Balls... range balls, that is

I'm now going to the local drive-o-rama once a week with my son (6). I try and ingrain some of the basics for him and at the same time it makes me focus on going back to basics and we're both making good progress (his clearly better than mine, week on week).

However, I'm intrigued to know how far these range balls go compared to a 'regular' ball? Yeh, yeh, there's no such thing as a regular ball, I know that. However, I'm sure that outside of beautiful, perfectly manicured and fantastically priced courses, I don't believe you're given a pile of Pro V1s.

And yeh, yeh, distance isn't everything. But it is! When I'm hitting an approach and I know that the front edge is 150yds away, I want to know which club is going to reach the front, middle or back when it's a 25 yd deep green, given that with short irons the difference is approximately 10yds, going up to 15 or 20yds with the long clubs.

So, when I'm hitting shots on my range and the little map of flag positions shows me that my 6 iron appears to be pitching at x yards and finishing up at y yards, should I be adding z yards because I'm hitting a boggo rock? Or is the stamped 'range-ball' actually just as good as my 'standard' ball?

Doesn't make that much difference to the average golfer. Just keep a note of your average carry distances with each club. Roll out is different wherever you play, for example i get 0 yards roll out from a 135 yard 8 iron shot at my home club, but up to 25 yards bounce and run at my away club from the same shot.

Another thing - i tend to measure my shots with a relaxed 90% swing, knowing i can eek out another 5 yards if i need to - makes a difference to my ball striking if i'm not taking the cover off at every given opportunity just because i feel i need to make a certain yardage

I've found quality, and therefore distance, of range balls can vary drastically from range to range. Some places its impossible to hit any iron over 150 yards while others would be 'on a par' (for a hacker such as myself) with most commercial balls.

Even on a single range, quality and therefore distance varies immensely with the age of the ball and therefore how badly affected it's been by the innumerable washes it's received. You can usually tell if a ball's dimple pattern is going to affect its flight severely but there must be degrees to this.

I'm not sure I would rely on distances from a range. As Smithers says, even a single bucket of balls on a single range can vary a lot. I only bother to practice for ball striking, ingraining a swing thought, shot shape etc on a commercial driving range - if I want some idea of my genuine distances I have to use my own practice balls on our club's practice ground.

Some of the swankier clubs will give you decent balls to use while you warm up on their practice area but the balls at commercial ranges always seem pretty poor. One club that gives out pretty bad warm up balls is gullane, which I always find surprising.

I have no basis for this but unless we are all wasting our time using decent balls, then using the rubbish supplied by most ranges has to hurt yardages at least a little. We know for sure the modern ball makes the pro’s super long so again, it must give us normals some benefit?

Another factor which can contribute to a loss of yardages on a range is always playing to the same elevation and with the same wind. I wonder how often golfer’s over estimate yardages after playing a number of holes that are down wind, down hill. This unrealistic adjustment might have them mentally adding a few yards to their clubs.

I also imagine people tend to hit the range at night or in the winter; both scenario’s having lower air temperature which would reduce the distance the ball goes.

Whatever the quality of the balls you need to find a routine to use at the range that is not just banging balls. I am often guilty of this and end up ruining my swing for about a week after a numb skull range session.

I think Navy got it spot on Mac. A range session is more about cultivating your ball striking, you have to get picky about where your ball is ending up. Typically range balls are 10-15% shorter than premium balls, that info should suffice. After all you're not trying to shoot/protect a score on the range.

At my 2nd club, opposite the range there's a large short game area where you can hit your own balls and assess how far they are going that day (wind, temp all factored in)

Or nick (obviously I really mean borrow or buy) a range ball and play a hole or two with it on your own track?

Maybe obtain a load of them and organise a social "range ball" comp.