River Walk is very close.Do they stay open? If I could find a nearby club deal I might switch.

 

 

 

 

18 hours ago, David in FL said:

If it gets so wet that the balls plug, or they can't pick them.  Not necessarily just because it rains...

Correct. I just wonder if there is another technical solution.

16 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

We close them when it snows.

I grew up in downriver (Taylor MI). It has to be more of a challenge to golf there.

[mchepp]

On 6/10/2017 at 9:58 AM, gregsandiego said:

Surely Portland OR and Seattle don't close their ranges.

So it depends. We get rain from mid October to mid June, during that period we will get about 40-50 inches of rain. If we get enough rainy days in a row, the range will close during a few months of the winter. Mostly because balls will plug in the mud and get lost. Gets expensive to lose all those balls. So we do close.

One of the big projects for the next year is to put more drainage into the range area to keep it open even during those bad few months.

[gregsandiego]

3 hours ago, mchepp said:

So it depends. We get rain from mid October to mid June, during that period we will get about 40-50 inches of rain. If we get enough rainy days in a row, the range will close during a few months of the winter. Mostly because balls will plug in the mud and get lost. Gets expensive to lose all those balls. So we do close.

One of the big projects for the next year is to put more drainage into the range area to keep it open even during those bad few months.

I always think about technical solutions.

There is a funky course here in San Diego and much of their range is actually concrete. I'd look into that for Portland/Seattle.

[WUTiger]

The three tee tiers for our practice range are at the top of a hill. The range has target greens.

If it rains for a couple of days, the range gets closed because the bottom area gets really soggy. (As others have said, balls plug and the picker tractor tears up the turf).

Or, if it's just a light rain, we might get to hit Irons Only from the top tier.

Workaround: Use short-range practice balls - several varieties exist. Here's a comparison of several brands: Best Short Practice Balls

On 6/10/2017 at 11:58 AM, gregsandiego said:

Surely Portland OR and Seattle don't close their ranges.

Why did you conclude this?

[Pretzel]

It has to really be raining hard for courses in Colorado to close their range or their course. Usually the reason for a closure for either of those is lightning, not rain itself. In the last two years I've had only two days where we even refused to allow carts out onto the course because of rain, so it's not a very common occurrence here. 

I've gone to the driving range in the rain when I got new clubs to try out. The pro shop staff has just asked me if I really wanted to be out there whenever I've come while it was raining.

[gregsandiego]

2 hours ago, WUTiger said:

 

Workaround: Use short-range practice balls - several varieties exist. Here's a comparison of several brands: Best Short Practice Balls

 

When I first started I saw this video on "almost golf balls" and though it looked so fun I bought a huge bucket of them. I could never find a place that worked out so well like the guy in the video.

 

 

[Hacker James]

11 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

When I first started I saw this video on "almost golf balls" and though it looked so fun I bought a huge bucket of them. I could never find a place that worked out so well like the guy in the video.

 

 

haha..the problem with "amost golf balls" is that they go "almost as far". OTOH, not apt to break a window.

[phillyk]

19 hours ago, mchepp said:

So it depends. We get rain from mid October to mid June, during that period we will get about 40-50 inches of rain. If we get enough rainy days in a row, the range will close during a few months of the winter. Mostly because balls will plug in the mud and get lost. Gets expensive to lose all those balls. So we do close.

One of the big projects for the next year is to put more drainage into the range area to keep it open even during those bad few months.

My course is open unless there's snow sticking to the ground.  We buy old, cheap nike range balls for plug season like you mentioned.  We intend on losing some to most of them to the mush.  We hand pick the balls when we are low.  But we do purchase brand new premium range balls every year.  Our tee area is grass year round, no mats, so we generally do well even when it rains.

[mcanadiens]

Well ... obviously the home course pulls everyone off everything with thunder. Otherwise it would have to be pretty bad for them to close the range. We're probably talking a solid day of heavy rain to do it.

Another place I go is strictly coin-op. Literally, nobody mans the place most of the week and there is no gate on it either. There would be no stopping anyone regardless of what the weather was doing.

[No Mulligans]

On 6/11/2017 at 7:42 AM, gregsandiego said:

It's Tecolote I'm talking about.  We got another light rain last night so I expect it will have to close again. There are many of us that joined "Players Club" for the range deal that will be put out. The $30/month is a great deal when the weekends are dry.

River Walk is very close.Do they stay open? If I could find a nearby club deal I might switch.

Tecolote is pretty unique in that the range is dirt and has a bit of  side slope towards the creek.  If it's too wet to pick the balls, there's nothing that can be done.  

$30 a month for two large buckets a day in addition to discounted golf rates ($5 before 8 am to play 18), that's an unbelievable great deal if you use it frequently.  I don't think you're going to find anything cheaper than that.  I'm a member, the range closures don't bother me, the deal is still great.  I just play a round if the range is closed.

If I was closer to Vineyard, I'd be a member there instead.  They have a grass range and much nicer course and facilities than Tecolote.  With the Tecolote Players Club amp program, I paid $14 yesterday, Sunday, to play Vineyard for a 3:52 PM tee time.  Got 15 holes in.

The Player's Club deals seem to good, with all the discounts, it seems the San Diego courses are just poaching from each other with less revenues overall.

Edited June 12, 2017 by No Mulligans

[gregsandiego]

8 hours ago, Hacker James said:

haha..the problem with "amost golf balls" is that they go "almost as far". OTOH, not apt to break a window.

Yeah they can go far.

There was a vacant parking lot and property near the Costco that I tried to use for my "almost golf" range. Not at all like the YouTube experience.  Picking up the balls was too much work.

 

 

4 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

 I just play a round if the range is closed.

Good idea.  It's a bit more of a commitment. Maybe I can just play for an hour and head back.

[gregsandiego]

I wanted to give Tecolote credit for the way they handled the closure and eventual reopening. I got this email Sunday

 

Your Organizer, Tecolote Canyon, sent the following message to some members of The Players Club at Tecolote Canyon: Hooray!  The range is open and its HAPPY HOUR ALL DAY for players club members!!  Come down, hit some balls and enjoy a beer!  Thank you for your patience and we appreciate your business!! To visit The Players Club at Tecolote Canyon, go here: https://www.golfzing.com/pctecolotecanyon

[DaveP043]

I saw this thread title, and just went past.  But then I thought again, and I really don't know if our range closes when it rains.  I don't practice in the rain!!