You Will NEVER Go to the Driving Range Again after this Video! Robot Tested!

[@theCycleReport]

I don't get distances from ranges, usually more focused on strike, launch, basic shape, etc. We know range balls are various degrees of junk.

[@ndubgolfer]

even then it can be a challenge. fighting some poor ball that has been baked in the sun for a few months.

[@MrBlacksharpie]

I absolutely love this series! Would watch every test you can think of using the robot. Great video!

[@whateverittakes5580]

I fixed this problem by playing Range Balls on the course. Never look for a wayward ball again.😉

[@abi3972]

🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👍

[@bryanjacobs8017]

Lol….😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@frankperez526]

That’s really funny. You might be playing at my home course because I keep finding range balls on the course LOL

[@ndubgolfer]

so you are the guy spraying range balls all over the woods! 😂😂😂😂

[@vicpnut1]

Love it

[@jimbailey6499]

I think going to the range is great for beginners: people who need to learn basic swing patterns. The range is also adequate for people who can't set up a simulator at home. For people who don't have a simulator at home, this video is excellent information on what feedback you should rely on at the range.

[@EricZuckerman1]

7:57...I played Pebble in my garage with a glass of vino last night. It's better than what's on TV.

[@jimbailey6499]

Thank you for this video. I really enjoy the videos with the robot comparison; they always reveal "hidden" information.

[@mdx9286]

That's amazing. Thank you for reminding me of these details. I was a single-digit handicap before stepping away from the game 5 years ago. I've spent several hours each week on the range as a precursor to ease back into the game. My previous 9-iron distance was 145 carry. Based on the driving range distances, I "assumed" that I had not lost any distance.... Three rounds of golf in, I'm fighting inaccurate yardages.... Thanks to the video reminder, I can adjust my club distances accordingly and just go play golf.

[@23x31]

Almost all of my practice is hitting SW-7i using good balls (primarily new kirkland balls) on private property I'm fortunate to have access to. Makes an enormous difference when hitting balls that you actually play with. I put 48 new balls in a shag bag and once they're hit about 150 times or so, I replace them with new balls. When I want to hit longer clubs, I go to the range.

[@BlackMamba-ec4dn]

I think most of us know that we can’t rely on ball flight and distance control from range balls, I simply use the range balls for rhythm and contact. The range prevents me from losing an entire sleeve of Pro V1’s on the front nine, my club has a lot of water hazards!

[@markbrown635]

Thx Matt for this VERY insightful reality check, that we have all been through!!!

[@0228mustang]

"And this is with a robot", that's when my head exploded...

[@bdubxbox]

Just hit the range last night and they had new range balls and some old ones in there too. Crazy how bad the old ones were

[@darylhoskins5696]

Haven’t been to an Driving range in Years ,hit some in my back yard into woods ,Shot 71 -1 under last week . Five Shoulder Surgeries ,7 knee surgeries ,just don’t have all those swings ,play 2 -3 Days an week 18 holes.

[@tyeeggleston6159]

Great advice...but not all of us have the room or money to have a indoor range.

[@supersoup5509]

Awesome video. Great idea to share. So is the range ball like 10%% less distance ?

[@GaryDrake-o5m]

Most driving ranges near me use what they call 80% balls because they don't want people hitting cars on a neighboring road or freeway. This means if you hit your gamer ball 250 yards with a driver, your drives at the range may only go 200 yards with range balls.

[@kennethmckinney2532]

At Legends here in Myrtle Beach when they add new range balls to the mix from time to time they fly pretty true honestly. 2/3 of the bucket are old and could react weirdly in many ways. The brand new range balls fly and react pretty much normally. I may do an experiment and grab a couple and play a round with them out of curiosity

[@magikkris]

thank you so much for sharing this knowledge

[@mrsweettones7737]

Ok. Seemed basic at first, but it helped me a lot. I didn't know the range balls were that bad. Thanks for the video! Warm up only from now on with limited expectations on results.

[@treetoppa8388]

Cool info. Well..headed to the range. Later dudes.

[@tallestjoshyouknow]

Range balls are so rough on driver faces for high swing speed players. The scuffs/scrapes from heavy use and countless cycles through the picker and cleaner leave a lot of surface damage. The impact on those range balls on a thin driver face can easily cause cracks.

[@nunyo7259]

I dont know why I like going to the range. Every ball hit well is a draw which on the course I literally have never hit a draw on purpose ever.

[@danielowen5889]

The joy of zero consequences. ..

[@nunyo7259]

@@danielowen5889 Lol you aint lying

[@chrisengland1]

Great video 👏

[@jacobmccain8082]

Bought 12 dozen ProV1X practice balls for about $25/doz for my sim since I play V1X on course. Best range in town! 😂

[@Golfzilla5000]

good vid, but where i'm at here in NC (and i suspect most other ranges are like this as well), they're using multiple types of golf balls, most likely balls they've purchased from folks finding them on the side. You can tell a waterball from the others easily enough. Basically what i do is hit the decent ones with clubs i'd hit anywhere between 150-200 yards, the slightly worse ones for the 100 yard shots, and the REALLY bad ones for the 50 yard pitches. I wish i could afford one of those GC3's, but i can't. It would take me an untold # of range balls to save to purchase such a thing (well, maybe not untold --- actually it would take about 875 buckets at $8/bucket). I know it's not an exact science, but plenty of times you get some actually good-looking balls to gauge shots against. Getting a feel for an iron hitting actual ground, seeing the launch of the ball, etc. just can't be replicated at an indoor facility. Mats have been known to let you get away with a poor swing, but you won't off actual grass. I'd rather see folks like myself of limited income working on their games at the driving range than nowhere at all.

[@chuckyz2]

I quit going to the range 5 years ago. Only because my local rage has shit hard balls that not only give bad results on good strikes, but they also permanently mark the face on my club. Hard range balls can also crack the face of drivers and hollow irons if you are a long hitter.

[@3-wv5mm]

This was a brilliant video, very eye-opening. Here is another element you should test: Does a Return Net skew flight data vs a regular flat net? The Return Net is great because it sends the ball back to you, but the sides are curved and I am wondering if the launch monitor will mistakingly show the incorrect flight path based on what the net does to the ball? That would be another great ROBOT Test!

[@Sffhjjngtggb]

you should do more like this!

[@seancobb7653]

Haven't watched the video yet, but does anyone who plays golf not know that range balls can be flighted by 10+%? Most decent clubs use normal balls simply stamped "practice" vs a traditional range version specifically for this reason.

[@interference7480]

I dont think I heard this specified in the video, but when testing, did you guys alternate between prov1 and range balls at each swing, or did you first do a group of prov1s and then then a group of range balls?

[@UncleWookie]

@4:28 I hit my 8 iron only 150 yards, why am I hitting it so short? LOL

[@Hunter-zp5hd]

I’m not sure why this is even a question. Range balls, at most courses and standalone ranges, are the cheapest quality balls you can get. Then, they all get hit 8000 times. High end courses usually have a decent range ball, but even on those, they are the rejects from regular production. I’m all for practicing, but overall, most players don’t even practice correctly at a range. They just sit there and pound balls. It’s essentially an income stream for a course, like carts. Some courses don’t even allow you to walk, because they want to stuff as many golfers as they can in carts in every tee time. I played at this one course recently, and it took over 5 hours to play 18 holes. They just stuff people on the course. They are more than happy to stick 4 people in carts with a cooler full of beer that they bought at the course. I mean they probably squeeze out $300 on every tee time on a weekend. At 9 tee times per hour, and 12 hrs of open course, they are raking in the cash. Range balls they replace every blue moon, is just part of the income stream.

[@GOLFDAYS]

Hahah thanks for this. Even though it probably is still me hitting poorly you have given me a great excuse on why I hit poor shots at the range 😅👌👌

[@09Youba]

Matt do you know of a good inexpensive launch monitor for indoor or outdoor use? Enjoyed your video. Our range uses OP balls they find on the course.

[@MrShortGame]

Foresight has some less expensive models. They even make the Bushnell launch monitor

[@ndubgolfer]

my local range has a menagerie of random balls, some from under the water some with rubber bands in them, some are ladies, some are just rocks painted white I believe. so range work is kinda odd, use it for muscle memory. putting and chipping a just carry a dozen of what i am having luck with on course.

[@markjancze4342]

I don't know, we have shiny brand new (monthly or so) Titleist balls on our range, stamped with PRACTICE on the side, are they shorter than a ball not stamped PRACTICE???

[@Not.Satoshi]

Those are the best range balls. I have seen Callaway Crome Soft practice balls as well. Both the ProV1s and Chrome Soft practice balls are the real deal that didn’t pass QC to sell as new balls. It can be as minor as smudged writing on the ball to a not perfectly centered core. I don’t think the really bad ones even make the Practice ball batch. For the most part the Practice ProV1s are the same as a regular ProV1 but there is still a level of uncertainty with each one. If you take 10 swings with Practice ProVs, throw out outliers, then your average should be pretty darn close to actual averages with real ProVs.

[@clintsanderson6019]

In other BREAKING NEWS - Water is Wet!

[@davidchappell3905]

The range I go to use Taylor Made TP5 balls. Not those hard Wilson range ball you normally see

[@okovarik3]

Great video, great test, but the graphics is just bad. You can’t out +10 and -10 on each sides, because that it makes 20 difference. Which is not the case. You should either show the value (like 130 yards) on one side and then +10 on the other or just one of those

[@CubesLB]

What if the range uses Pro V1s? How long before those balls go bad? I don't play often but when I go to the range it's usually at a nice course someone I know is a menber at.

[@BryanW.]

Launch monitor give-away??? 😁

[@mattcarr343]

I was so frustrated the other day. Went to a driving range which is a little short. I usually carry my 8 around 155. I couldn’t hit the range balls past the 140 marker. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

[@gongshow20]

Short irons will be closer in prov1 vs range, the driver distance will be the bigger difference since ball doesn't compress as well.

[@GHOSTOFEIGHT]

Unless you belong to a 100k club that uses good range balls, I agree.

[@funmachine3]

I’ve never worried about distances on the range. 1, those balls are all beat up and 2, the head wind is so strong here your drives ain’t going that far anyways. I think the bigger issue with ppl going to ranges is artificial mats. I don’t think ppl realize it’s a false sense of security, the mat is so firm your club bounces into the ball and ppl don’t realize they’re creating bad swing habits. Practiced on the mats for a week and I was chunking everything when I played on the weekend.

[@dwayne5530]

Haven't finished the video but I usually hit my mid to low irons with range balls. I don't like hitting my driver with them because I'm scared I'm going to crack the face hahah, that being said I will sometimes look through the bucket and if I find some balls like a ProV, TaylorMade or Callaway in good condition, I'll put them to the side and maybe hit my driver with those I'm probably the odd duck because I normally don't go to the range to warm up and then go play. Most of the time when I play it's in the late afternoon and I've been up moving around and doing things so my body is already pretty lose. I go straight to the course and usually am in my groove by the 3rd hole. Now back to the video😂 ETA: Just finished the video. Pretty much what I expected the results to be

[@jimbailey6499]

That's a great idea.

[@michael2782]

A caveat: I found that my "accuracy" decreased over time using my GC3 launch monitor. On my GC3 I hit my practice balls hundreds of times each and found my (simulated) game was slowly getting worse on my stats. My question is: What is the correlation of the condition of the golf ball using a launch monitor? I'm sure the dimples are being worn down as well as just general degradation - how does this show up on a launch monitor? Does it matter the quality of the ball using a launch monitor?

[@Nyr22821]

I hate the range usually makes things worse lol.. problem is most people don’t have the money for a launch monitor that’s worth buying

[@danielowen5889]

I knew there was a distance difference, but the dispersion is a big wake up call for me...

[@mungtor]

This is OK if you already make great contact and don't have issues. Would have been much more insightful to see whether range balls magnify or decrease imperfections like hook and slice.

[@heavymetalusedgym]

I’ve been to so many ranges where their fitting you for clubs on demo days with these range balls..smh

[@MrShortGame]

That's a huge red flag

[@jameslaughter5183]

I disagree with the premise hitting into a net is better than a grass range. Into a net off a mat does not help contact; you can slide into the ball off a mat and get very good at hitting fat shots.

[@charliekeith2157]

Fake news, I hit great on the range but I'll go on the course and play like shit

[@georgeiscooking.1152]

The key to golf is taking your range game to the course. Tuff to do.

[@methodicl2673]

The only shock is that it wasn't off by double that.

[@jcasey2309]

Is that Adam Ray or Dr. Phil? I’m honestly not sure.

[@Mikeg_x]

Yo🔥

[@thecman26]

I just use range balls to get warmed up or an easy workout. Nothing more

[@nickcharli1025]

So this told us nothing. The range is for warming up. Everyone knows they go shorter

[@stevenjarvis9702]

Why don't you just hit your ball and then point your rangefinder back to the t-box and drop down the yardage??

[@tintruck2885]

A lot depends on range ball

[@Blackcloud319]

Best thing I ever invested in was a golf sim setup in my garage. Upgraded from the R10 to a Skytrak+. I rarely go to the ranges now, why would I? And before each round I bring balls I find on courses and hit them to warmup with. You’d be foolish not to get a sim setup somewhere in your home, if you’re heavily into golf. It’s paid for itself three time over already!🫡