Driving Range Information

 A timely article hit my in box last week about driving ranges and how to manage the tee deck.  Go to here for complete article but I'll try a quick summary in this post.  Basically, the article references a method players can use to limit the divots and speed the recovery time for a driving range tee to keep it in good shape during the season.  The number crunching I love is the one that compares the two styles of hitting balls.  The willy nilly, all over the map style of hitting balls removes 4.1 sqft of turf after hitting 30 balls versus the linear style of divot removal which only removes 1.4 sqft of turf after hitting 30 balls....a 65% reduction!  FYI, the recommended size of a driving range tee is 1 to 2 acres minimum (that is 43 560 to 87 120 sqft) to allow for sufficient hitting areas and recovery of the hitting area.  The tee we just built is about .35 of an acre or around 16 000 sqft (versus 0.12 or just over 5000 sqft which was the size of the old tee deck).  Obviously, we were limited based on the area available but I think we should be O.K.  If I can get the message out about conserving turf by controlling divot removal the tee should always be in good shape, I hope.