What are You Paying for Driving Range Memberships?

[halliedog]

Just curious what other areas of the country/world are charging for Range only memberships? 

 

I just moved from northeast OH to IN and bought a "Range Only" membership over here.  My family is staying back in OH for the time being, so I'll be traveling back to see them every few weeks.  The place I got the Range Pass is a state-run course with 36 holes and a pretty good range, and is about 8 minutes from my new workplace.  They also offer yearly "memberships" for walking/riding that include the free range balls at a decent price if I wanted to commit to playing there most of the time, but being as I'll be playing a lot of my summer golf back in OH didn't want to commit to that - don't think there's a way to make it break even?  

 

I just paid $399 for April-Nov (or whenever they shut the range down).  I've been there twice already and hit a large bucket (=/- 135 balls) each time and have found about 95% of the balls are 1-3 year old Bridgestones that are not "range rocks".  They definitely upgrade their stock every year or few years.  The range itself has a large grass hitting area and also some mats (no heated stalls), 1 sand area, and 3 putting/chipping greens. 

 

I can hit $50 worth of balls/day - about 3 1/2 large buckets 😬 (way more than my tired old body can use).  I figure even if I only go twice per week for 3 months and hit 1 large bucket I'll more than break even.  Plus, now I'll actually have an incentive to go practice!  Just curious what others pay, did I get a good deal, about average, or get raked over the coals?

[Unplayablelies]

SoCal, 44 bucks a month, 2 large buckets a day, discount greens fees, earlier twilight times, make reservations further in the future

[golfandfishing]

A better than average course by me has a $49/month program that includes unlimited range balls and some reduced greens fees. Otherwise $14/bag that has about 80 balls in it. 
 

In AZ we are not known for “value” in the golf industry, anything inexpensive is typically dogsht. But this is one I’d consider to be good - quality turf, nice practice green. Not much of a short game area but the $49 card also allows you to play for a cart fee after 3:00.

 

City Muni nearby is $5 for about 40 balls. Nearby resort course is $20 a day, all you can hit. For some reason I hate playing there and have not been in almost 10 years. I always got the feeling the staff there would rather golfers die than bother them by playing golf on their course. 

[GoletaGolfer]

$40 per month, unlimited balls. Includes (lousy) chipping green and bunker.

[Shushwap]

380 April ish to end of Oct.. in Canada 

[DArnie]

$200 year round family range pass all you can hit. Turf, mats and practice green.

[Albiemanmike]

Just paid for an unlimited range membership which gives you access to members only practice area with chipping, sand traps etc. They just put in Top Tracer range in the covered mats area and they are still working out the kinks with that. My only wish is that she puts in yardage signs on the members only area because at the moment there really isn’t a way to accurately gauge distance. If you really want that you can go over to the covered mat area and use the Top Tracer for now. She has told me she has plans to put in more and better yardage markers so I’m pleased with that info. Cost was initially $75 for basic membership which gets you access to the members only area. Then I just upgraded to unlimited range balls for an additional $475. It sounds like a lot but a large bucket costs $15 now so if you hit the range as much as I do and hit 2 large buckets per session it will pay for itself quickly.

[Nels55]

Interesting how much it costs to hit balls at the range.  I put in a skytrak setup in my garage about 5 years ago and I hit a lot of balls on it probably 30 to 50 per day.  It cost me somewhere around $3000 to $4000 for the setup including the laptop, screen that did not last very long and the projector that I don't use all that often.  So every year I am paying a bit less for 'range balls'.  I am down to somewhere around six to eight hundred a year now.  Of course there is the space and maintenance also I suppose.  All in all I would say that a net and some sort of launch monitor can be a pretty good deal.  

 

I had a range pass at San Jose Muni when I was working over there prior to getting the home setup and received a 20% discount on range balls.

Here are the prices:

35 balls	70 balls	105 balls	210 balls
$6.00	$10.00	$13.00	N/A

 

I was probably spending around $24 a week there before I got the home setup which is over a thousand dollars a year.  

 

I played 184 rounds last year and if I had bought a five dollar bucket before every round instead of warming up at home I would have spent over nine hundred dollars on range balls.  

 

Okay sorry for getting a bit off of the original question here!

 

 

[trilerian]

Bought a range pass this year as I switched courses for my home course.  They use pretty hard range balls all yellow, most are newer Bridgestone range balls.  2 large bucket a day max, only real turf to hit off of.  $200 for the season, Late March - November.  Normal large bucket price is $8, I have hit 8 buckets so far, so I think it will pay for itself.  

 

I think it is fair for what you get.  Hitting turf isn't that great, balls are not that great, but pretty cheap.  

[J_Birdie]

My local courses got rid of their annual range pass and removed it from all membership tiers. 
 

Money to be made in range balls these days I suppose 

[me05501]

The most convenient place for me sells tokens for $4 that get you about 30 very different balls. Some range balls of various vintages and some water balls. I found a Molitor in my bucket once. Not a great value, but they used to offer volume discounts. If you paid $65 you got $90 worth of credits. New management was recently installed and that evaporated. 

 

There's another place on the other side of town that has an automatic vending machine that takes cards. They have nice mats and great turf. They only sell one size, which is a jumbo bucket for $10. If there's someone else buying balls at the same time I'll often offer to split the bucket. I don't need to hit 100+ balls in one session. 

[sheppy335]

125 dollars for year  my kids get theirs for 25 dollars that is unlimited buckets. 

[double_d]

1 hour ago, sheppy335 said:

125 dollars for year  my kids get theirs for 25 dollars that is unlimited buckets. 

 Where in Pittsburgh is this?

 

In the South Hills we have the newly "Revamped" Cool Springs but they want $16 for 105 balls and it is mats only. Pretty expensive in my opinion.

 

You can get the frequent range card but that only gets you $120 credit for $100 or something.

[juspoole11]

For one that is outdoors and stays open year round, it's $350.  Another with a bit nicer range that's open from April 1 to October 31 is $300.  Usually I just buy credits on my key fob to save a little money.  It would be pretty close to breaking even for me.  This is Indianapolis area by the way.

[wobbles]

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[wobbles]

On 4/5/2021 at 9:11 PM, J_Birdie said:

My local courses got rid of their annual range pass and removed it from all membership tiers. 
 

Money to be made in range balls these days I suppose 

I like it...there’s a lot of $$$ in pay toilets as well. Parking spots and some AI Caddy App that costs $9.95 per round are potential revenue streams being considered by some of the commercial golf management companies that swoop in and snatch up metro-area country clubs facing bankruptcy. Usually because of bad land lease agreements. At least the guy from Caddyshack named Spaulding Smails was hired on to narrate the app, which is in beta and it’s supposed to have a food beverage component (‘I want a hamburger... no, a cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake...’)

[vallygolf]

I pay about $700/month.  But they included unlimited golf, use of the pool, tennis, and fitness facilities, and basically every amenity at their private club so I guess it works out.

[thatbaseballguy22]

The local muni in my hometown (roughly 30-40k people, only public course in town) has a pass for $300. Unlimited balls, and actually nice real grass to hit on from April - end of season. Now I'm in Columbus, and tough to find any course that has a "range only" membership.