Pine View Golf Course opens practice facility

https://rpgolf.wordpress.com/2020/09...tice-facility/


More than 20 hitting stations

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Originally Posted by Yankflank

https://rpgolf.wordpress.com/2020/09...tice-facility/


More than 20 hitting stations

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That's nice. More option for eastenders

Checked it out yesterday, only turf to hit off of right now. Was in good shape though, wish they had more targets - only saw a 100, 150 and 200 flag.

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Originally Posted by rad

Checked it out yesterday, only turf to hit off of right now. Was in good shape though, wish they had more targets - only saw a 100, 150 and 200 flag.

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Turf as in grass or as in mats? It seems like 19th Tee is the only public range offering grass tees still. No idea why Kevin Haime wont open the grass tees :scratchch

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Originally Posted by Maximus67

Turf as in grass or as in mats? It seems like 19th Tee is the only public range offering grass tees still. No idea why Kevin Haime wont open the grass tees :scratchch

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Not sure either. Mats at pine view though.

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Originally Posted by Maximus67

Turf as in grass or as in mats? It seems like 19th Tee is the only public range offering grass tees still. No idea why Kevin Haime wont open the grass tees :scratchch

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White Sands has grass tees.

We don't have traditional mats. We have installed a hitting surface that runs the length of the range. Stations are separated by dividers. This is the latest evolution in driving range surfaces and allows you to put a tee right into the fibers.

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Originally Posted by Pine View

We don't have traditional mats. We have installed a hitting surface that runs the length of the range. Stations are separated by dividers. This is the latest evolution in driving range surfaces and allows you to put a tee right into the fibers.

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You know what the best driving range surface technology ever invented was? Grass.

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Originally Posted by Pine View

We don't have traditional mats. We have installed a hitting surface that runs the length of the range. Stations are separated by dividers. This is the latest evolution in driving range surfaces and allows you to put a tee right into the fibers.

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Would be nice to have rubber tee for driver shot on each station. You can use your own tee if you like but it's annoying when a guy next to you keep walking around looking for his rubber tee after teeing off. The grass in front and back is very tall and it will eat tees.


Also the net on the right might need to be higher. People sitting /waiting for the second hole on the Exec course will need to watch out for those strayed slices coming over.

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Originally Posted by Maximus67

You know what the best driving range surface technology ever invented was? Grass.

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except that you have to re-seed and move hitting areas due to wear and use.

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Originally Posted by Maximus67

Turf as in grass or as in mats? It seems like 19th Tee is the only public range offering grass tees still. No idea why Kevin Haime wont open the grass tees :scratchch

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White Sands in Orleans has grass tees..

As someone who lives in the area I've been extremely pleased with the whole project. Sure there needs to be measures taken to protect the 1st tee on the executive but I can't say enough about the effort that was put into procuring some of the highest quality hitting mats and building a nice level deck.

I've been there a few times recently where people have been complaining about having to use the mats.

I spent the better part of 10 years working in turf maintenance at one of the top courses in the area - the challenge with maintaining a grass tee deck (especially at a public course) is that it takes a fair amount of resources to keep it in it's most usable condition. Any grass tee area needs to be 1) large enough to be able to continuously move the hitting spaces back and give the sections that have been seeded time to grow - the area in front of the hitting station at Pineview simply wont be big enough to support this, 2) manpower to tend to the decks after the abuse they are likely to take, 3) money for staff/sand and seed/water to help the grass grow back.

To most people it seems like a simple thing but if they aren't properly tended to what you end of having is a range like white sands where you might as well just go and practice hitting out of a bunker because the turf never gets time to properly recover and just becomes thin and sandy. Personally, I'd prefer if they kept it as a mat only area and just let the setup stay clean because it will only be a matter of days before the small grass area in front of the mats is completely hacked to pieces and will stay that way and be an eyesore to look at. Also, for anyone complaining about 'turf interaction', any good strike hits the ball first anyway and the high end mats they put in give you more than enough feedback through the ball.

/rant

The course as clearly made a bold/great move with the money they have to provide those of us who can easily access the course with a hitting area that to me exceeds expectations - in line with their obvious attempts to continually better the property. It would be a shame to see it look like a battered old hitting station that reminds some of us of what we once thought when we heard 'Pineview'.

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Originally Posted by sabzor

As someone who lives in the area I've been extremely pleased with the whole project. Sure there needs to be measures taken to protect the 1st tee on the executive but I can't say enough about the effort that was put into procuring some of the highest quality hitting mats and building a nice level deck.

I've been there a few times recently where people have been complaining about having to use the mats.

I spent the better part of 10 years working in turf maintenance at one of the top courses in the area - the challenge with maintaining a grass tee deck (especially at a public course) is that it takes a fair amount of resources to keep it in it's most usable condition. Any grass tee area needs to be 1) large enough to be able to continuously move the hitting spaces back and give the sections that have been seeded time to grow - the area in front of the hitting station at Pineview simply wont be big enough to support this, 2) manpower to tend to the decks after the abuse they are likely to take, 3) money for staff/sand and seed/water to help the grass grow back.

To most people it seems like a simple thing but if they aren't properly tended to what you end of having is a range like white sands where you might as well just go and practice hitting out of bunker because the turf never gets time to properly recover and just becomes thin and sandy. Personally, I'd prefer if they kept it as a mat only area and just let the setup stay clean because it will only be a matter of days before the small grass area in front of the mats is completely hacked to pieces and will stay that way and be an eyesore to look at. Also, for anyone complaining about 'turf interaction', any good strike hits the ball first anyway and the high end mats they put in give you more than enough feedback through the ball.

/rant

The course as clearly made a bold/great move with the money they have to provide those of us who can easily access the course with a hitting area that to me exceeds expectations - in line with their obvious attempts to continually better the property. It would be a shame to see it look like a battered old hitting station that reminds some of us of what we once thought when we heard 'Pineview'.

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Thank you. We could not have said it better ourselves.

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Originally Posted by cleek

except that you have to re-seed and move hitting areas due to wear and use.

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That's fine. I live in a part of the world where the ground is covered with snow for half the year. For the other half, I'd love to hit off some nice green grass, not rubber mats that I can use any time of the year.

The funny part is, my spouse's family come up to visit from Georgia last summer and I took a few out golfing and to Kevin Haime's and they were blown away that the fake turf tees were vastly more popular than the real grass. In the south, grass is far more popular and heavily used on ranges - and they have access to grass all year 'round. We only get it for a short window and people still insist on staying on the fake grass even when they have the choice. I don't get it.

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Originally Posted by Maximus67

That's fine. I live in a part of the world where the ground is covered with snow for half the year. For the other half, I'd love to hit off some nice green grass, not rubber mats that I can use any time of the year.

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I completely understand where you're coming from. I think my point was primarily in reference to the range set up at Pineview where there is only about 2/3 rows worth of hitting area on the grass section in front of the mat. Unfortunately, due to this you would only get your nice green grass for a few days and then it would be left as a mess of trenches dug by the everyday golfer that would never get time to recover. It would just wear away into an uneven dirt pile in front of the new expensive hitting stations. Fixing that then becomes a catch 22 because sod is expensive and working to fix that problem becomes unjustifiable if it's only going to get beat up again.

Ultimately Pineview will end up doing whatever they choose to do - It's just not comparable to say courses in the south that get weather all year round that permits them to do the work that needs to be done. If it were up to me, I would restrict it to the mat and take any money/resources that would have to go into the grass repair in front and put it towards more netting, building nice green targets, some yardage signs, etc. There are 3 big public driving ranges in both ends of the city that have larger grass hitting areas if that's what suits your fancy.

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Originally Posted by sabzor

I completely understand where you're coming from. I think my point was primarily in reference to the range set up at Pineview where there is only about 2/3 rows worth of hitting area on the grass section in front of the mat. Unfortunately, due to this you would only get your nice green grass for a few days and then it would be left as a mess of trenches dug by the everyday golfer that would never get time to recover. It would just wear away into an uneven dirt pile in front of the new expensive hitting stations. Fixing that then becomes a catch 22 because sod is expensive and working to fix that problem becomes unjustifiable if it's only going to get beat up again.

Ultimately Pineview will end up doing whatever they choose to do - It's just not comparable to say courses in the south that get weather all year round that permits them to do the work that needs to be done. If it were up to me, I would restrict it to the mat and take any money/resources that would have to go into the grass repair in front and put it towards more netting, building nice green targets, some yardage signs, etc. There are 3 big public driving ranges in both ends of the city that have larger grass hitting areas if that's what suits your fancy.

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For mat, I will take Pineview any day compared to other driving ranges in town. Most of them is like hitting into concrete including at Kevin Haime. The mat at Pineview is nice and even. We will see in a few years with wear and tear