Driving range practice drills

[Junior]

Given the inclement weather I’ve been to the range a few times in the past couple of weeks.

It’s a great range (The Beeches near Knutsford in Cheshire) with a great cafe and trackman screen in every bay. I enjoy playing the courses on the trackman and every now and then they upload a local course which is fun…right now it’s Manchester GC which I’ve played a lot in opens.

The thing is, I’m conscious I don’t practise that great. I just jump on , clip a few to warm up and then play a course.

I was therefore wondering what are your go to drills to do at the range …..especially when your swing goes a bit wonkier than usual ?

 

[Orikoru]

I personally feel playing a course on Trackman is better than an old school range where you just pound balls, as it's more relatable to actual golf. I just take a Mulligan to rehit a shot if I mess one up. On a conventional range I'll work on driver, maybe find something that works after 15-20 balls, but you don't get that out on a round do you? You don't get 20 drives to get it right. I prefer to have some sort of target as well and the Trackman helps with that, even if you're just visualising what's on the screen.

Also you're going to get 'in-between' yardages and 60-70 yard pitch shots on a Trackman course, whereas how many times do you practise them on a normal range session? And of course it's important to do your normal pre-shot routine for each ball, which you're more likely to do in a 'round of golf' set-up as opposed to just dragging balls and hitting.

 

[PJ87]

I personally feel playing a course on Trackman is better than an old school range where you just pound balls, as it's more relatable to actual golf. I just take a Mulligan to rehit a shot if I mess one up. On a conventional range I'll work on driver, maybe find something that works after 15-20 balls, but you don't get that out on a round do you? You don't get 20 drives to get it right. I prefer to have some sort of target as well and the Trackman helps with that, even if you're just visualising what's on the screen.

Also you're going to get 'in-between' yardages and 60-70 yard pitch shots on a Trackman course, whereas how many times do you practise them on a normal range session? And of course it's important to do your normal pre-shot routine for each ball, which you're more likely to do in a 'round of golf' set-up as opposed to just dragging balls and hitting.

I like the track man 12 aswell . Dial in those yardages and see how you stack up for your handicap

 

[PaulMdj]

Given the inclement weather I’ve been to the range a few times in the past couple of weeks.

It’s a great range (The Beeches near Knutsford in Cheshire) with a great cafe and trackman screen in every bay. I enjoy playing the courses on the trackman and every now and then they upload a local course which is fun…right now it’s Manchester GC which I’ve played a lot in opens.

The thing is, I’m conscious I don’t practise that great. I just jump on , clip a few to warm up and then play a course.

I was therefore wondering what are your go to drills to do at the range …..especially when your swing goes a bit wonkier than usual ?

Really depends on why you/I are going to the range, I never just go and hit balls, I’ll only go if I have a “plan” worked out before and I’m going to work on something specific.

Atm it’s been taking just 1 iron at s time and trying to work on getting my hands in to the right pisition on impact and half way back, I’m very prone to “flipping” my wrists and with the help of a local Pro I’m doing drills to try and get them in the right position. Drill for this one is “the merrygoround”

Only time I’ll play a course is if I use the simulator at the Club.

 

[bobmac]

Learn how to hit the ball 50 yards.
Which wedge
What grip position (middle or bottom)
Which length of swing (8-4, 9-3, 10-2) etc
My favourite was SW, bottom of the grip, 10-2

That was the combination that helped me consistently hit it 50 yards.
YOURS WILL BE DIFFERENT.
Once you can do that consistently, you can use it as a starting point, so if the shot is 60 yards, go up a club so 60 yards will be
PW, bottom of the grip, 10-2 = 60 yards
SW, bottom of the grip, 10-2 = 50 yards
LW, bottom of the grip, 10-2 = 40 yards
etc
Then you can experiment with 45,55,65 etc by changing your grip position so FOR ME...
SW, bottom of the grip, 10-2 = 50 Yards
SW, middle of the grip, 10-2 = 55 Yards
So 10 yard gap, change club
5 yard gap, change grip position

You'll be amazed how often you'll use this shot.

There are similar drills for height control but master the 50 yard shot first.

 

[SteveW86]

We have a series of greens and buckets, so depending on what I want to work on I’ll position myself to hit a certain yardage into one of those. Usually the majority of the time is spent on sub 100 yards as that’s my real weakness.

My bad full swings used to be from the club getting behind me on the backswing and then getting stuck coming back to the ball so my path would be too extreme in to out. I worked a lot with alignment sticks to make sure I had the club in the correct place going back.

 

[chico]

I've had a couple of lessons recently and am working on what came up in those. I'm just taking an 8 iron and trying to ingrain the changes.
The first couple of times was a struggle but yesterday I started to get the feel and will probably keep going over the winter.