Newbie - Was I in the wrong?

[logger123]

I am very new to golf - 2 weeks - and today I had my first lesson from a Pro. I took my 14 year old son who also had a lesson.
The lessons went great (now I know why I keep hitting the balls to the right) and both my son and I enjoyed it.
To practice a bit more we decided to spend half hour on the driving range. As you can understand we were both still excited after our lesson and were running through what we had been taught whilst whacking a few balls.
Yes, we were talking eg. saying good shot, ooh you sliced that one etc... We may even have laughed once or twice.
An old guy who looked about 130 was in the next bay and was chopping his shots all over the place. He came up to me and said "Will you not talk as I am trying to concentrate".. He then said "I hope you are not that noisy on the course".
Now I am almost 40 and think I am respectful to others, if my son was being too loud or disruptive then I would have been the first to correct him but we were just (using the American phrase) bonding.
If it is normal practice to be deathly silent on the driving range then I hold my hand up and admit we were wrong.
Any comments and tips will be appreciated as I am falling in love with golf and dont want to upset the old folks who have been at it for years.

 

[forefortheday]

Welcome to the forum Logger,

Don't worry Golf does tend to attract that "sort"!!

While I don't stand there shouting on a range I will have a laugh if I'm there with somebody, If I'm on my own I try to find a quiet part to practise but you take it as it comes at the range for me.

I get more wound up by people topping £300 square drivers shot after shot right next to you than people having fun.

Mind you I have been known to talk to myself on the range so the bays next to me tend to be quiet

Good luck with your game

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The range is completely different to a course. As many on here know I've been known to put the odd hour or ten in on the range and if I'm working on something specific i.e. after a lesson like you, I do prefer it to be quieter so I can concentrate. That said if it is full of noisy teenagers smashing their Dunlop drivers as hard as they can shouting and wearing only a pair of football shorts there is nothing I can do about it and just accept it.

I get hacked off when kids go out in front of the bays when I'm trying to play or if there a very small kids 5-8 who just keep shouting at their dad but they have as much right to be there as I do. If I want a proper practice session where everyone is suitably attired and respectful I'll go to the practice area at my club.

You'll probably find he just had the hump at hacking every shot and was looking for an excuse and you were it. Just let it go. I know I talk to myself and curse (quite loudly) if I hit a bad one and tend to go for a little stroll around my bay when things go wrong. I probably hack my neighbours off either side but to date no one has said anything to me

 

[cm_qs]

Maybe the old bloke had a point.......hitting that bloke in the tractor from 220 yards away requires almost zen-like levels of concentration to achieve the pinpoint accuracy required. I mean, it's a moving target after all.

You were probably letting mere golf practice interfere with the serious business of tractor whacking.
Unable to release his pent up aggression on the ball-picker-upper bloke he unleashed his wrath on the next available targets. You and your son.
It's your own fault. Probably.

 

[TonyN]

Dont worry about it. Welcome to the forum, by the way.

I see these guys in the range all the time, They go every day for a week and hit one out of 20 straight, every other shot then slice the hell out of, have the swing of a robot and look around the bays for mice when it goes wrong.

Its so easy to point the finger when the mess up. The range is quite a chilled out place and even my pro laughs, jokes and chats across bays. If he was a half decent golfer, chat and banter would make no difference to his practice, it certainly doesn't to most of us!

At the end of the day, this SPORT is about FUN FIRST, if you can't laugh and smile about it, whilst you play it, you may aswell not play at all, or should I say, he shouldn't!

 

[logger123]

I agree that he was having a mare of a session and was looking for any excuse.
I dont suppose it helped his concentration when a 14 year old and an old fart who has only been playing a few weeks, with a set a clubs bought off Ebay for £22 were hitting it further and straighter than him.
Also, after his "little word" my son & I tried not to laugh when next door CLUNKED the side panel for the second time in a row, followed by mutterings.
Hey Ho - Back to the driving range tomorrow, those balls won't hit themselves.
Woe betide anyone in the bay next to me who has the nerve to enjoy themselves.

 

[USER1999]

I always wear head phones down the range to zone out the noise. Not just the talking, but the cobra drivers too. My range often has 50 teenage girls having a group lesson. This has to seen and heard, as it is amazing how much noise and messing about and shrieking goes on.

 

[welshjim22]

Another moron. I know it is polite to be quite on the course but the range is different. Shouting about is too much fair play. But just general chatter and stuff is no problem. If your good at golf you should be abkle to play even if noisy. What is next a footballer saying i lost concentratin because the fans cheered too loudly or Lewis Hamilton saying i would have overtaken him but i could think with my engine screaming away.

 

[ColinR]

I would have polity asked him for a quiet word away from my son, and whispered gently in his ear.... **%%@£+## off.

 

[grumpyjock]

Welcome to the forum and now you know what you have been missing, keep on with the lessons and the practice and forget about the lod duffers you may meet.
The way I see it is you should be able to talk and instruct on the range and the course, the only thing is the young kids who do not know any better and think the only way to talk is to shout.
A quiet word of advice in there ears is all thats needed, no need to be abusive just instructional like a gentleman.
Some days on the range I have had a moan to some young lad who manages to hit the side wall and a bit of constructive advice regarding swing and speed always helps.
I always try and use the Sam Sneed stall, concentrate on my swing and hitting not anyone else's.

 

[TWM]

I am an old fart who can get upset on the range when there is too much noise from the adjacent bays. We need to talk but I do think it can be kept to a reasonable level. The character who irritates me most is the dad who is teaching little johnny but feels he needs his words of wisdom to be heard by all those present.
When the ladies' class is on I stay well away.

 

[ob1]

AT driving range, I do get very annoy with myself when I hit a very bad one so I tend to make a bit of a "Doh" kinna noise and then after a few balls were hit, the pain in my back kick in so I tend to make a bit of "ouch!" kinna noise.

 

[viscount17]

there are those who think the range is a church, silent and solemn (and preferably almost deserted); then there are those who think it a playground. it is neither.

I tend to be vocal, commenting on my shots (hopefully with a vocabulary suited to those around me and at a reasonable volume) and, heaven forfend, I dare talk to my neighbours when this suits us both.

I also agree with grumpy', the way to calm the rowdier youth is to help them to hit a ball. they can be so pleased with their achievment that they just shut up and concentrate.

Forget him, we all get bitchy when it's not working

the thing that gets me wound up in a range are the lazy b's who can't take their baskets back!

 

[USER1999]

Not taking baskets back is no where near as annoying as having someone in the bay behind you hitting the side wall every other shot, with the odd occasional one whistling into your bay via the roof or the spot light housing. Makes you want a helmet.

 

[viscount17]

I can be fairly philosophical about the miss hits, been there myself, though thankfully I haven't gone the aerial route!

 

[TonyN]

What about the guy trying to coach his mate that hasn't got a clue and says 'yeah mate your slicing it cause you looked up too quick'

Or

'Yeah if you move the ball forward its better for ya PW' (seriously heard this a couple of months ago)

He then proceeded into the bay and played like a 50 handicapper!

 

[Basher]

Leave coaching to the Pro's.

OK, if you ask someone their opinion fair do's.

What get's my goat is the "all knowing" golfer who butts in with their own "pearls of wisdom"
Had one on the course the other week. I was struggling with my irons on the fairway - topping and fatting.
This "font of all knowledge" suggested I set the ball further back in my stance. I mean play it off the back foot! First shot went well, nice clean nip off the grass. The rest of them went all over the place. Gave it up as bad job but he still insisted I play it off my back foot, regardless of what iron I was using!
I honestly felt like telling him to sod off, but then, he was trying to help.....I think!

 

[andiritchie]

my local range is always noisy i just got used to it or go at 8am either way works my pet hate is the family outing with kids running all over the place or even worse someone hitting 100 straight balls with a nike sq2 driver you got the experience it to belive it

 

[andiritchie]

oh btw welcome to the forum

 

[medwayjon]

Some interesting poitns here.

We have an absolute tosser at my range every saturdy and sunday morning. He is always trying to coach people who do not want him to, many tolerate him, I do not.

He stood behind me a few weeks ago and watched me hit a few 7 irons. He then decided to critique my swing, stance, posture, grip etc bearing in mind I had been hitting 4 irons 200 yards off the deck and as straight as an arrow.

I simply told him to piss off as I had decided enough was enough with this guy.