A lot has been written about grass selection for practice tees and the benefits of enlarging the hitting surface as much as possible to keep up with traffic. What doesn’t get discussed as much is how golf balls are distributed to players. If your facility stacks a pyramid of balls or keeps large buckets full of balls next to each hitting station, you might want to consider another option.
I found a perfect analogy for range ball usage in the most unlikely of places. In Brian Wansink’s book “Mindless Eating” he describes how people eat out of boredom, stress, anxiety or other reasons not related to hunger. In the book, he shares a study conducted on moviegoers and their popcorn eating habits. The study found that when given stale popcorn, people who regularly eat popcorn at the movies ate significantly more than those who said they rarely eat popcorn at the movies. If you automatically eat popcorn whenever you go to the movies, you don’t even notice when it’s stale. The takeaway is that the environment is key to this habit.
Apply the findings of this study to your practice tee. The environment is one where you expect to hit golf balls regardless of how well you’re hitting them, how hot or cold it is, etc. If you give players an unlimited number of balls they are more likely to mindlessly hit them simply because something inside of them triggers that response.
Now consider if you changed that habit by offering fewer balls at one time. I came across the idea for a range ball cart and have since seen similar carts at a few other courses. The cart is filled with more than enough balls for the day. Instead of placing a large bucket or pyramid next to each hitting station, you simply ask players to fill their own, much smaller basket. You haven’t limited balls – they can stay there all day if they want – but you have limited how many fit into a basket.
After a basket or two, roughly 50 balls, players tend to feel “full” and ready to go play or head elsewhere. Whereas they might have hit 100 or more balls only because they were in front of them, they now hit 25-50 balls. This saves grass while still allowing players the opportunity to warm up or practice as much as they would like.
For more information on how to get the most out of your practice tee, please visit our the Practice Facilities section of the Green Section Record.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Adam Moeller, director, Green Section Education – amoeller@usga.org
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, senior consulting agronomist – edowling@usga.org
John Daniels, agronomist – jdaniels@usga.org