I used to work at courses. The first time a ball hit the roof of my range picker I was about 250 and I thought someone shot at me or something! It will give you a heart attack every time! Good memories.

Makes a Man Outta the Range Pickers :P

So, anyone here always take aim to be the first to pop their cherry?lol

My Very first time at the range when i started in April I sliced a ball badly, adn slammed it straight into the side window of the ball picker.... Guy next to me tells me nice shot... wish i could claim I could aim like that LOL.

Never hit a range picker, but I've seen a ball run over in the fairway by a tractor with a mower attached to the rear. The ball shot out of the mower blades with more speed than it had off the driver that hit it and put the rear window of a Massey Ferguson in...

How we laughed...

I work at a range, and I'll never forget the first time my "cherry" got "popped."

I was at the back of the range, and the assistant pro was just nailing drivers out there. Suddenly, I heard a loud CRASH and I honestly thought the cart blew up. Took me a couple seconds through the shock of wondering if I was still alive after enduring a terrible cart explosion, when I realized it was a ball.

And you're right, it will surprise you every single time, as long as you aren't right up next to the range goers.

Oh, I've popped many range picker cherries myself, I always feel I have to redeem myself for every time I get hit.

LMAO Wow, I can't belive that, what an amazing story!

When I was about 16 years old, my friend was driving the range car back and forth parallel to the tee area. I decided to hit him on purpose. Please note it was a beat up old pickup truck with a window screen you pulled up.

First try, I hooded a 4 iron and hit a low shot that bounced once and flew into the window and nearly killed him. What kind of idiot drives a the range picker car with the screen removed?

After the incident, I try to avoid hitting the cart at all cost.

Yeah done it, on days when I'm just mad and wanna take it out on something, why not hit 3iron punch shots as hard as you can at a helpless ball picker The other day I was hitting it at him and he was turned away from me, hit a good shot, nails him in the tailgate and since its plastic it shot the ball right back at me, kind of embarrasing when you have to dodge your own ball:)

15 or so, walking out with the shag bags to work the permeter of the range, some duck hooks one (I'm about 100 yards out) and hits me in the wrist........I swore it blew my hand clean off....plus it was cold which only worsened the whole deal......

Took a one hopper off the hip at about 200 yards once also....that didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would.

Woo

----Irons: Titleist 775.CB 4-PW- NS PRO 100----


but wait, you dont use a 3 iron!?!?

That's funny, I was at the range tonight aiming at him msot of the night... couldn't get him though, kept knocking it over his head. my brother who doesn't golf popped him 3 times... lucky ----~ haha

Got the guy today, wasn't really trying, but he was picking right around the flag i was aiming at. It was a good shot, had there been a green it would be on it. Wasn't aiming for the cart, just wasn't going to wait a half hour while the guy went back and forth directly in my line.

Also used to pick at my job pick and rarely got hit, but there again, I've been known to try and "juke" my friends while they try and hit me, since that day, I've been banished to the cart drop.

At the Karen Club golf course range just outside Nairobi the pickers are people on foot without even a hat for protection. If you see one going close you shout, 'fore', and they all duck.

Lovely course by the way. And does the ball go far in that altitude and crystal clear air? Wow.

Anyone going to Kenya for a holiday let me know.

Every winter, the domes open up and the cart guy doesnt stand a chance! Even tho the people look down upon hitting the cart here. I still punch a 3 irons as hard as I can and bam!!!! lol

I hit maybe the greatest shot of my life a few weeks ago. My wife is learning to play golf and I take her to the range. She is watching me hit balls and says "have you ever hit that ball picker upper guy in that cart?" I confidently look at her and say no problem, (sarcasm really) I pull a 4 iron, play it back in my stance take one look and see him turning away from be about 165 out and moving straight ahead away from me. I hit a hard laser beam of a knock down shot that look like it never strayed more than 2 inches from the dead center of the cage on the cart the whole way. BAM! Needless to say my wife was impressed, I did tell her the next day it might be the greatest shot of my life LOL!

ps
I used to go to this range years ago in another city and the kid in the cart would drive in front of the people hitting balls, maybe 40 yard out, and taunt them. "Hit me" "bet you cant hit me" "Come on" Then he would scream and cheer when some one would make contact. Good times!

I have never been hit while running the picker, but have hit the picker many times. if anything, i'll aim at my fellow employees shagging balls on the greens and they get all worked up. i help run a childrens beginners clinic at a driving range as well and towards the end of their session, the kid will go out in the picker close to them and they all have a blast hitting the picker. but, there was one time where they got mad because they couldn't reach the picker with their shots, so they asked me to hit it, which was fun. you are like a god to a little kid if you can hit a ball further than 50 yards... lol.

haha iv just came back from the range now,
I hit the range picker in his little cart 3 times i must of hit about 35 balls at him

all day long.

i usually separate all the beat up balls from the decent ones and just punch shots at the guy picking range.

i love it when their cart with the hitch breaks down because then they use some old beat up toyota. i must be responsible for 30 or so odd dents in that thing.

Now that is Funny, thanks for the laugh.

I've aimed at them a few time... moving targets are tough.

I'm not kidding. I never have come close to hitting any of them. But once the hook, top and slice brigade turn up (who look like they were in Kenya when it was first colonised) it gets hairy.
They hit balls with the dispersal of a troop of chimps throwing poo and those poor ball boys don't know which yardage marker to hide behind next.

I've done it a few times, but only when my friends who aren't golfers themselves are there egging me on. My local range here in Pittsburgh is really kinda ridiculous because you hit into a valley, so it's good practice judging yardages when the cart is moving around. I try not to do it deliberately though, I don't think I'd appreciate it if I was in the ball pickers seat.

How can you guys hit kids driving a range picker? Easy - you have to lead them a little more.

I don't usually play with one, I switch it out alot. But mostly its the 4 iron... I just like taking it w/ me to practice.

Hit my driver off the deck right into the side of picker. I swear the guy almost jumped throught the top of the cage and then gave my friends and I the nastiest look. It was glorious.

LMAO, that's great :P I hope you've gotten good at it then

I haven't because at the driving range at my home course they use a small 4-wheeler to tow the ball picker uper. And when they do pick it up they close the range.

There is a plane at my local range and i duck hooked a 5-iron into it the other day. A guy 100 yds down from me yelled "Good Shot", and i just kinda laughed.

Most of the time when I hit the car I am hitting at him and leading the shot into him. I'm not good with low cut shots so I mostly just pick the right club for the distance and hit them in his direction. The balls normally go way up and then hop and hit or come down ontop.

At one range I've been using more frequently since the beginning of the year I've hit the roof of the cart 3 times with my 3 wood at 220-240 out. In all cases I was just hitting 3 woods at that green, I wasn't necessarily trying to hit the cart, it was just a bonus.

The range at another course I play is right next to a small airport. Sometimes the planes or helicopters coming out of there are flying pretty low and I wonder if a good high drive or wedge shot might hit one of them.

I used to aim at it all the time until I hit it once and the ball actually found its way inside. Once I heard all the rattling around inside, I just stopped doing it.

You'll never beat the african guy who wiped out his country's entire air force with a single practice shot (with the help of a K.O'd bird) one afternoon...

I use to work ona range also. I have two good stories first i got bored one day and decided to try to hit the picker with knock down driver off the deck first shot slices about 3 feet in front of him and he slams on the brakes second ball dead straight into the windshield at about 150 it was so loud we thought it broke. The second one it was a very busy day on the range probably about 25 people I was hitting from the lesson tee and kept leading him out messing with him this time it was anew guy well I was almost out of balls so i decided to go a head and plant him. He was about fifty yards from the main tee and I drop a half wedge in the metal bed and clangs like i hit him 3 times the whole ranges stops and looks at me. I then waved and picked up my bag and walked off.

i used to pick five or six years ago when i was still in high school. i think the last time i picked range, the driver's side door fell off... so we had this big hole in the cage and you could only drive one direction to pick.

i stopped picking range a couple of days after that and stuck to washing carts.

Local course has rules about intentionally trying to hit the range picker.

Couple of high-schoolers were trying to hit the guy anyway, and had been warned. They continued and one of them finally hit the cage.

The range guy drove the picker straight up to where the kids were, got out and put one of them on the ground.

The other kid ran away screaming like a little girl.....left his clubs and everything. One of the funnier golf-related things I've witnessed.

Range master called their daddies and "uninvited" their his sons for 6 months.

hmm, odd.

never heard of a rule like that. sounds kind of needless and stupid if you ask me.

When i was a range rat i always tried to hit the picker. I would get him a couple times a night and i maed me laugh. At the range i go to now there is no cover for the range guy, so i stops if someone comes to hit. I told them they need a cage on there to protect him.