Tonight while changing out a sump pump with my landlord (he did 99% of it – I helped some) it seemed like a good time to ask if we could use the old horse fields backing up to the mountains.

I have a large enough field on one side of our house where I can drive balls.
Or chip or whatever. Also, on the other side of the house there is plenty of space for baseball/softball (which we have enjoyed already). And on subject, there is a horseshoe pit I can make good again.

So, starting with a home driving range... is there a handheld ball-pick-up device?
I have seen the hand-held wheel that measures distances – would that be good for setting up markers? Or would GPS be best?
This would be hitting up-hill, so maybe GPS is better regardless?
Is there a good source to buy large quantities of range balls?
I could do a web search first – but if anyone has experience here, that is a start.

Lastly, In our rural area many people own ATVs. (grew up on them myself)
We are teetering on reasons to have one and likely will.
Is there a low cost attachment to retrieve balls?

would one of those leaf brushes you pull with alittle tractor pick up the balls?
check with a driving range they mite give you the old cut ones?
check with tiger he mite have a bunch he's not using lol

woosterken

I have about 200 yds of mowed field between my house and the baseball field which we use as a driving range. I use small children for ball retrieval.

Ebay sells range balls, I just saw 600 for $80.

This is a shag bag and holds 50 balls. They are pretty cheap...$15 - $20. Or you can also buy them full of balls already. I do not know of an "affordable" attachment for a golf cart or ATV. Smallest one I know of is this...a 3 gang. These new are $2,500 plus the adapter to use with your ATV.



The one gang units are all walk behind. Those run about $500.

Thanks for the input guys.

Wow, anything above a shag bag gets expensive fast!
I think I am going to keep it low tech and low cost for now – just start with a bunch of balls. And I can definitely use the exercise collecting balls...

Maybe hit from one end of the field for a wile and then switch ends (plus chip all the ones in between ).
My daughters used to hit the plastic ones around the yard at our last house.
They will likely join in & probably get into it the first time they make a good connection and sail one.

Last weekend I hit my balls around the field (that might not have come out right).
I have about 25 in my bag & it sure felt good smacking them around.

This weekend I ordered 600 balls (thanks TEG). Can’t wait to get them!

This part might only be funny to me, but I will post it anyway....
This morning the wife comes out of the den (checking e-mail) and with a quizzical face asks what would posses me to spend $85 on golf balls?
Before I could answer, each daughter said “$85 !!” and laughed.
Then I started to explain that it was for 600 golf balls.
They started laughing harder and my wife joined in.
Then they asked why I needed 600 when I don’t even golf ?!
I said I was getting back into it and explained that these were used range balls and many of the 600 would probably be bad.
At this point anything I said just kept them laughing more.
Girls sure are mean

Yeah, they just THINK they're from Venus! The old saying should go....

Men are from Mars,
Women are from strange place waaaaay out there.

Oh be fair boys, tell me it wasn't funny? LOL

And

When I stopped laughing I realized NONE of that sounded right.

Picked up a “Golfer's Home Practice Range Set” today for $20.

It included a flag & pole, regulation cup (for me to bury), driving mat w/rubber tee and shag bag.
Nothing high-end, but fun just the same.

www.clubchamp.com/golfer-home-practice-range-set.php

Btw, the 600 balls I ordered found some snags. Canceled it.
Since then, I bought 24 used balls from Wal-Mart- around $10.
Those... with the balls I already had have been plenty to knock around.

I can't wait to plant the cup & pin close to where my daughter is standing...


A par 3 to master.