Range games....

[Achilles]

With all this talk about the pros and cons of practicing on the range, does anyone else throw in a few games to spice things up? If so what are they?

I work relatively close to two courses (home course included) and a colleague and myself often go to the range at lunchtime for some practice. Half of our time will be 'serious' but for the other half we play a few games such as picking a target such as a distance marker or chipping net and allocating about 5 balls for each target. You get a certain number of points depending on how close etc and it makes things a little more interesting. We do the same sort of thing on the practice green, going from hole to hole. Just wondered if anyone else does this sort of thing? I finds it adds a nice competitive edge to proceedings!

 

[timgolfy]

Absolutley. I spend about 50% of my balls learning the effects of swing changes/setup changes/etc, and 50% hitting targets, normally in batches of 6 balls. For instance today I was aiming at targets 160 yards away and measuring the spread (about 3 within putting range, 3 long putts/chips), then a flag 90 (all 6 within putting range).

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I guess the easiest is to play your own course on the range. Take whatever you'd use off the first and decide where it would be in relation to the hole. Either hit a short iron to chip out if it was a horror or use whatever you'd hit then into the green. It means you are changing the club you use all the time. If you want to take that a stage further and perhaps try and develop your skills you could say to yourself you need to fade/draw the approach into a tight flag and so have a go at hitting those shots too. Again ig you make a hash the next will be a short iron to recover

 

[G1BB0]

hmmmm, had one last night, use 2 flags or points of around 30yds apart, and imagine it as the fairway, hit whatever club you want, 1 point for being on the fairway and 1 point for tempo, use the same tempo for 5 attempts giving you a score out of 10, I was working at 70% swing and scored 3

another 1 purely for tempo was same speed for backswing through all and full follow through. 1st 10% swing speed, 1 ppractice 1 with ball, then 20% and so on and so forth upto 90%, never 100. apparently we swing different each time due to fatigue, aches or the opposite feeling zesty and fit as a fiddle. this helps find your ideal comfortable tempo and can be used before a round or just for practice. Not so much a game but a good little exercise

soz if these sound pooh but worked for me last night and something I intend to do frequently

 

[palindromicbob]

Don't play range games but on the putting green I often play a par 2 match play challenge against my brother. 9 holes on the green so play round twice once starting left of the last hole and then starting right to vary the break. So putt from nine - one etc.

Anything that leaves the putting surface counts as a 1 stroke penalty.

Sometimes also play a rule that any shot that stops more than 2 feet before the hole is a penalty. This ruling forces you to play more positive putting and after all, 100% of putts short of the hole miss long has at least got the opportunity of getting in.

 

[Achilles]

Sometimes also play a rule that any shot that stops more than 2 feet before the hole is a penalty. This ruling forces you to play more positive putting and after all, 100% of putts short of the hole miss long has at least got the opportunity of getting in.

Might have to introduce this to our game! The number of putts I left short during last night's round was close to illegal, so might see if the penalty rule helps!

 

[palindromicbob]

It works well. I've started to putt less short tend now to leave them 1 foot past if I don't hit the cup. Still have trouble when there is a downhill roll as I get scared of over hitting and being caught out leaving a massive uphill return.