Courtesy: Hanover Developments

Golfers are a lot like boaters - power or sail. They get itchy for new toys. With boaters, it's called "foot-itis", the desire for a boat that's a foot or two longer than the current one.

With golfers, it's all about having the latest equipment.

Whether you boat or golf - or do both - there are plenty of manufacturers turning out the best products they can to meet your needs and desires.

So why can't practice facilities do the same?

We all know of at least one driving range where the balls are garbage, the terrain is bare and uneven and sometimes there is only one flag way out in the field.

I used to practice at places like that 25 years ago before golf was the global recreational sport that it is now.

Where I currently live, I have access to four different levels of facility. There is one about a 20 minute drive that is superb. It has a long and deep tee area, covered in closely mown grass that can last a full season. There are flags galore set at different yardages with plaques in the ground to indicate their distances.

A fairway bunker is available. In the short game area, there is a deep greenside bunker for practice and an enormous putting green.

Range balls are inexpensive and they are in excellent condition - in years gone by the balls have been Titleist. This season they're Pinnacles.

To top it all off is a clubhouse where you can have a cold beer or pop afterwards.

Closer to home is a scaled down version of this facility. But its grass tee area is small and by early June, it's nothing but a few green tufts. Practice here and you have to use the mats.

At least the mats are pretty good with some spring to them and the balls are just as good as at my preferred practice facility.

There is an indoor domed facility for winter use just to stay loose and feel like a golfer during the winter months.

The fourth facility falls into the "why bother?" category. It's been open for about four years, now. The owner is a teaching pro who operates out of a trailer on the site.

The balls are garbage - cut, worn and dead off the club face. Yet the price is more than the top facility in my area.

The mats appear to have spent 20 years outdoors and the grass tee area (new in the last 2 years) is rarely cut.

Why on earth would someone bother to operate such a poor facility? I'll offer a reason: it's the only one in that area of town and there are two popular courses nearby.

So the owner doesn't really need to spruce up since he's got no competition in the vicinity.

But with the game growing steadily and with so much emphasis on instruction and practice, only an idiot would figure golfers will be satisfied with what he offers.

For a small investment in new mats and balls and a little local advertising, he could double his revenue.

So I applaud the facilities that have got it right. Their crowded parking lots are testament to that.

And I throw out a raspberry to the dopes who are too lazy to make their ranges better.

May they have good accountants to help them file for bankruptcy.