Well, it's the off season so many of us are spending more time than usual on the driving range and practice area. Here are a few annoying things I'm seeing. What are yours?

1. The range has at least 4 dozen hitting stations, there are maybe 10 people there at most, and some guy has to pick the station directly next to yours. Why?

2. You go to the practice green / chipping area and somebody has about 2 or 3 of their own personal balls total to hit, that causes them to stop everyone else so they can go pick up what they're hitting, about every 60 seconds.

3. Somebody decides they need really good grass to hit their driver from so they back up a few yards from the teeing area. Now you're trying to work on your game and drills and you are looking behind you at someone with a driver in their hands and just hoping they don't shank it or pull it directly into the side of your skull.

My philosophy on all this, btw, is to remember what Tiger's Woods father did when he was growing up - he would try on purpose to distract him, so that in a real match, nothing would bother him. Hope that works!

Only thing that really gets me - people who need to take an entire square foot of grass for each shot and divot they take.

Driving ranges could save so much money and not have to move the lines if people could learn how to move their divots in lines. It helps the grass heal faster and keeps things neat for the people using the range behind you as well.

When the range is empty, miles of room to use. And some stranger comes up right beside me and starts hitting balls..... BAH Its worse if they talk to themselves

or on there Cell phones the whole time......................

I hate the divot-jumpers.

That's what I call the ones who hit a ball, move over just enough, and then hit another. It just trashes the range, looks terrible, and costs the range countless amounts to redo it all. When I leave the range, it's often a box, 2 or 3 feet in diameter. Please do the same

the dude that shows up on the grass mats dressed like a tour pro with the staff bag and hits 4 shanks!

inaccurate flag distances

young punks trying to hit the "dude in the cart picker"

the dude with the hot girlfriend who sits there and she just adores every slice he hits

and the kicker------crappy sliced defective orange rock flite range balls that i just payed 9 bux for!

i could go on

I used to do this as well until I talked to a super who said that it actually takes longer for patches of grass to heal than the divot jumpers.

He said the best way to do it is separate lines ala Vijay Singh which provides enough room for others to use and still allows for easy backfilling and the grass to heal quickly.

The practice range itself.

No big annoyances.
However, one 'guy' that bothers me, and I've seen it happen a few times, is the guy who brings his little kids with him to the range and lets them wander around by the mats while he gets his practice in. If the kid can't hit his own bucket, leave him at home, he's not old enough to be there or old enough to enjoy it. The range can be a dangerous place, I've seen some ugly backswings.

YEP... you hit the nail on the head.

People that see you hit a bad shot and immediatly offer advice... ok but I could still school this person on the course and it sometimes hurts my ears to listen.

The basket full of rubber tees for everyones use, but there all about a half inch long and wont even poke out of the mat because people cut them.

ball machines that skims you on balls. seriously it doesn't matter.... sell time stall time or something with unlimited balls.

lol. I always talk to myself. I really can't help it. One time, I was hitting with one of my good friends and about an hour into hitting (we'dalways hit balls for about 3 hours. the balls were free, so what the heck, right?) and he said "lets see if you can go 5 minutes without saying anything" I said "OK" only to fail the test about 4 balls in. I really have to comment to myself after every swing or I feel crazy...

Anyway, my pet peeve on the range is when they are all hacked up to heck. if people learned to make one big divot instead of 100 little ones, it would make life much easier... and nobody likes the feeling of uneven ground under their feet.

Nothing really annoys me at the range. It's just practice, not like you have any money on the line or anything. Probably the only thing that I can do without are when little kids are let free to roam w/out supervision. I don't like to have to constantly watch my area to make sure a kid isn't there that I might hit on my backswing. I'm all for bringing your kids to the range and getting them introduced to the game, but if you bring them, make sure you know where they are at all times and aren't wandering around unsupervised.

The know-nothing hacker giving his girlfriend/wife/child a "lesson" that will sentence the recipient to a lifetime of bad golf. And giving that lesson so loudly, that I can hear every word from 50 ft. away. This is the one thing that I have great difficulty tuning out.

Little kids running around so close behind me that I get paranoid that I'm going to accidentally kill one of them in my backswing.

Limited flight range balls, cut up range balls, dirty range balls

The most annoying for me is un-warranted swing advice. There is a gentleman at my local course who is there almost every-day only hitting balls. He never plays, just pounds ball after ball. He must think he is the resident swing guru because he will give advice and ask you questions like, "What were you trying to do there?", or "You had the club layed off a little at the top..." etc, etc. without you even asking.

i love these threads lol

just off the top of my head, two things
-people who give unwarranted advice
-the guy decked out in the nicest equipment but got no game (its worse when they have clubs that aren't suitable for their ability)

People on their cell phones. I really could care less about your business meeting tomorrow or who is in the bar while you are on the range. followed up with all the buddies coming down to the range from the bar to talk face to face about the business meeting tomorrow.

people that bring their little kids who can't hit a ball yet and walk in front of my stall to go get one they just topped while I am almost at the top of my back swing.

the people that look in my bag after a few passes and then come over to me and ask about the club and just take it out of the bag and look at it.

when I can hear one guy's heavy metal playing out of his ipod 4 stalls away.

people who say that deer are so cute and people hitting should hit away from them. gee they make great moving targets and most likely you're not going to get one on the fly.

the father that wants their kid to be tiger woods when they are 7 years old and the very last place the kid wants to be is at the driving range.

kids bragging to their friends what club they hit. "dude, I just hit my 6 iron 140" did anyone ask what you were hitting and how far it went?

that's about it for now

Mine was merely an incident. I had to take a phone call - moved about eight feet back from the hitting area, not talking loudly at all. Guy tells me to move even further away asking if I could do that somewhere else. I move back 35-40 feet and finish my call and return to hitting area. Starts to talk to me for about 30 minutes so loud entire range can hear...and he's tellin' me to move away from the hitting area because I'm on the phone? Crazy!

The father who thinks his son is the next Tiger. Cell phones are a PITA too. None of those things bother me since I started using my iPod at the range.

with the range - the way a sandy ball tears up a new drivers face

with people - the guy who hits it fat and the wind pushes the sand all over me. Sometimes I purposely become this guy if the wind is blowing right and someone has pulled up next to me.

The guys who duck and run out 10yds to grab the 6-8 balls they shanked.

I should have added:

The overbearing, child worshiping, helicopter parent that thinks their child is the most talented ever to pick up a golf club and tells them how wonderful each shank, blade and chili dip were.

what's a chili dip?

Lol, and they grab 100 balls and only hit 30 of them with 2 hands

The unattended kids thing is one for sure. But the other thing that gets me is the people smoking right next to the stalls. I know I'm touching a nerve with some people, but I don't like trying to hit balls in a smoke cloud/trail. Everything else I just tend to block out.

The most annoying thing for me is when my swing goes bad.

But cell phones are a close second.

I had this old guy playing to my left who was probably 80 years old and would hit a ball every 5 minutes or so and each time he hit his dribbler no more than 20 yards he'd yell out a cuss word, mumble to himself, let out a grunt on his downswing and go sit back down. He did the exact same thing over and over again. It must have taken him an hour to hit 10 balls. Then when some Asian people came by to practice he started mumbling to himself about how there were "more of them here than in Vietnam" (they were Korean). So other than Racist geezers on the range crappy golf balls bother me the most when I pick the worst ones and use them to practice short pitches and when I'm done picking them out I only have 20 good ones left!

I hate smokers, especially the ones that just sit on their a** and watch others while we inhale their crap. Wish I could squirt them with gasoline.

The thing that annoys me most is the way I hit the ball

This stuff is obviously the worst thing about the range and I'm laughing out loud reading it, even though when it's actually going on I want to commit capital murder.

I'm hardly a great player, but I am around scratch and the last thing I need is some 16 dispensing unsolicited swing advice to me. I've been rebuilding my swing with a pro for the last two seasons, and totally ignoring the short game, but I see enough of myself on V1 to know that I strike the ball like a plus player and have some really sound mechanics (I'd better; I've put so much time in and played so badly in the meantime it's ridiculous). Then some artard tells me how I didn't do this or that when I block a tee shot 285 and 15 yards left.

Funny thing is that because it's pretty obvious that I can play, people will solicit advice from *me*, and I always give the same answer: I'm just an amateur and don't really know enough about teaching where I feel I'd do you more good than harm - my advice is to find a capable PGA teaching pro and understand that they can really help you if you're willing to put in the time and energy to improve. Sure I can spot some obvious stuff, but what's the point? I have V1 and use it religiously, and even when I'm working on changing something small in my move, it takes literally hundreds of shots before I can see any perceptible difference - if I give a guy some solid, solicited advice he'll take 3 swings, not see a difference and give up anyway.

The other one I love is when the two clown buddies whale away at their drivers and loudly estimate distance, which is never less than 320 yards, despite the fact that I can see my 17 degree hybrid flying at least as far and I max it out at 250.

This one is always comical. I went down to the range a few weeks ago to test out my 19* Rescue Mid TP that I had just gotten that day and as I was hitting this club, two guys set up a few stalls down from me and right away took out the driver. One guy hits his first ball and loudly says how it landed right around the 250 marker. My next shot I happened to take right as that guy hit, my ball went around 210 and his drive was around 180-190. This happened a few more times and I just chuckled to myself as his distances were always around 250 or so, even though his drives were always around 50 yards shorter. Maybe he just has bad eyesight

Insanely frustrating! This doesn't stop at the driving range though. Good luck telling someone to go smoke elsewhere -- even though they're doing more harm to others than themselves. If I ever get to a position of judicial power, cigarettes are the first things to go.

Gents,

You all left out my No. 1 pet peeve...

Guy who appearantly brought just one tee to a grass range, and has to wait for everyone to reload so he can run 5-10 yards infront of you to retrieve his tee or look for a new one...

More annoying than Ball picker upper guy b/c at least you know where he's going...Tee guy always takes about 10 seconds...

I have gotten a lot luckier since I go to the ground level of the driving range. All the young studs who only bring their driver or use demo drivers to impress their sitting girls friends are on the upper level.

I guess mine are the people that come there to jack around. Sure, I am all for having a good time, but please do not take Happy Gilmore driver shots. I think some of the people are doing this with demo clubs. That takes a lot of balls doing that with a 300+ dollar driver that is not yours.

Another one is the dude that pulls his driver and then on almost every shot they hitting it off the toe and you are in the stall next to them, constantly hearing the wall behind you getting drilled.


And I would say my final one was the guy, after I had been swinging for about 4 months, telling me I need to learn to hit cut shots, fades, etc with every club. No kidding? What, you only been playing like 30 years, right(he would never tell me)? And the worst was when he said, "Let me show ya. I need some of your golf balls." GRRRRR!

Jealous are we?

oh and I forgot about the guy that tells me I'm using alignment sticks wrong then proceeds to take one out of the ground and show me what they are used for.

I never visit a range, but I hit balls a lot on the practice ground at my club, and on the chipping green.

My pet hates are pretty tame, but they annoy me:

Entire practice ground empty. I'm hitting a mid iron into a group about 180 yards away, and someone comes and sets up shop right next to me. I wouldn't mind if they did the same thing and hit balls into a group to the side of mine, but they don't. They chop all sorts of different shots all over the place - including into my group, left and right of my group, short of my group... and then they go to pick them up while I'm hitting, giving the cursory wave of apology as they wander around in the area where my balls are landing for the next ten or fiffteen minutes... And despite the fact that my balls all have a BIG and OBVIOUS identifying mark, they still pick up several, examining them for about 30 seconds (as they stand in my group of balls) before tossing them back to the turf when they realise it's not a 15 year old Top Flite... It has me mulling over the potential jail time for assault with their own plastic ClikkaTube.

Also, people who use the practice ground to exercise their dogs. Nothing wrong with that at all. I've got dogs, and I'm generally there in the evening when people are out walking theirs. Despite the fact it's a private club, and you'd be well within your rights to inform them they were trespassing nd to stick to a public right of way, no-one does (or at least I don't) since common sense prevails in my part of the world. However, when their ill-behaved dogs run amok all over the place, picking up, chewing and ruining several of my golf balls, that begins to grate. As does the owner's casual 'sorry! they do that when they see balls..'

Hmm... they do it because you let them and because they're not under proper control..

Tell you what, I'll let my dogs run up and claw the bodywork of your new car, and when you stand there stunned I'll reply 'Sorry mate. They do that all the time to expensive paintwork' before walking off without a care in the world... Seems fair to me...

This seals it for me no more practice...

"I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game last it's my last but we're talking about practice man. How silly is that?... Hey I hear you, it's funny to me to, hey it's strange to me too but we're talking about practice man, we're not even talking about the game, when it actually matters, we're talking about practice."

-A.I. not a franchise player

The "Kamikaze Golfer" - dribbles a few in front of themselves about 10 - 15 feet and after hitting a jumbo size bucket, to risk their life to grab those few balls and proceed to do so until he hits a good drive to finish their range session so they can leave with a good swing thought.

The "Golf Pretender" - Look at my clubs, look at my bag, look at my clothes, look at me.....DON'T LOOK AT MY SLICES, THINS, FATS, CHUNKS, HOOKS, SKYBALL, WIFFS, DIVOTS, SETUP, SWING.......I AM DONE.....Look at my clubs, look at my bag, look at my clothes, look at me, look at my car!

The "Meat Head Golfer" - The 18 year old or even the 30 year old (at times) that comes out to the range with his swagger and chest all puffed out, acting as though he is carrying wheat sacks under his arms and he is set to impress all with his towering moon shots. Sets his bag down right next to mine as if to say "The man has arrived", whips out the driver takes a few cuts at 110%, recognizes who has noticed him (is that girl watching me?, where is the Golf Pro?) tee's it up and is out driven by 10 yards embarrassingly by the 14 year old making an easy swing just behind him.

The "Unprofessional" - The guy who loves to give bad advice, he has chewed up his patch of grass bad enough and caught maybe 1 out his last 8 shots cleanly and exclaims "That was perfect" and grows an eye for perfection in 1 swing, feels good enough to add his interjection into my game. "I see your having trouble with a slice! ya gotta start the club outside to come from the inside and get those hands to square up!" Thanks but I am a working the ball to cut! "Your coming over the top" Hello,,,I am doing this purposefully! "Your face is open at impact” Thank you, it is called intent, I am doing this on purpose! "If you need any help I'll will be right over here" I appreciate your help sir, have a nice day!

No problems with kids, love em all, just have problems with the parents who have no desire to teach them manners, respect, discipline, and how to behave for their own safety. I would be extremely upset with myself if I accidentally hit someone’s child during my back swing because they were not being properly tended to and cared for recklessly. There is no excuse for it and all the more evidence why some people should never be allowed to have kids.

Cell Phones - Don't have a problem with many noises or a movement because the one thing about golf I find to be absolutely absurd is the desire to have complete and utter silence and stillness during the swing. You practice at the range with millions of things going on at once and you have to have complete calm on the course??? PUHLEEEESE!!!!!! Hit the damn ball already and please don't give me dirty looks and punk comments because I moved. That is moronic. If you can talk at the same time as you swing it can only help to take your mind off of the action and mental strangulation some people have prior to their swing resulting in a good outcome.

Putting and Chipping - Is an all out artillery and firing range and usually the green is not cut and in bad shape.

Since I moved to a 3 day work week it has become very nice, I have Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, I play everyday I am off and when I do go practice and being that it is a "work" day, joyfully, I am usually the only one there and rarely see or hear the things that make me hit a small bucket. Saturdays i head over to Golf Galaxy and spend a couple of hours on the Launch Monitor, Golf Galaxy near me just got a new Doppler system installed with very nice mats that resemble normal playing conditions.

Forgot to add the greatest and nastiest offense to be found on any given driving range or golf course for that matter. Cigar and Cigarette smoke.
Die already and get it over with. This is not exercise for your lungs not to mention mine people. CANCER and all the body and mind killing side affects that come with it are beautiful things!!

Loud talking, cell phones, smoking upwind, guys bashing clubs on the ground after shanking yet another devastatingly-important practice shot...just to name a few.

Oh yeah, and I agree with the turf management practice of keeping your divots in a line. Most golf grasses are creeping varieties, which means they propagate by sending shoots out along or just under the ground. The thinner the area they have to cover, the easier it is for them to fill in.

Matts, Downhill range, Down Wind, Left to Right Wind, Crapy Balls and unreal hitting targets. I would rather hit out of a bunker or dirt then hit off a matt. Two balls and my arm is done.

Oh my god the exact same as me. I go to the practice ground more than the driving range. Many people bring the dog for exercise but the first paragraph hits a real nerve with me also. What is also extremely annoying is when there is a guy in the practice ground before you and he smack in the middle hitting drivers with big dirty slices and nice duck hooks. Balls all over the place taking up the whole practice ground. No space for you to hit any shots.

I can't stand the range that takes your money (8-10$ dollars a bucket) and you go to a stall and the grass is as long as the rough at my local course. So you have to hit your longer clubs out of grass 2"-3 " long.

Olan

A man after my own heart. Old faithful practice ball bag, a couple of clubs on the ground, and a happy man beating balls into a nice tight group... 100 and more balls in a 15 yard circle.

Until Chumley Warner comes along and gets in the way.. 25 balls in plastic tube; soon spread over about 4 acres...

Aaaarrrrgghhh!

The people that keep taking divots from our practice green, i mean c'mon peeps ur not putting for the open its just practice i mean how mad can you get?

I'm on a roll now...

Someone at our place insists on hitting bagfulls of balls from an area right next to our practice green.

There's God-knows how much flat and open space to hit balls from, but no. They dump the balls within about 10 feet of the green edge and rip out an area that looks like Ian Woosnam has been there for a month.

So, the area around the green where you want to hit chips from ends up with permanent troughs and scars in it.

The worst thing is, the pattern of divots suggests that the unknown idiot is a decent player.

I guess loud kids are the worst.

However, I have encountered two separate weird events that freaked me out a bit. I mean, it not only distracted me from practice but made think I should be someone else’s keeper.

Apparently there is an old timer, maybe in his seventies, who walks around the driving range, looking under the planters separating the stalls. I have no idea what he is looking for, perhaps more balls. I think he is senile, or maybe has Alzheimer’s. Anyhow, he is oblivious to what others are doing. I’ll have the driver in my hands at the top of the backswing and out of the corner of my eye I see this guy farting around the flowers dividing our stall. Man, its like I’m gonna hit him in the head if I’m not careful. He never even sets up in a stall. He just pokes around looking. Either he goes to the range and suffers bouts of dementia, or he is under the care of someone jonesing for some range balls.

On separate event, this spring, I was on the second deck of a crowded day of practice. Most stalls were full so that a threesome looking to stick together would have to part. Two guys in their late 30s early 40 show up with a toddler, A 4 or 5 year old TODDLER on the SECOND Deck. She wanted to hit balls too. We’ll the old guys set up together, and left her alone, with me separating them. So I do the right thing, all warmed up I stop and offer to move. The irony is the kid is obviously uncomfortable away from her father, and he pulls this stunt so I’ll offer up my place. If I were cold like my grandmother, I’d not have given an inch, but this is the second deck, and she’s walking so close to the edge. The kid was not afraid of heights, but she was totally frightened of being away from her father and he does this rather than ask me up front if I’ll move. Then as practice progresses he ignores her chats away with his buddy, while I watch in horror how close this kid comes to the edge. I should have called child services! Its one thing to block out distractions, but I could not keep my eye off her up there like that basically alone.

I couldn't agree with you more. 4 acres and more. I also hate when you are there minding your business hitting a few balls and this person comes up to and says i am seem to be hit this fade and i want to hit a draw and he says watch this can you see what i am doing wrong. He then hits a shot that starts down the middle and ends up in the other parish and he his so much across the ball it is like he is trying to whip a horse and what can you say?

I've been noticing this type of behavior all over the place, from seats on the bus or subway train to treadmills and bikes at the gym. It bugs the hell out of me too. But why?? I guess there's a considerable range in the size of people's so-called personal space. These people who just sidle up next to someone else in an otherwise empty joint, they seem to do it unconsciously, probably they don't generally need a lot of personal space. Which is fine except that it tends to irritate others who like to have more personal space.

Also, there are lots of people who generally prefer to be around others than alone. The same types who walk around constantly on the cell phone, carrying on pointless, mundane conversations while shopping, at the gym, waiting in line, etc. Probably because they can't stand being alone with their own thoughts.

Because humans are pack animals. Hard to fight 250,000 years of evolution!

Running children right behind me and smoking people-

those are the only two my mp3 player and noise cancelling headphones can't cure

The only place this behaviour bothers me is urinals. If theres a row of six and I'm the only guy there, don't just walk up and take the one right next to me man! Give a brother some room to relieve himself.