Colin Byrne's Column: Golfers don't just go and tee it up at a golf tournament, they go to the range and hit practice balls before they play. Not that long ago the range was a mine field.
There were up to 40 players hitting golf balls at their caddies, if they had them. Many had golf balls but no caddies. The idea was that each player was responsible for his practice balls. More to the point, each caddie was responsible for his players balls.
If a shot looked like it was heading in the direction of another caddie, the responsible caddie would shriek out in an act of humanity to save the cranium of the unsuspecting caddie. These were the days of "shagging". It was the term for standing like a column at the end of the range and gathering your masters practice balls. Thankfully the modern "range" mentality has taken over from the archaic target practice system that operated in the old days. The caddie now spends his players warm-up session relaxing him with idle banter instead of fearing for his life at the end of the range, dodging errant golf balls.
Today most amateur golfers idea of a practice session is a trip to an enclosed area where you collect balls from a dispensing machine. Then you swat the balls from a rubber mat that gives you the sensation of having hit a perfect shot even if you didn't.
The range is a wonderful invention for the technically minded, a disaster for the practitioner. The problem being that the range is very wide and the golf course tends not to be. The practice ground player develops a false sense of security in the laboratory conditions of the range.
We arrived in Munich last week for the BMW Tournament which has been played at the North Eichenried course, north east of the city, for over a decade. The range at the BMW has been run by the same ex-US Army personnel for even longer. Six ex-army guys get together each year for a sort of reunion, and the European golfers get the benefit of the old comrades get-together. They run the most relaxed range on the European Tour.
The casual nature of their operation is indicated by the fridges behind the practice facility. One stocks the necessary supply of water and juice for re-hydration after whacking balls for hours on end in the heat. The other is full of beer. Which is why you see an unusually large gathering of off-duty caddies at the back of the range.
It also helps the range men keep chirpy during their 13 hour days of constant ball collection and supply.
The pros are easy to deal with according to Walt, the ex-service man who heads the operation, it's the amateurs who cause the problems. They started the week with 7,200 brand new Maxfli M3 Tour balls. After the pro-am on Wednesday they had depleted to 4,800, and by Sunday there were less than 3,000. One of the main problems is the souvenir mentality. Each amateur who plays in the pro-am seems to have a wife or husband and some kids who would all seemingly like a memory of mum or dad's golf day. What better than a "free" Maxfli from the BMW event with practice stamped on it.
I recounted a memory of watching members of one of the more exclusive clubs in Spain loading up their golf bags with half of their allotted practice balls before teeing off in the pro- am. It seems to be a common trait in Europe, the range men in Munich were not surprised, they witnessed the same pilfering last week. It is not just a coincidence that the majority of the balls disappeared on Wednesday.
Nostalgia is one problem, the R&A have also got a lot to answer for. The average range cannot cope with the distance that pros hit the most advanced balls these days. Not only are the courses being demolished by the long hitting pro - my player hit a drive and a five iron on Thursday last into a 551 yard flat par five with no wind assisting.
Most newer courses have been designed with ranges that extend to 300 yards. With the advanced, seemingly unbridled, ball technology, 300 yards is nothing. The average professional's drive was coming to rest well beyond the perimeter of the range.
The second green was situated at the end of the range. I now understand why such a large group was congregated around the green, most of them with bags. In between viewing players, the enthusiastic spectators were scooping up some of the original 7,200 balls. Some were actually waiting in the landing zone of the pros drives so they could catch the incoming balls after one hop.
In a country, where instructions are taken literally, the ball theft may well be prevented by a simple sign indicating prosecution for stealing. An English teaching-pro was astounded when he gave his first lesson in Germany. He instructed his pupil to warm up by hitting a bucket of balls and then he would come to start the lesson.
When the teacher arrived he found the pupil standing idly by a demolished basket with balls strewn about it. He had indeed taken an almighty swipe at the bucket containing the balls.
It is time for more responsibility by all concerned around the tournament driving range. Otherwise someone is going to get injured in the range ball scramble.
Or worse again, us caddies may have to sacrifice our skulls again and revert to the old "shagging" system, which doesn't sound that appealing.
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