If I understand the Doc correctly, the balls were lying on the range tees (hitting area), left over by paying customers who did not hit their entire buckets. He did not walk out on to the actual range (landing area) and start shagging balls that have already been hit.

I too have seen people walk over to another person’s area once they have left and finish their left over buckets and have never once seen a course complain about it. I have done it myself as well and would be utterly shocked if a course employee confronted me the way Doc described.

I don’t want to generalize but from my experience, most people in the golfing industry started out wanting to play golf professionally (don’t we all) but then end up as club/assistant pros where the customer ! service aspect becomes just as important as actual playing/coaching ability.