Golf Driving Range Furnishings – Page 16

John Rutecki from Metedeconk National discusses using RHI’s Range Yardage Tents with GRAA magazine!

September 7, 2012 by Joy Ball

Our friend, John Rutecki – the Head Pro at Metedeconk National, was recently interviewed for the “Best Practices” section of the Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) magazine. In it, he discussed the importance of using RHI’s Custom Yardage ‘Tents’ on his practice facility.

These are the tents he is talking about:

Here’s the text from the article, thanks John!

Use Custom Yardage Tents to Simulate Real Golf Shots

John Rutecki on the importance of using custom yardage tents to simulate real golf shots:

When you drive through the entrance of our club, the first thing that catches your eye is our impressive practice facility. The practice area altogether is 50 acres long, consisting of multiple driving range locations, an uneven lies area, a short game area and a putting green. Because I wanted to simulate actual golf play for our members, we decided to add our short game area. First, we modified one of the three target greens to allow for multiple chipping stations (all with various options to help simulate missing a green on the golf course). This helps with the player’s understanding of different slopes and lies while chipping. The next step was to use custom yardage tents on the short game area to mark different distances for chipping. These little tents sit on the ground and stand out when people are using this area. They have a stencil that displays the yardage mark and it flashes so that everyone can see this very easily. It’s something unique because most facilities don’t offer markers from 40, 60, and 80 yards out from the green. The yardage tents have become an attraction, and many members seem to like to make a game out of hitting to them while preparing for their round, or just during some practice time. I think having the ability to practice certain shots really helps with player development as well. It certainly adds to our already-impressive practice facility and gives players some food for thought while working on their short game.

John Rutecki on the business impact of using custom yardage tents to simulate real golf shots:

The yardage tents and the overall short game area have really enhanced the facility experience for both members and their guests. There aren’t many places where you can simulate shots from 10 yards to 130 yards from the pin, and we think it’s become integral in prepping yourself for actual golf shots that you would be taking on the course. My lesson business has been wonderful because I’m aided by the extravagant practice facility. These lessons make up roughly 25 percent of my business, whereas last year that number was only around 10 percent of my total business. The custom tents are relatively inexpensive and do not require any maintenance. An idea like this sends the message that you care about your member’s golf games, and it adds to the value and credibility of the club.

Starting to look like Fall is here…

August 24, 2012 by Joy Ball

Not sure if Fall is really here yet, but the temps have finally dropped from the 90’s to the 70’s and the fair is in town, so it feels like Fall is just around the corner. In addition to still pounding through Antigua displays, here are a few more projects we’ve had around the shop this week…

First up is a ‘Mini-Monument’ for Westchester Country Club in New York. They host a PGA Tour event, and wanted a large monument that they could put plaques on with the winner’s names, etc. We’ve been discussing a large 6′ tall monument with them, and they wanted to see a scaled down version to see how it’s going to look. At this point, we may change up the colors a little bit, but other than that – here is a little 2′ tall version.

Next we built a set of tee markers for the golf team at Santa Clara University. Hopefully, we’ll get to do the rest of the West Coast Conference… :)

Here’s a mammoth entry sign for the new Rock Creek – Idaho course. It might look like one of our standard signs, but this has a 3″ tube post and the sign itself is 3’x3′.

We did a couple practice range clock signs for the Philadelphia section of the PGA:

And a couple different tournament awards. First we have another local charity hosting an event for the Gleason Project. They asked for an award plaque similar to what we did on the earlier trophies. Then San Luis Obispo asked for some replicas of their tournament tee markers that were slightly modified so that they could be mounted on a wooden trophy base that they were building. Great idea!

Have a great weekend!

It’s time for the Olympics…

August 3, 2012 by Joy Ball

Congrats to all of the American athletes who are doing their best, and doing such a great job representing our country. In between watching the Games, here are a few of the things we’ve been working on lately.

First up are some great new range accessories for the new course at Rock Creek – Idaho. They wanted some simple, rustic, economical bag stands and a sand and seed bottle holder. I think this ‘tree’ design for the sand and seed turned out great.

We had a golf course designer ask for some custom miniflags for his personal putting green with the logos of some of the courses he’s worked on.

The folks in Dunlap, Iowa just keep selling corporate sponsorships for each hole on their course. What a great way to advertise your local businesses.

Here’s a large ‘Proxy” style sign. It’s similar to a giant proximity marker. The cards can slide in and out and have interchangeable messages. This one was for PGA West.

Here’s a trophy for Tetherow’s Celidh Ladies Member Guest. A ‘Celidh’ is an Irish word for a dance/party. I had to look it up…

Finally, here are some shots of some trophies we just finished for the Kinnickinnick Cup at Gozzer Ranch. These started out as smooth pieces of steel pipe, but Will managed to weld them up so they looked like old tree stumps. They look great. It takes a lot of skill to weld that ‘poorly’. :)

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend, and go Team USA!

Merry Christmas from RHI!

December 23, 2011 by Joy Ball

Just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone for a great year. Our business has grown amazingly, and it’s our customers who keep suggesting new products and ideas that keep this job exciting and fun. God bless you and your’s this holiday season, and have a happy and successful New Year.

As we head out for the holiday weekend, I snapped a couple pictures of some of the things we’re working on…

Here are a couple of different on-course fixtures we’re working on for PGA West. There is a sand and seed box which sits on a stand. The entire top opens up to make it easy for the grounds crew to refill the box with seed mix, and then the smaller hatch is used by the guests to scoop and fill their bottles. The shoe cleaner is something specific that they requested. The plan is that the guest can blow off their shoes using compressed air and the debris will fall through the grate into a box which can be easily emptied. A couple of fun pieces, we always enjoy designing something new from scratch.

Here’s a great little custom trophy we did for a golf tournament at Saratoga National. We actually went down to the local farm and feed store and bought real horseshoes to incorporate into the design.

Here are a couple pictures of a scorecard box that gets mounted to a pole on the way to the first tee. It holds scorecards, tees, ball markers, divot tools, etc. and can be customized to accommodate any size scorecard and/or number of amenities. This one is for the Madison Club in Palm Springs. I dig their spyglass logo…

Finally here are some pieces in progress for our first “international” order! A golf course in the Netherlands called simply “The Dutch” asked for proximity markers and matching signs that can go on the tees during tournaments. The sign alerts the guest that there is a contest on that hole, and then the proximity markers are used to mark and record the current leader. These ones will have an orange backplate behind the logo yet, and should turn out really cool.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here’s what’s going on around the shop this week…

December 12, 2011 by Joy Ball

Just wanted to show a few of the things we have working in the shop right now.

First up, we’re remaking an order for Berkeley Hall. UPS suffered a train derailment during the one batch of bad weather we’ve had so far this year, and their entire shipment was destroyed! We got everything put back together, and it made it nice that I could snap a couple pictures, because they had some pretty good stuff.

They did some tournament signs – several that said “Closest to the Pin” and some that just said “Special Event”. These will sit on the tee box, and alert tourney participants that there is something special going on that hole.

Here’s a picture of their proximity marker which works hand and hand with the signs. They can use the proximity marker to show the position, and record the name of, the current closest ball.

Here’s a picture of a couple large sand and seed boxes that we are building for PGA West. These are on their way over for powdercoating, we’ll get an after pic when they come back. The entire top lid is hinged and opens up to make it easy for the grounds crew to fill the box, but then there is a smaller lid for easy guest access.

Here are some cart path directional signs we are doing for Southern Dunes.

Here’s a brushed aluminum hole in one trophy that we did for a member at Hayden. It’s a great way to display the lucky ball, and record the pertinent information about the event. Congratulations, Jonah Anderson, on your hole in one!