B/CS is woefully under-served by quality driving ranges. When the A&M course re-opens, apparently they will have a full-service practice facility. Not yet. The rest of the better practice places are private. So Jackson Hole fills a useful void for the golf community here in town that doesn’t have access to Traditions or Miramont. The grass that constitutes the teeing area is nice. It is kept mowed short — not quite fairway-short, but not light-rough long, either — and watered nicely. It’s sandy, and never hard pan. This is a major, major plus. You’re never looking around for a tuft of grass to hit off of, and the lies are plenty level. The automated ball machine works from dawn til dusk, even when the pro shop is closed, and runs either on pre-purchased tokens or bills. The machine does not make change, so bring either $ 5 bills, or lots of $ 1s.(A $ 5 gets you about 50 balls, so it’s reasonable.) But showing up with a $ 20 or a credit card when there’s no attendant on duty would be a problem unless you intend to pound out a massive number of range balls. On the down side, the landing area for your shots is small-ish. Any hooked or sharply pulled shots end up in the trees on the left.(I have no idea how management deals with this; either it costs them a lot to retrieve those balls, or they lose hundreds of balls daily.) Alas, this is the range’s problem, not mine. By comparison, this down side pales to how good the up side is. There isn’t a putting green or bunkers to hit out of, so it’s not a full-service practice facility. That’s not a big drawback to me – I’d rather not even practice the putting stroke if the putting surface is super dry or bumpy or slow. And there’s not much space to locate one, anyway. Overall, this is a welcome addition for folks that just need to warm up or keep the swing loose.
