Driving Range Drills

The often under-rated driving range is one of the best golf practice aids that we have available to us. Although it is called a `driving range` it`s not all about tee-ing up balls and smashing them as hard as possible in an attempt to improve driving distance or accuracy.

We can use this versatile facility to much better effect.

The main reasons we would find ourselves on the range;-

• Part of a lesson with a teaching pro
• Practice - maybe in spare time in evenings/at weekends
• Warm-up before our round

Each of these scenarios will have different component elements. If you`re there with your pro, as part of a lesson, he will have something specific for you to work on. Maybe you have some spare time and decide to get some practice, perhaps one or two clubs are not going too well and you want to iron out some faults with them. However, I would like to focus on the pre-round warm up.
It never ceases to amaze me when I see people turn up with two (or more) baskets of balls and tee them up one after the other and smash them down the range in an attempt to improve their driving skills - by the time they get to the first tee, they`re gonna be too tired to get any distance!
I prefer a more gentle approach. I start with my short irons and work my way up to my diver. The ball dispenser at my local range usually coughs out about 30 balls. I would split them up into five batches of six and proceed thus:

1. Wedge or 9-iron  Easy target pitching shots, most ranges have some sort of short distance target to aim at.
2. 6 or 7-iron  Still taking it easy, try to hit these mid irons your optimal distance - for me it`s 120 yards for my 7-iron
3. 3 or 4-iron  When it comes to long irons, I tend to concentrate more on direction than distance. For me it is far more important to hit these irons straight, than it is to go for extra distance and end up wayward left or right.
4. Fairway wood  Next I hit 6 balls with my 3-wood - no tees, straight off of the mat. I would only use my fairways from a decent lie, so off the mat is quite close to the course conditions.
5. The big stick  By now you should be warmed-up enough to let rip with the driver. Keep an eye on the flight of the ball, if you have a slight hook or slice this is where to get rid of it before you get onto the course.

So now you should be ready for the course record. You can see, with its versatility, the driving range is one of the best golf practice aids that we have available to us - we should use it as often as possible.

Enjoy your golf.


  By Online Golf Tips Editor -  Jim P Martin

Online Golf Tips - Home                                Independant Reviews