Rancho San Joaquin Driving Range — Attraction in Irvine

Every time I practice here, I lose my footing and keep missing balls, so I must completely change my swing to compensate for the terrible mats. The worst thing is that many older individuals practice here, and bad things could happen if they slip. They evened up the pricing for the membership for newer members so they can replace the mats once and add artificial grass on the range, but they did nothing after that. Even the short game near the range hasn’t changed, I can tell because it still looks very low quality. Also, one of the bad qualities of this practice area is that too many people come to Rancho, at the peak of the operating hours, two or even three people line up for one spot on the range. They even line up for spots with slanted mats, making practicing harder. Also, since only a few people carpool with each other, some people are in places that don’t even exist, and people are still looking for spots to park and drive around the parking lot. The worst thing is that Irvine plans to close down Oak Creek and replace it with houses, so even more people will come to Rancho as a last resort, since this is the cheapest option in the area. So, as a person still trying to improve, do not come here if you are a beginner or even an advanced player. Arguably the worst practice area...

Extremely Unsafe Driving Range – Someone Will Get Seriously Hurt

We had a very disturbing experience at the driving range. My son was taking a lesson, and my husband was standing nearby watching — when a ball came flying in from Hole #1 and struck him directly in the back. If he hadn’t been standing there, the ball would have hit our son right in the middle of his lesson.

This wasn’t just a one-time fluke. I’ve seen balls fly into that area multiple times before. There are no nets, no barriers, no warnings — nothing to protect people standing at the driving range, especially near that edge. It’s only a matter of time before someone, possibly a child, is seriously injured.

The golfer apologized, but that doesn’t fix the lack of safety measures. We were shaken and extremely upset. This is a family-friendly facility, but it urgently needs to address this safety hazard before tragedy strikes.

Until the course takes action, I cannot recommend this driving range to anyone — especially families...

Nice place, very nice staff, and tons of bays. Gets extremely crowded but that’s not their fault. Good lighting at night as well. The only problem is their hours are so random, and their range balls are complete garbage. They close spontaneously and have multiple breakdowns on their equipment. For what they charge, and how many people go here, you’d think they could keep the doors open and stay true to their hours, but 3 of the last 6 times I’ve been here they have a paper sign taped on the gate that simply said CLOSED. For these prices you’d expect a lot more.

Updated 10/31: gave this place one more chance, I showed up and bought a large bucket, it was crowded which is expected so I had to wait for a lane, after 20 minutes of waiting the guy announces on the intercom that their ball collector is broken. Again. And they’ll be shutting down in an hour to collect balls. You should probably let people know these things BEFORE they purchase a bucket. Horrible business practice. Definitely...