looking for a place within 5 miles of downtown. grass surface is preferable, i cant hit off of turf worth **** and dont like it.
Not really anything that close to downtown. Oak Hill driving range off of Mopac/71 is probably the closest.
Mo Willy Golf Course Clay/Kizer golf courses "close" to downtown and both have grass. However, I don't think either have lights.
Lions is closest to downtown but it's a pretty sorry excuse for a range. Irons only and the balls are what they find in the pond/woods. Doesn't have lights. Neither does Clay or Mo Willie. Oak Hill is probably your best option unless you're willing to make the hell trip up 1-35 north to Round Rock. There are two huge ranges within a mile or so of each other near Dell. Oh yeah - Golfsmith at I-35 & Braker but half the time they have you on the mats.
I'm pretty sure I've seen Kizer/Clay with lights on pretty late at night, maybe I'm mistaken. Other than that, Oak Hill as stated isn't bad.
To answer the question, just go to Muni and hit their gutta percha balls. It's the closest to downtown. As for my superfluous comments: Driving ranges are overrated. What are you trying to accomplish? You can accomplish just as much by swinging a club 100 times in your back yard. As far as Lions being "irons only," frankly, you should only be hitting irons when you practice. I always laugh at the guys who hit 60 balls with their driver. The best advice I ever got was when my friend's dad took me over to the putting green/chipping area and said, "son, if you want to be a good golfer, spend your time here, not on the driving range."
well, if it takes you 3-4 shots to get within 50 yards of the green, youve got yourself a problem. thats why you spend time on the range.
Lions' problem isn't being irons only, it's that everytime I've been there you have to hit off 100 year old mats where the hitting area is practically concave. I went to Clay/Kizer today. It does have lights. Also, a new 4 hole par 3 course, $5 for all day play. Clay is supposed to reopen in August. They've replaced all the greens, lengthened #3, reshaped #4 and enlarged the green to 11,000 sq ft (!), turned #5 90 degrees, surrounded the #6 green with water, and taken the tree out of the middle of the fairway on #15. It will be interesting to see.
But that's the point. Without the feedback of ball flight, I didn't know I had started ******* it up.
To Punt on 1st Down, I'm curious - How long have you been playing? At what age did you start? Where do you normally play? I promise I'm not gonna flame you or anything, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you seem to be completely out of touch with what us hackers go through. It never occured to you that it might take somebody three-four shots to get near the green? If I can hit a ball 190 yards I should be shooting 81? Are you kidding me?? It's not just you - I run into people like you all the time. I literally cringe every time I hear "practice your short game". I honestly think people who say that must be either naturally gifted, started very young, or have been playing so long they forgot how embarassing and frustrating it is for beginners to get off the tee. Again, I'm not necessarily saying it's bad advice. I'm just saying it misses the point and causes people to give up the game. Beginners and hackers don't care about their score nearly as much as they care about not looking like a fool on the course. Speaking of Harvey Penick, I took my first series of lessons about 6 years ago from someone who studied under him. We did f-ing chips and putts 75% of the time. When we got to the range I couldn't do anything but top the ball, no matter how hard I tried to clip that damn tee. One day I showed up with nothing but my three-wood and said "I need to learn to get off the tee" and he handed me his wedge and STILL made me spend 20 minutes chipping. I never went back after that. And, I damned near quit the game. Actually, I did quit for about a year. Unfortunately I can be a stubborn s.o.b. when I want to, and I decided to try it again after I switched jobs and had more free time. This time I stayed with it long enough to get bitten by the bug. I honestly wish I had never taken up this game.
Wow, no wonder you don't believe in the range. The course was your range. We're just about the same age but I only started playing six years ago. You are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play so much while you were young. But trust us when we tell you that telling somebody to swing the club in their backyard 150 times is absolutely not the same as going to the range.
Punt, it is ironic you recommend Hogan's book and then tell people to stay away from the range (at least as far as hitting balls)....I don't think Ben would have agreed with your advice.
Yes, I like talking about golf. Yes, Hogan probably spent a lot of time at the driving range. Lee Trevino used to hit balls until his hands bled. Vijay apparently spends a lot of time there. I remember a quote from one of Hogan's books when someone commented that he hit a spectacular 2 iron, or maybe 1 iron, to seal a major championship victory. Hogan said, "it's not that spectacular, I've practiced that shot thousands of times." I guess I haven't made it particularly clear but I'll reference a potentially apocryphal story about Crenshaw and Kite since I'm an Austin guy. Apparently, Crenshaw used to just go out and play while Kite used to hit the driving range. They both ended up being pretty good. I've said that I spent a lot of time hitting balls on the course. I think Hogan would have said "if you want to be good you're going to have to hit a lot of balls." Whether you do it on the course or on the driving range doesn't matter too much. I preferred the course because I felt that it put me in more "live" situations. Whatever floats your boat. And, I've said that if you don't have the option of playing a lot of holes then you're best or only option is to go the driving range. I don't think my comment about referencing Hogan's book as probably the best instruction book is ironic at all. I consider it the best instruction book. I don't think there were any comments in it about whether you should hit the driving range or just play the course. I can't scan through the book to verify that because I gave it to a friend who never gave it back. The book was about the fundamentals of the swing, not about practice techniques. Listen to Hogan's advice, whether you do it on the course or on the driving range is fairly irrelevant. Maybe this quote will sum up that all I've been saying is that you have to put in a lot of time to be good:
I've read where some people say that what Hogan did and what he told you to do in his book weren't exactly the same things. He described what he thought he was doing but if you really analyze his swing on film, that's not exaclty what was happening. Not sure where I read that but I'll see if I can dig it up. I've also read that Hogan fought a hook and everything he did was deiigned to avoid hooking the ball. As a chronic slicer, I've always been afraid to adopt any of Hogan's advice.
Hogan would routinely walk off the golf course if he hit a bad shot...and head to the driving range--which is why I found your comments ironic. I do not like the driving range, I would rather hit ten balls to loosen up and then play 27--working on my swing the first 9 and adjusting on the fly. But I grew up around golf and have played for over 30 years. Most people need to develop the confidence to even stand on the first tee in front of a bunch of strangers...is that confidence developed by playing a lot or practicing at the range? From reading this thread, most people are saying they need the practice at the range.
