The Five Commandments of Driving Range Etiquette

Let’s face it – no one shows up at the first tee without practicing long and hard on perfecting that nice smooth draw your playing partners are so jealous of. Unless you are lucky enough to have the space and the money to host a fancy indoor driving range at your house, you are stuck (like me) going to the local driving range. Whether it be attached to a golf course or one of the stand-alone driving ranges, I have had the great displeasure of seeing all of these items in action – MULTIPLE times.

I’m not saying that the driving range should be held in the same ‘cathedral-like’ regard as actually playing on the golf course. It SHOULD be a more relaxed atmosphere where you dial in on certain qualities of your swing that you want to improve on. However, no matter if you are there hitting with earphones inserted and living completely in your Mind Zone, these five items are universally accepted (by me) as annoying the crap out of all your driving range cohorts (well – me.)

COMMANDMENT 1 – Thou shalt not offer tips or advice to other golfers

If you see someone with a horrible swing – do NOT take it upon yourself to go up to them and offer friendly ‘words of wisdom’. They may be working on something else and your words will only confuse them. I once was at a range where a ‘range pro’ came up to me as I was struggling and proceeded to contort my elbow, bend my knee, lower my head, and straighten my back. Or maybe it was lowering my elbow, straightening my knee, contorting my head and bending my back. Whatever – it screwed my swing up for 2 months trying to unfix the fixes. Live in your own world on the range and don’t pay attention to how others are hitting. Unless you’re Bernhard Langer – I’ll listen to YOU:

COMMANDMENT 2 – Thou shalt keep your divots neat

Nothing I love better than going to a grass range and having to stand in a minefield of divots – feeling like I’m standing on a thousand little dips and valleys while hitting the ball. There ARE differing opinions on the best pattern you can hit in (and a lot depends on the type of grass, etc.) but here is a great video to watch before you go out and bulldoze your local grass tees.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTRwmEexg6Y[/embedyt]

COMMANDMENT 3 – Thou shalt stay on your mat and behind

Every range I’ve been to has had a sign that asked golfers to not go in front of the practice mat. I would estimate half the time I’ve seen someone either go up and retrieve a ball that’s 10 feet in front of the mats or even worse, tee up a driver and take a whack or two. There’s a REASON they ask you to stay on the mats there buddy…..be it safety or courtesy or caring for the grass. STAY OFF OF IT.

COMMANDMENT 4 – Thou shalt not talk on the cell phone

I’m swinging away with my 5 iron the other day, but had forgotten my earphones. This is what I hear:

“Hey – I’m at the range….when are you getting here?”

“OK – I’ll be waiting at the clubhouse”

“Two Gatorades – gotcha – what color?”

“Did you see the game last night?”

“I know, right? I couldn’t believe that…”

And it went on and on. This dude was not only talking on the cell phone, he was on the MAT when he was on the phone, and would hit a ball between his statements….it was unbelievable.

Many people go to the range to get away from the real world for a bit – so spare us your pointless conversation and be courteous to others around you.

COMMANDMENT 5 Thou shalt not take the spot right behind or in front of me

I don’t go to any range that I would consider crowded – ever. Recently I was one of only 1 or 2 players hitting golf balls when this guy came rushing up to the range. Most likely because he late for his tee time (probably had his friend (see Commandment 4) get him a couple of Gatorades). He ran up to the bay right in front of me, threw 5 balls down, smacked them in a somewhat crappy manner, and ran off. All this time I was just standing there and staring at him while his driver came within inches of knocking my head off.

That’s my biggest fear – both when people are in front of me and in back of me. I tend to change my swing because I’m either scared of being hit or scared of hitting the person behind me. Yet people continually crowd me when there are MULTIPLE stalls a couple of spots away with no one around. I don’t even empty the whole bucket anymore at one range I go to because it happens so often that I just know that I’m going to have to move away from the person crowding me.

If you can think of any other Commandments that you’d like to see etched in stone let me know. I just want people to behave in a calm, courteous manner – and that calm, courteous manner seems to be going away on the driving range. If you see any of your own mannerisms in the above five, it’s not too late to change your behavior.

You can be rehabilitated.