There are a couple of reasons I don’t hit more than just a few limbering shots on a practice range before I head for the first tee.  One, I really do leave all the good ones on the range.  Unfettered by the pressure to hit a shot exactly where I want

Should private club golfers really have to mark off the yardage on the practice range?

to, I, of course, hit the ball where I want to on the range, straight and generally true.  But the other reason for ignoring the range is that, with few exceptions, yardage markers on practice ranges, even at some of the better private golf clubs, are inconsistently placed, if indeed they are there at all.  At my advancing age, I never know if I have picked a day when my 5-iron will fly 160 yards or 150.  To find out on the range before the round would be a big benefit, but should we really have to walk off the 10 or 15 yards to the marker and then do the math to figure out the distance.  Is it really that expensive to put a few more yardage blocks in the ground?

        Fully outfitted ranges are far and few between, but when I find one I am impressed.  The golf community of Fawn Lake, which I visited for the first time this week, has one of the best.  Wide enough for a full outing of golfers to practice and with pins stuck in shaved areas that look like putting greens, the Fawn Lake range is a great place to practice before or between rounds.  And if you keep your head down, you will see clearly marked yardage blocks on the Fawn Lake range, spaced at intervals of about five yards for the 25 yard depth of the hitting area.

         I rarely use a practice range on days when I don’t play.  But if I lived at Fawn Lake, I might make an exception.

FawnLakepracticeteeyardageblock

Great ground game:  Fawn Lake's clearly marked and frequently placed yardage markers makes its practice range among the most helpful anywhere.

        As daily fee golf courses try to balance their need to attract new golfers with the equally important goal of reducing expenses, every marketing dollar is precious.  The balance is even more delicate for those courses in far flung northern areas where the season is short and the competition intense.  It demands special creativity to attract new blood to their golf courses.

        An ad in today’s USA Today shows that some clubs don’t get it and are throwing good money after bad.  A club called Manistee National, which I had never heard of, took a quarter-page ad in the national  paper today at a retail cost of probably $25,000 or so.  At the minimum rate that Manistee advertises for green fees, that is the equivalent of 297 rounds of golf.  The ad squanders many opportunities.   It mention’s only the club’s web site and phone number under a single “wow-‘em” line, “Golf Package Special” starting at $84.

        The ad makes no mention of Manistee National’s location; it could be in Canada, or Zimbabwe for that matter.  A check of the web site indicates the golf club is in Northern Michigan.   Are they ashamed of the location, or afraid folks won’t go to their web site if they indicate “Northern Michigan?”  If that is the case, do they think a person who visits the web site will change her mind about a trip that likely includes a few changes of planes to get to Muskegon and then a drive of about another hour?

        If this ad was produced by its ad agency, Manistee National should fire them.  If Manistee’s own people produced and placed the ad, well, you know the old line that the man who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer.  The same is true for advertising.

        Ironically, at least I now know what and where Manistee National is.