re: Driving range near irving/dallas

Well I dk exactly where you live but the driving range I go to is the North Texas Golf Center. It's at the end of Walnut Hill, underneath 635. Walnut hill actually dead ends into it. It's got a basic driving range, and a putting, chipping, and sand area (3 different greens). I will say the sand area is lacking, the sand is mostly dirt.
It also has a pretty good 9 hole wedge course. The holes are mostly between 85-130 yards, it's a great way to work on your wedge game.

As far as public courses near Irving, the only one that I've played that's pretty close is Luna Vista (formerly LB Houston), in Las Colinas. They just spent 6 months renovating it and it's pretty nice now. The greens haven't completely taken yet so they are really really hard, but once they do you can feel they will be very nice. Even with the hard greens it's still a nice public course, you just have to aim in front of pins, and play a lot of roll out on pitch shots, which isn't a problem on most holes bc the greens are huge. It's also only $40 to ride and $25 to walk.

Also Top Golf is sweet to go and have beers with friends and mess around; but I wouldn't advise practicing there, a lot of noise and it's expensive