Hey Golfers,

Apologies for the long post. But I must say with regret that practicing in BU DR is one of the places that all golfers should avoid. I'm sure that this great location wise, as I see many people practising here, but I must say, contiuning to practise here will not improve your golf. In fact, you may just ruin it.

Here are the reasons:
1) Factors affecting your swing
a) Markers set out to far - the distance markers in BU are accurate for only a few bays. For the remaining bays, all markers are set really too far. To hit 150m on these markers esp from the side bays would make a beginner force the swing to make the ball travel. Playing constantly under forcing mode will push the muscles too hard over time, and lose consistency.

The mangement should position distance marking on separate bays, calculated from that particular bay to the distance marker, or flag.

b) Driving mats - This I must say is the major problem. There is no proper maintenance on the DR for wear & tear. The mats are all worn out, it's like hitting the ball on a cement floor with a thin later of carpet below. You don't get to hit down on the swing, as you fear banging your club head hard on the floor. Couple this with the inaccurate distance markers, beginners tend to top the ball after practising here when playing on fairway.

Another really annoying thing is that they do not replace worn out mats for a golfer to stand on. A golfer's shoes are designed to promote comlete grip in the fairway. If a golfer loses this grip, a consistent swing is not achieved. To achieve this, a golfer has to be able to combine the hand and body movements that promote acceleration during swing through, allowing the shoulders to clear efficiently, while maintaining a balance on the ground. By practicing on the slippery mats in BU, I noticed many golfers trying to keep their balance after a swing, especially with the longer clubs. I tried this myself, and found that if you carry on like this, you'll be transferring the turning force on a higher axis as you are trying to balance and swing at the same time. The massive swing force will be focused on your lower back, instead of being absorbed by the grip in your shoes. Keep this up and it's either a very sore or injured lower back. Worse...when you go play on the fairway, the turning force is focused correctly on the shoe, and if you've been practising all the time in BU, you'll find that playing on fairway is different. You'd have to adjust your swing accordingly. Consistency's gone out the window.
It's like trying to tee-off on an ice skating ring, and not fall on your face.

c) With the screwed up DR mats, it's tempting to swing the ball on the grass. At least you'll get a proper feel. Unfortunately, when you try this, you're often rudely asked to stop by an idiot who's half awake. Probably the management's relative.

2) Factors affecting the location
a) A good DR is a place not only to practise, but also to hang out. It's like a physical golf forum. I noticed that there are no fans, no proper chairs, no additional chairs, etc

b) It's a huge DR, with many bays, but each golfer has to walk up to the counter to purchase balls. This is really dumb. Can't they hire someone to bring the balls to you when you want them?

c) When you go to buy balls, the place looks like a jail. Why do you need to separate the coupon counter, and the ball collection counter? The coupon purchased, doesn't go into the machine! You walk to the counter, then purhcase a coupon, then walk over to the ball machine, pass the coupon to another of those idiots, and get your balls. Why can't they just place the coupon and the ball collection counter together? It's funnier if you want a drink. You'll have to walk to the pro-shop for one.

d) Overall ambience is horrible. You feel like leaving, when you've just gotten there.

Pity, a good location for a DR, but managed by idiots. It's a chicken and egg story, lousy place, low patronage, low revenue, equals lousier place over time.

oh s**t....no wonder i never improve my game at all...

Hi Jon,

Very brief comment.
I agree with your comment, but not all.

In my opinion, it consider as another form of training ground, surface training.
Every holes comes with different fairways, rough, etc. So, considering the fact that you ball might land at different surface in golf course, use this range as a practice ground..
Just my 5 cents opinion.

To my opinion,

Some of Jon ideas were right..about the poor management...i agree with that as some of their carpet or mat really wore and tear..they should change it in order to prevent any unforeseen incident happen...

But that place really look abit lousy...like no class at all...as i felt playing golf is classy sport..i dun mean the people there no class lar...i mean the environment...

Moreover, i had experiece playing with the cubicle 50 to 60...you might lost the sight of the ball you hit out when you playing there as i guess this is the ligthing problem (as i always play around 9pm)...the range marker is incorrect at this cubicles...

Somehow i guess most of us play there because it is the nearest DR or maybe is cheapest too...

Cheers....

Well, Wai Hong aka Aeson,
It is not the cheapest. It is standard charge per 100 ball.
But it has the convinient of choosing 50 balls, which some driving range did not offer.
Yes, I agree, it is indeed a convinient place, considering the location and bulk of golf courses around there and the group of population as well..

I personally think driving range purpose is to serve the community around. That's why you can see driving range in setapak or cheras has their own group market, regardless how good or bad it is...

Some lazy golfer, just like me always choose what is convinient.

Just my 5 cents thoughts.

The driving ranges here are good only when the balls stay good imo. The one in Bkt Jelutong used to be good then turned bad when all their balls lost their dimples. Now it's ok again since they got newer balls. I believe we need nice dimpled balls to judge distances better. Balls with no dimples don't fly as far and seem to drop like a rock.

Hey dragon,

I heard that Bkt. Jelutong DR will be closing end of 2008 to make space for development. Not sure how that's coming.

Yea, they recently changed the balls, but the carpets are a joke anyway.

This is the practice range for golfers to chill out after dropping off their wives at 1U.