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The year's best practice ranges Posted: Thursday December 12, 2002 6:07 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer John Garrity was a 42-year-old 8-handicapper when he suddenly lost his swing. Since December 1989 he has been looking for it -- a modern-day Odysseus adrift on the troubled waters of swing theory. As Garrity travels the world reporting on golf, he visits as many driving ranges as he can, avoiding the dreaded "mats only" ranges that prevent him from teeing it up. Monday, Dec. 9 LA QUINTA, Calif. -- I'm often accused of making a spectacle of myself. If only I could! I was sitting down to lunch at the Round Table Pizza in nearby Indio the other day -- Indio, you will recall, is the place to which all the putts in the Coachella Valley break, causing huge drifts of golf balls -- when the frames of my bifocals broke. I didn't get smacked in the face or anything. The frames just snapped, and the left lens landed in my salad. An unplayable lie. Fortunately, I keep a pair of distance-vision glasses in my golf bag, which was in the trunk of my rental car. I drove to a mall in Palm Desert and spent the rest of the afternoon shuttling between opticians, who didn't seem to carry any plastic frames in my size. ("We'd have to grind your lenses down to fit any of our frames," one young lady said, insinuating that my damaged frames were intended only for industrial purposes, such as welding.) I wound up having to get an eye exam, new lenses, and an outrageously priced pair of designer frames by Ferragamo -- who apparently is no longer chucking passes in the NFL. I didn't let this visual challenge (or my responsibilities covering the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament at PGA West) keep me from enjoying a typical mats-free week in the Valley. I hit balls on Monday afternoon, on Tuesday morning, on Wednesday morning, on Thursday morning, on Friday evening ... well, you get the idea. It was a week of sunny skies, temperatures in the 70s, light breezes, and firm, forest-green tee boxes. The ranges in and around Palm Springs are so good, in fact, that I have had to fiddle with my annual list of the year's best driving ranges. If I simply listed my 10 favorite ranges of 2002 -- ranges that I have actually patronized -- I would have five ranges from the Valley alone, four of them repeats from previous lists. I have decided, therefore, to combine four of the local ranges as a single entry, leaving room for some fresh sites. Here, then (muted drum roll, please), are my 10 favorite practice ranges of 2002: 1. Village Golf Course, Kapalua Resort, Maui, Hawaii. Trade wind, Kona wind, it doesn't matter which wind is blowing at this gorgeous tropical facility. Beautiful grass tees encircle a vast target field and climb the hill toward the West Maui Mountains. The balls are freshly scrubbed Pinnacles, and the staff provides wet towels to keep your clubheads clean. 2. Desert Willow Golf Resort, Palm Desert, Calif. This daily-fee operation, directly across the street from the Marriott Desert Springs Resort, has a range to rival any in the Valley. Perfect turf, golf-ball pyramids, range finders, club washers, water coolers, chipping and putting greens, etc., etc. Great price, too. You can hit balls all day for $10. 3. Hallbrook Country Club, Leawood, Kan. The golf course at this hilly, wooded private club may be the hardest that Tom Fazio ever designed, but the double-ended practice range gives you a well-deserved pampering. I am in love with one particular target green, which hangs on a hillside a perfect 7-iron away from the elevated west tee. Hallbrook's range is the place to be at sunset on a warm summer evening -- assuming that you've already eaten at Gates Barbecue, which is just down the road. 4. Fieldstone Golf Club, Greenville, Del. The terrain at this elegant private course is borderline mountainous, giving the range a certain majesty. You hit out across a valley from an elevated tee line, adding to your hang time. To enhance the experience, your forecaddie stands behind you, cleaning clubs and providing encouragement. (This must be what it feels like to be a touring pro.) 5. The Perennials, Coachella Valley, Calif. Year after year, these great ranges make my top-10 list. There's a special place in my heart for the lesson tee at the Westin Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage. (I lost my swing there in 1989 at a Golf Digest School, but it's also where I met Rob Stanger, Mats Only's resident teaching pro.) I'm equally fond of the range at Mission Hills Country Club, site of the Kraft-Nabisco Championship (particularly the elevated tees at the Learning Center end). And I can't imagine a better place to hit balls than the high-end public Cimarron Golf Resort in Cathedral City (although the price for a day's worth of balls has soared to $20). Come nightfall, of course, you'll find me under the lights at the College Golf Center on Fred Waring Drive, one of the best commercial ranges in the country. 6. Hamlet Wind Watch Golf & Country Club, Islandia, Long Island, N.Y. The L-shaped, fenced-in range at this hotel course doesn't look like much until you drive your cart around the trees and feast your eyes on one of the best short-game complexes in the country. Elevated tees surround a vast green designed for short pitches, chips and sand shots. And if you want to hit longer wedges, you simply turn around and fire at the greens in the target field. (Sports Illustrated senior writer /inside_game/archives/gary_van_sickle/Gary Van Sickle and I had a terrific short-game competition here the week of the U.S. Open. He may have won, I don't recall.) 7. The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. A tiny, mats-only range used to be the Achilles' heel of this world-class mountain resort. No longer. The proprietors somehow found room to expand, and it's now a beautiful facility. The target field is dotted with mature trees, the wooded mountains provide color and coziness, and the chipping green is as fast as a late-night moonshine run. And talk about class: When the grass tees are closed, the facility puts out a sign that reads "Please Use Synthetic Surface Only." 8. Golf Club Praha, Prague, Czech Republic. The range at this nine-hole course is pretty basic, and it loses points for running up a steep ridge. But the chipping and putting green is world-class. Franz Kafka probably spent his afternoons here, chipping for Czech crowns with his cockroach friends. 9. Ala Wai Driving Range, Honolulu. This commercial range has a shabby, grass-free target field, but I have spent many happy hours fighting the shanks on its well-maintained mats. I used to credit the trade winds, the palm trees, the rainbows and the view of Diamond Head, but the real appeal of this range is its sheer busy-ness. From dawn to dusk, Ala Wai has the endearing energy of a bowling alley on league night. 10. Coral Springs Golf Practice Range and Learning Center, Coral Springs, Fla. This polished commercial operation, a couple of miles from the TPC at Eagle Trace, hosted the 2002 Pinnacle Long Drive Championship. Lots of grass tees, good target greens, and room enough to hit your Biggest Big Bertha with a 52-inch shaft. That's my list. If you have a favorite range for the Mats Only Readers' Survey, nominate it now by e-mail. Better yet, send me a terse account of the worst range you encountered in 2002, along with a 1-to-10 rating on the Range Rats Revulsion Index. In the event of ties, no prizes will be awarded. Watch this space for another installment of Mats Only. To send John Garrity advice, share your experiences, or suggest a driving range, click here.
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