If you live anywhere north of Atlanta then you’ve probably
been so frustrated by the winter weather that you might have seriously considered
grabbing a hair dryer, your longest extension cords, and melting just enough
snow off your local practice green to get in some putting practice. With warmer
weather on the way, today was a great day to squeeze in 9 after work, or if
you’re like me, hit some balls because you don’t want to waste 13 precious
dollars knocking the rust off on the course.
Five dollars for a half-bucket, eight for a full. Always buy
the full. Once you have some semblance of a repeatable swing, take the extra
token and throw it in your bag. Make that half-bucket count and focus on your
practice.
One half bucket of dirty, chewed up yellow range balls. At
least two won’t be hittable so I sort those out immediately. If you’re lucky
you might find a stray Pro V1 that found it’s way onto the range. Into the bag
it goes. After hauling the balls back to my car I grab my clubs and sit on my
trunk/locker room bench to put my shoes on. Now for the most important part of
the day, locating grass on the range. Hundreds of individual divots fill the
hitting area. No attempt at a divot pattern to minimize destruction of the
practice area. No grass seed mixed with sand to fill in your divots. The
pasture. I’ve learned to love it.
Practice swings have been made, the grinding has commenced,
and I’m down to my last few balls. “Ok 2 more drivers, a few 6 irons, and then
9 irons to finish grooving this shoulder turn.” I scan the area in front of me
to see if I can grab a few more balls topped by the guy who left 10 minutes
ago. Suddenly, the range picker begins making it’s way towards me, and swallows
all of those topped balls like a dropped quarter falling down a storm drain.
Making sure to not miss a single ball, he finally comes to a stop in front of
me.
“Hey you’re hitting ‘em well today, why don’t ya fill er up
again?”
“Really?!”
“Yup.”
I walked over to the cart, filled my bucket up until the
balls spilled over the lip, and walked back to my spot on the range.
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