What do you do?

You're on the range ripping through a large bucket when you come across a near mint Pro V1 that someone must have sprayed into the range field. Does it make it to your bag? If so, what else makes it to your bag (what's your ball quality cut-off)?

My default practice spot is the rubber mat range at the muni ten miles from me. This has been my range since the mid 70's when I moved to this ville. Every once in awhile there are a few non-range balls in the medium bucket I usually buy for $7.50. I know how these got in the buckets since I used to do it myself from time to time years ago. You hit your last range ball and are swinging real good so you pull a regular ball or two out of your ball to "see how far you are really hitting the driver." So those get picked up along with all their lesser bretheren and make it into the buckets. I put these balls in my shag bag be they Pro V's or Rock Flites or Slazenger Raw Distance or whatevers. I feel no guilt whatsoever. Damn, do I hate rubber mats.

Mostly German wrote:My default practice spot is the rubber mat range at the muni ten miles from me. This has been my range since the mid 70's when I moved to this ville. Every once in awhile there are a few non-range balls in the medium bucket I usually buy for $7.50. I know how these got in the buckets since I used to do it myself from time to time years ago. You hit your last range ball and are swinging real good so you pull a regular ball or two out of your ball to "see how far you are really hitting the driver." So those get picked up along with all their lesser bretheren and make it into the buckets. I put these balls in my shag bag be they Pro V's or Rock Flites or Slazenger Raw Distance or whatevers. I feel no guilt whatsoever. Damn, do I hate rubber mats.

IMO range ball is range ball, I would keep it to test new driver at a range...
BTW, I broke down and bought a box of Wilson Duo and tried it at the White Clay Creek GC last Friday. I believe that I hit it as long if not longer than other balls that I play, however I can't say that I hit it 30 yds longer like others have said. I lost 2 Duo balls at that tough course, sh$$$t.

What do I do? I operate an import business with facilities and hardware at the Port of Long Beach.

Lorenzzo wrote:What do I do? I operate an import business with facilities and hardware at the Port of Long Beach.

Universal Exports was James Bond's fake company. You're not a spy, are you? If you are, I bet it's for Italy.

Playa Hata wrote:You're on the range ripping through a large bucket when you come across a near mint Pro V1 that someone must have sprayed into the range field. Does it make it to your bag? If so, what else makes it to your bag (what's your ball quality cut-off)?

I come across this situation all the time at public ranges. My course's range uses yellow balls and I'm pretty sure the pickers take all the white ones out.
I will definitely hit every ball that came in the bucket. I don't care if the ball machine spit out boxes of new Prov1's. I will wait to hit the non-range balls with the driver though.

At the end of the day whether it's a Pro V1 or a range rock it's common theft if you put it in your bag. One of my buddies did exactly that. He spotted a quality tour ball on top of the bucket and immediately bagged it. I berated him for it but he didn't give a sh*t. Our club pro is constantly complaining that he loses thousands of balls every few months from douchebags helping themselves to range balls. No way I'm stealing balls from a $5 bucket I've bought to hit at the range.

Big Dave wrote:

Lorenzzo wrote:What do I do? I operate an import business with facilities and hardware at the Port of Long Beach.

Universal Exports was James Bond's fake company. You're not a spy, are you? If you are, I bet it's for Italy.

He had an Export business. I have an Import business. A close look reveals they're opposite.

With the extent to which government is involved in hassling import businesses, it would be a bad place for an Italian spy. From the California Coastal Commission to US Customs and Border Protection, EPA, FBI, Dept. of Commerce, FTC, US Customs Service and on any given day many more.

Id just hit it.

Actually, this brings up a good point. Here where I'm living there is a spot designated as a driving range in the middle of the Wing. The grass is good and they keep it mowed. Lots of room left to right for the first 240 yards but after that it gets really tight with trees. This is just a 1.5 min drive from my front door. There are posts marking 100 150 200 yards. This area is free to use but you have to use and pick up your own balls. Picking up the balls is easy with a Shag Bag, and I don't mind it. It's a nice little break from hitting balls. NOTE: There is usually no one else there, leaving the place to myself.

The 9 hole golf course that we have up here has a range that's about 200 yards long, has some targets and yardage markers, has a $200 fee to use, and you have to go into the club house to get tokens to spit out small buckets of shitty range balls. There is a practice green, free to use, but it's small. 7 min drive from the house.

I think instead of buying a range pass this year, I will buy 5-10 dozen new balls of an older hacker model(or a refinished Nike One or something from a used ball dealer) and use those at the spot close to home. This way I'm A) Hitting the same ball each time that's in good condition, and B) I can walk out and get a good look at my shot dispersion from 100+ yards away. The only thing is, when I go to play golf, I won't be able to warm up on the range when I play. This isn't really an issue though as the last course I played at for 10 years didn't have a range.

So to sum it up:

Would you go to a rarely used grass range to hit and pick up your own balls for free, when ever you want or

Spend $200 on a range pass to use a smaller, shittier range with old Top Flight range balls if it means you don't have to walk out with a shag bag and collect the balls.

EDIT: Just bought 10 Dozen Mint Nike Juice Balls for $85. And 5 Dozen Mint Refinished One Platinum's for less since I needed to add some value to the order for free shipping. And it was 15% off for Xmas. I bought Refinished Pro V's from here in the summer and they are great balls. www.knetgolf.com

I'm going to use the free range.

Golfaholic wrote:Id just hit it.

Actually, this brings up a good point. Here where I'm living there is a spot designated as a driving range in the middle of the Wing. The grass is good and they keep it mowed. Lots of room left to right for the first 240 yards but after that it gets really tight with trees. This is just a 1.5 min drive from my front door. There are posts marking 100 150 200 yards. This area is free to use but you have to use and pick up your own balls. Picking up the balls is easy with a Shag Bag, and I don't mind it. It's a nice little break from hitting balls. NOTE: There is usually no one else there, leaving the place to myself.

The 9 hole golf course that we have up here has a range that's about 200 yards long, has some targets and yardage markers, has a $200 fee to use, and you have to go into the club house to get tokens to spit out small buckets of shitty range balls. There is a practice green, free to use, but it's small. 7 min drive from the house.

I think instead of buying a range pass this year, I will buy 5-10 dozen new balls of an older hacker model(or a refinished Nike One or something from a used ball dealer) and use those at the spot close to home. This way I'm A) Hitting the same ball each time that's in good condition, and B) I can walk out and get a good look at my shot dispersion from 100+ yards away. The only thing is, when I go to play golf, I won't be able to warm up on the range when I play. This isn't really an issue though as the last course I played at for 10 years didn't have a range.

So to sum it up:

Would you go to a rarely used grass range to hit and pick up your own balls for free, when ever you want or

Spend $200 on a range pass to use a smaller, shittier range with old Top Flight range balls if it means you don't have to walk out with a shag bag and collect the balls.

EDIT: Just bought 10 Dozen Mint Nike Juice Balls for $85. And 5 Dozen Mint Refinished One Platinum's for less since I needed to add some value to the order for free shipping. And it was 15% off for Xmas. I bought Refinished Pro V's from here in the summer and they are great balls. www.knetgolf.com

I'm going to use the free range.

No question in my mind. The free grass range is a given. Nothing better than to working it out in the dirt and then walking after it to see if you could have played it. My free ranges are, in actuality, municipal athletic fields that are mowed sporadically. So when it is wet and the grass is high, I lose a few balls. A trick I've used to decent effect is to take an indelible magic marker and number the balls in my shag bag so that I can hit several clubs and tell which ball is which. If my 6 iron's straighter and longer than my 5 wood, I know I've got a problem. My practice balls come from either new balls I've played with a couple of rounds, cheap discounted new balls like Maxfli Revolutions that I bought to try to play with and then relegated them to the shag bag, or the stragglers I find in the rough on the courses I play. My practice ranges don't have yardage markers but I make up little charts using Google Earth.

Mostly German wrote:

Golfaholic wrote:Id just hit it.

Actually, this brings up a good point. Here where I'm living there is a spot designated as a driving range in the middle of the Wing. The grass is good and they keep it mowed. Lots of room left to right for the first 240 yards but after that it gets really tight with trees. This is just a 1.5 min drive from my front door. There are posts marking 100 150 200 yards. This area is free to use but you have to use and pick up your own balls. Picking up the balls is easy with a Shag Bag, and I don't mind it. It's a nice little break from hitting balls. NOTE: There is usually no one else there, leaving the place to myself.

The 9 hole golf course that we have up here has a range that's about 200 yards long, has some targets and yardage markers, has a $200 fee to use, and you have to go into the club house to get tokens to spit out small buckets of shitty range balls. There is a practice green, free to use, but it's small. 7 min drive from the house.

I think instead of buying a range pass this year, I will buy 5-10 dozen new balls of an older hacker model(or a refinished Nike One or something from a used ball dealer) and use those at the spot close to home. This way I'm A) Hitting the same ball each time that's in good condition, and B) I can walk out and get a good look at my shot dispersion from 100+ yards away. The only thing is, when I go to play golf, I won't be able to warm up on the range when I play. This isn't really an issue though as the last course I played at for 10 years didn't have a range.

So to sum it up:

Would you go to a rarely used grass range to hit and pick up your own balls for free, when ever you want or

Spend $200 on a range pass to use a smaller, shittier range with old Top Flight range balls if it means you don't have to walk out with a shag bag and collect the balls.

EDIT: Just bought 10 Dozen Mint Nike Juice Balls for $85. And 5 Dozen Mint Refinished One Platinum's for less since I needed to add some value to the order for free shipping. And it was 15% off for Xmas. I bought Refinished Pro V's from here in the summer and they are great balls. www.knetgolf.com

I'm going to use the free range.

No question in my mind. The free grass range is a given. Nothing better than to working it out in the dirt and then walking after it to see if you could have played it. My free ranges are, in actuality, municipal athletic fields that are mowed sporadically. So when it is wet and the grass is high, I lose a few balls. A trick I've used to decent effect is to take an indelible magic marker and number the balls in my shag bag so that I can hit several clubs and tell which ball is which. If my 6 iron's straighter and longer than my 5 wood, I know I've got a problem. My practice balls come from either new balls I've played with a couple of rounds, cheap discounted new balls like Maxfli Revolutions that I bought to try to play with and then relegated them to the shag bag, or the stragglers I find in the rough on the courses I play. My practice ranges don't have yardage markers but I make up little charts using Google Earth.

That's a good idea Germ, I will have to try marking the balls so I can see what kinds of groups I'm getting with each club. I bought Nike Juice because you can immediately tell that a ball is a Juice because the logo is so big. No confusing it with another ball, in the event someone else is hitting balls the same time as me. Then all I have to say is the Nike Juice balls are mine. Plus they aren't rocks and should spin a half decent amount, if I start hitting cuts or draws.

I could have went ball hunting in the woods and found 120 balls, but I don't want to be hitting junk cut up Rock Flights all day. I'm kind of anal when it comes to golf balls in the sense that they have to be near mint for me to hit. This bag of Nikes should last me the next two summers I'm here.

I want to get one of those little net target things to hit chip shots into as well. I use to do the same thing back home with car tires for pitch shots, and a picnic table for longer 50-70 yard wedge shots. Good practice.

It seems that whenever I play golf at some point in the round our group will get behind another group on a lake hole. One older guy will be walking along the bank of the lake with his 20-foot ball retriever, snagging balls out of the lake. If the rest of his group has moved on I yell at the top of my lungs "move your arse!". What happens to men when they get older that they suddenly develop an enthusiasm for hunting for lost balls? It's always the old guys in jeans. I don't care who you are. If you are holding our group up because you feel the need to be a cheap bastaard, then you'll get yelled at.

Besides, the balls in the lake don't belong to you. Nor do the balls you find in your bucket on the range. Don't try to rationalize it either. It's stealing. Ball thieves, all of you!

FamousDavis wrote:Besides, the balls in the lake don't belong to you. Nor do the balls you find in your bucket on the range. Don't try to rationalize it either. It's stealing. Ball thieves, all of you!

What about this? What if you swapped the minty Pro V1 with a Rockflite you had in your bag? Still no good?

Playa Hata wrote:

FamousDavis wrote:Besides, the balls in the lake don't belong to you. Nor do the balls you find in your bucket on the range. Don't try to rationalize it either. It's stealing. Ball thieves, all of you!

What about this? What if you swapped the minty Pro V1 with a Rockflite you had in your bag? Still no good?

That's a legal grey area. However, if you've played golf at the course with the range and lost any balls, you are able to take them out of the range bucket. Only up to the number you've lost.
Just to be safe, at the completion of my round, I'll go into the pro-shop and let them know how many balls I've lost, in case someone turns them in to the lost and found.

Golfaholic wrote:

Mostly German wrote:

Golfaholic wrote:Id just hit it.

Actually, this brings up a good point. Here where I'm living there is a spot designated as a driving range in the middle of the Wing. The grass is good and they keep it mowed. Lots of room left to right for the first 240 yards but after that it gets really tight with trees. This is just a 1.5 min drive from my front door. There are posts marking 100 150 200 yards. This area is free to use but you have to use and pick up your own balls. Picking up the balls is easy with a Shag Bag, and I don't mind it. It's a nice little break from hitting balls. NOTE: There is usually no one else there, leaving the place to myself.

The 9 hole golf course that we have up here has a range that's about 200 yards long, has some targets and yardage markers, has a $200 fee to use, and you have to go into the club house to get tokens to spit out small buckets of shitty range balls. There is a practice green, free to use, but it's small. 7 min drive from the house.

I think instead of buying a range pass this year, I will buy 5-10 dozen new balls of an older hacker model(or a refinished Nike One or something from a used ball dealer) and use those at the spot close to home. This way I'm A) Hitting the same ball each time that's in good condition, and B) I can walk out and get a good look at my shot dispersion from 100+ yards away. The only thing is, when I go to play golf, I won't be able to warm up on the range when I play. This isn't really an issue though as the last course I played at for 10 years didn't have a range.

So to sum it up:

Would you go to a rarely used grass range to hit and pick up your own balls for free, when ever you want or

Spend $200 on a range pass to use a smaller, shittier range with old Top Flight range balls if it means you don't have to walk out with a shag bag and collect the balls.

EDIT: Just bought 10 Dozen Mint Nike Juice Balls for $85. And 5 Dozen Mint Refinished One Platinum's for less since I needed to add some value to the order for free shipping. And it was 15% off for Xmas. I bought Refinished Pro V's from here in the summer and they are great balls. www.knetgolf.com

I'm going to use the free range.

No question in my mind. The free grass range is a given. Nothing better than to working it out in the dirt and then walking after it to see if you could have played it. My free ranges are, in actuality, municipal athletic fields that are mowed sporadically. So when it is wet and the grass is high, I lose a few balls. A trick I've used to decent effect is to take an indelible magic marker and number the balls in my shag bag so that I can hit several clubs and tell which ball is which. If my 6 iron's straighter and longer than my 5 wood, I know I've got a problem. My practice balls come from either new balls I've played with a couple of rounds, cheap discounted new balls like Maxfli Revolutions that I bought to try to play with and then relegated them to the shag bag, or the stragglers I find in the rough on the courses I play. My practice ranges don't have yardage markers but I make up little charts using Google Earth.

That's a good idea Germ, I will have to try marking the balls so I can see what kinds of groups I'm getting with each club. I bought Nike Juice because you can immediately tell that a ball is a Juice because the logo is so big. No confusing it with another ball, in the event someone else is hitting balls the same time as me. Then all I have to say is the Nike Juice balls are mine. Plus they aren't rocks and should spin a half decent amount, if I start hitting cuts or draws.

I could have went ball hunting in the woods and found 120 balls, but I don't want to be hitting junk cut up Rock Flights all day. I'm kind of anal when it comes to golf balls in the sense that they have to be near mint for me to hit. This bag of Nikes should last me the next two summers I'm here.

I want to get one of those little net target things to hit chip shots into as well. I use to do the same thing back home with car tires for pitch shots, and a picnic table for longer 50-70 yard wedge shots. Good practice.

Several years ago I was in the Florida Space Coast playing with my wife's uncles who are older than I am. We went to this semi-private course buildt around a cheap housing development and the developers squeezed so many dwellings into their parcel that there was no room left for a range. But they did have two nifty little hitting stalls next to the practice green. Just wood framed open ended boxes with a heavy duty net nailed to the back posts and a thick rubber mat on the little concrete slab. Before we teed off, I hit maybe 20 full shots unto the net and I was good to go. Even birdied the first two holes--very short par 4's- with the same semi-pulled 16* hybrids off the tees and about 90 yards of gap wedges to the two greens sinking the 5 and 8 foot putts. Never did that before and had to scramble to break 85. I wish more courses would have these little stalls. Doesn't cost much at all. Thinking about maybe building one in my back yard.