Driving range

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Driving range with 43 tees (20 covered) at the University of Washington Golf Range 02801r.JPG
Driving range with 43 tees (20 covered) at the University of Washington
Two-story driving range in Kanagawa, Japan (June 2023)

A driving range is a facility or area where golfers can practice their golf swing. It can also be a recreational activity itself for amateur golfers or when enough time for a full game is not available. Many golf courses have a driving range attached and they are also found as stand-alone facilities, especially in urban areas. They are typically run by businesses or sometimes by universities. [1] [2] Distances are usually marked by target greens at regular distances. Driving ranges may have natural grass, similar to a golf course, or players may use synthetic mats that resemble real turf.

Golfers pay for various sizes of buckets of balls and hit at their leisure. Some ranges feature electronic tee devices, which load balls automatically, and record ball use on a smart card. Often there are golf professionals available to give lessons and instruction. Balls are retrieved by a specialty cart with a brush and roller attachment that automatically picks up balls and a cage that protects the driver from incoming balls. In urban and suburban areas, large nets protect surrounding people and structures from errant balls. Driving ranges are particularly popular in Japan where golf courses are overcrowded and often very expensive. [3] Many commercial driving ranges are seen in conjunction with other sports-related practice areas such as batting cages or miniature golf. Some driving ranges also offer areas for practice chip shots, bunker shots, and putting.

Driving ranges may use golf balls that differ significantly from those used on the golf course. Range balls, as they are known, are often cheap and specially designed with a harder cover to make them more durable. As such they also may not necessarily conform to the rules of golf. In order to distinguish them from other type of ball, they may have a distinct coloring or colored band and be stamped with the word "range". [4]

See also

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Golf instruction is the art of equipping and training golfers to play better golf through improved awareness of swing cause and effects as a result of the actions by their body, the club, and their effect on the golf ball. Most great golfers have a few common elements that make them great including: proper intentionality, swing repeatability to produce an action that fits the golfers intentionality, and a strong level of automaticity for long lasting enjoyment of the game golf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf course</span> Series of holes designed for the game of golf

A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf ball</span> Ball used in the sport of golf

A golf ball is a special ball designed to be used in the game of golf.

The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park golf</span>

Park golf is a form of golf played in a park that was invented in Makubetsu, Hokkaido, Japan in 1983. Aesthetically, it resembles a sport somewhere between golf and croquet. The competitive object of the game is to hit the ball into a hole with a club in the fewest strokes. At the same time, there is also a strong emphasis on harmony with other players and the natural setting of the course.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedge (golf)</span> Type of golf club used in special situations

In the sport of golf, a wedge is a subset of the iron family of golf clubs designed for special use situations. As a class, wedges have the highest lofts, the shortest shafts, and the heaviest clubheads of the irons. These features generally aid the player in making accurate short-distance "lob" shots, to get the ball onto the green or out of a hazard or other tricky spot. In addition, wedges are designed with modified soles that aid the player in moving the clubhead through soft lies, such as sand, mud, and thick grass, to extract a ball that is embedded or even buried. Wedges come in a variety of configurations, and are generally grouped into four categories: pitching wedges, sand wedges, gap/approach wedges and lob wedges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cricket nets</span>

Cricket nets are used by batters and bowlers to practice their cricketing techniques. They consist of a cricket pitch enclosed by netting on either side, behind, and optionally above. The bowling end is left open.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitching machine</span>

A pitching machine is a machine that automatically pitches a baseball to a batter at different speeds and styles. Most machines are hand-fed, but there are some that automatically feed. There are multiple types of pitching machines; softball, baseball, youth, adult, and a combination of both softball and baseball.

<i>Super Monkey Ball Deluxe</i> 2005 video game

Super Monkey Ball Deluxe is a platform video game developed by Tose and published by Sega. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005. The game compiles all stages from Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2, as well as adding original levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf equipment</span> Items used to play the sport of golf

Golf equipment encompasses the various items that are used to play the sport of golf. Types of equipment include the golf ball, golf clubs, and devices that aid in the sport.

<i>Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf</i> 1989 golf video game

Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf is a golf video game for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron (golf)</span> Type of golf club

An iron is a type of club used in the sport of golf to propel the ball towards the hole. Irons typically have shorter shafts and smaller clubheads than woods, the head is made of solid iron or steel, and the head's primary feature is a large, flat, angled face, usually scored with grooves. Irons are used in a wide variety of situations, typically from the teeing ground on shorter holes, from the fairway or rough as the player approaches the green, and to extract the ball from hazards, such as bunkers or even shallow water hazards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Variations of golf</span> Activities similar to the game of golf

Variations of golf include methods of scoring, starting procedures, playing formats, golf games, and activities based on or similar to the sport of golf which involve golf-like skills or goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ladder toss</span> American throwing game

Ladder toss is a lawn game played by throwing bolas onto a ladder.

Topgolf Amusement center

Topgolf is a golf driving range game with electronically tracked golf balls and automatically scored drives that started in 2000 and grew to become a multinational sports entertainment company. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, it has locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. In October 2020, publicly traded Callaway Golf announced it was acquiring Topgolf, with the merger completed in March 2021 and the merged company adopting the name Topgolf Callaway Brands. Topgolf locations in Australia are run by a joint venture of Topgolf International (3.7%) and Village Roadshow Theme Parks. In Canada, a joint venture with Cineplex Entertainment was established to operate locations there, but was abandoned by Cineplex in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf</span> Club-and-ball sport

Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.

Carom billiards and pool are two types of cue sports or billiards-family games, which as a general class are played with a stick called a cue which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiard table bounded by rubber cushions attached to the confining rails of the table.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf swing</span> Action of a golf player hitting the ball with a golf club

The golf swing is the action by which players hit the ball in the sport of golf. The golf swing is a complex motion involving the whole body; the technicalities of the swing are known as golf stroke mechanics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indoor golf</span>

Indoor golf is an umbrella term for all activities in golf which can be carried out indoors. Venues include indoor driving ranges, chipping areas, putting greens, machines and home golf simulators. Many of these indoor facilities are businesses that include additional entertainment options as well as food and drink for customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drive (golf)</span>

In golf stroke mechanics, a drive, also known as a tee shot, is a long-distance shot played from the tee box, intended to move the ball a great distance down the fairway towards the green.

References

  1. "Practice - Miles of Golf". milesofgolf.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  2. "StanfordGolfCourse.com". golfcourse.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  3. Whitehill, Arthur M. (2022-06-30). Japanese Management: Tradition and Transition. Taylor & Francis. p. 191. ISBN   978-1-000-60303-3.
  4. "Range Ball". Archived from the original on 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2010-02-20.