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I have been hitting the range to try and dial in the distances with my clubs. This got me to thinking, the range balls are not nearly as good as the balls I use on the course (and the conditions are different, obviously).

How do you judge the distances you hit with each club on the range vs. the distances you hit on the course?

they are called restricted flight golf balls.

i HATE the range for many reasons this being one. I just go to the course on a slow day sit in the middle of the fairway drop a few balls and hit to the pin. thats how i know my distances.

This was asked just this Saturday at the range and one of the staff guys claimed that the range balls were about 25 to 50 yrds shorter than the typical ball.

Ditto

it has to be more than that, theres no way that im driving 300 yards

I find a quiet time on the course (Sunday evening is ideal) and take a few shots from 150 or 100 yards to check my yardages every year or so. My distances are almost identical to this web tool's calculations...almost uncannily so:

http://www.deeprough.com/distance/

Simply insert your 5 iron depth and answer a couple of questions, the software takes care of the rest.

That thing thinks I should hit my 60* wedge 108 yards. As if...

78 yards for me. Seems to be pretty accurate when I make good contact with my 60* but it's not very often that I do.

A lot of the balls at the range I frequent are so worn, they're almost dimpleless. I'm sure that affects distance quite a bit, too.

That's how it is at the range I usually go to. Balls that are as hard as a rock and some so old that the dimples are almost totally worn. Unfortunately, it's the most convenient range and I like going at night when it's nice and cool. During the day, I get too tempted just to go out on the course.

Lol the range that I frequent most often, basically uses balls found from the course and wate hazards and I guess they mix in new balls with it. All production balls, so you get an chance to hit a little of everything. One guy I play with will even pocket a few, Oh look theres a Nike One,,,,swipe. I don't know if that is right or not, but I have been able to resist the temptation. Especially when I come across one that I could swear was my ball.

That's the biggie there, the dimple-less balls. The range I go to usually has balls in really nice shape, but there are always 5-10% of them that are pretty worn out.

I don't see a big distance difference personally. Maybe a little bit, but not much. Every once in awhile I will hit a few of my golf bag balls that are well-used, and I don't see that much of a differenct at all. Maybe the balls that my range uses are just in faily good shape, not sure. ???

Either that, or the yardages are already adjusted for the reduced flight of the range balls.

Wow that was spot on once I took 5 yds off my 5 iron. Cool site thanks

I don't...I only use the range for tempo, alignment and ballstriking practice...take notes while you play and in a few rounds you should have your distances figured...

I did that on a par 3 course I play that has holes ranging from 95 yds to 165 yds. On every tee shot, I wrote down the club I hit and how far it went. It didn't take long to figure out my distances from gap wedge to 6i.

I do that too, but it's different because my range doesn't intentionally use found balls. The small percentage of non-range balls that end up in my bucket are slices from the first tee box. I know I've donated a few. Sometimes they're not even terrible shots, but if you go right at all on the first hole, you're going to be searching through range balls to find it.