Richmond Driving Range

I am house sitting in Steveston for the folks. I grew up in Steveston, and I remember going to a couple of driving ranges in Richmond when I was younger. I went and had a look around. My old favorite is gone now and the other range at No. 5 road has upgrades which are great, but they have upgraded their prices too.
As far as I can see, for public driving ranges, the Richmond Driving Range is the only range in Richmond offering an uncovered grass area. Being a bit old school, I don’t like the covered areas and hitting off of mats. Yes, it is convenient, but I like working off of grass and practicing the odd bad lie. I like being out in the weather… you play golf outside remember? The Richmond Driving Range also has a chipping area, which is free for one hour per driving session. The putting area will suffice for me. The prices are pretty good. I believe I am hitting three buckets for $ 18. For this price with the free chipping and putting, I am basically covering off a full afternoon session for next to nothing.

This review is for my recent discovery of the wuntun soup that they serve at the café. For some reason, maybe childhood tastebud memories, this wuntun really appeals to me. It satisfies my hunger. The sandwiches are good too!
As for the golf? It hasn’t changed much since the old Mikasa days. The exception are the golfers. You still get a noisy batch who don’t understand golf etiquette, but it’s better than the other places in Richmond. The chipping area is the same and that means something positive. If it’s good, why change it?
What’s new? Better service. New card machine to use when your getting your balls.
Did you know they use Callaway golf balls? Not all are, but I’m sure most of them are.
They still have those old Mikasa golf ball servers where you dump in your golf balls on one end and push a button and it pops out onto the matt for you. No fuss of having to bend down to place your ball.
I can’t wait till they can get the grass green and ready for spring.
To make this a 5 star place, they need better grass.
What they have here: Driving range with heaters. Out door driving range in the sun and on real grass. Chipping range and putting range.
There is a pro shop with instructors who can teach in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and I think Japanese.
Hey! This place was originally Japanese run and there are still a bunch of the old Japanese golfers that come here early in the day that give this place some decent credibility.
You get some golfers that are real golfers and then you get alot of golfers that do it simply for the prestige and because they have money and like to play dress up golfer.
Me? I come here to hit the balls, in silence and work on developing my technique.
Please remember to keep your phone ringer off and don’t yap on the phone when you’re in the range.
If you came to a gun range and didn’t follow the rules, people would shoot you. Or so they should. Same thing applies to driving ranges. Keep quiet or keep the noise to a minimum. Be respectful of others there!
DAMMIT!

OK, whatever happened to «CUSTOMER SERVICE»? Is that a thing of the past?
It’s my first time golfing at a range and I’m pretty sure there are better places out there.
We walked in and the lady was chatting away on the phone, never stopped to say hi or anything to us. Just extends her hand out for money, while chattering away on the phone non-​stop.
It’s nice that this place has a ball dispensing machine and a ball dispensing rack thing like at a bowling alley, where you shove all the balls in and it rolls out one at a time. Pardon all my «golf» lingo… lol. As I said, it’s my first time. I’m a golf virgin.
It would’ve been nice if someone cleared all the balls off the course so I can figure out where my ball went. How do they clear all those balls at the end of the day???
I suppose it’s good if you just want to whack some balls around.

Not a big fan b/​c of the tight walkways between where you golf & the rest of the ppl who walk by you, trying to look for a stall. Yet it’s not small, more long, longer than Savage Creek, and not 2 levels.
Can’t figure out the popularity of this, maybe those automatic machines where you pour the basket of balls, so then they’ll roll off one by one at your mat with a little lift gadget to put on the tee — if you’re that lazy, & dont want to risk hurting your back from bending down, then you shldn’t be here lol.
Nice lounge eating area on the left by the cashier.
This one’s for you, Larry lol.