Driving Range Practice Drills

Like many golfers, I use to go to the range and hit lots of balls. I would believe that the more I hit, the better at golf I would get. There is some truth in this. But, there are far more effective ways to improve your golf using your range time, and less tiresome. Here are some helpful, effective and fun tips to help you improve you golf game using your driving range time.

My Typical 50 Ball Routine

Straight to the point. Below is my typical 50 ball routine in the range. Breakdown and detail follow below, with a must watch YouTube video by the guys at Me And My Golf.

• Warm up
• 5 ball routine – Working up the clubs PW, 8I, 6I, 4H, 3W, Driver = 30 balls. Next time I may work the odd numbers instead (9I, 7i, 5I, 3I, 5W).
• 25 to 100 yards – Focus on 25 yard increments using PW through to lob wedge (60^o in my case). I often focus on 50 and 75 yards, with 52^o (SW) and 60^o wedge (gap/lofted wedge) = 20 balls.

Breakdown

Warm up

The one time I forgot to warm up recently, was the one time I got injured. I’m not giving a warm up routine here, but I will say find and/or make one, it may prevent you from not playing for a month at the start of the season.

Structure

Unless focusing on something specific, or short game, I rarely hit more than 15 balls with one club. Further to this, I rarely try to hit the same shot 10 times. The exception is when I’m forcing a change and need to work that change in with motor learning; training the brain by doing the same thing over and over until it becomes comfortable and repeatable.

My tip for general range sessions is to work through your clubs, from shorter clubs to your longest club, giving you a warm up within the session. Typically I start with an 8I, working up 6I, 4H, 3W, Driver. I may come back to PW before focusing on 25 to 100 yards with the remaining balls.

Single Club Routines

For single club routines and ball control (9-ball routine specifically), I highly recommend checking out the below YouTube video by the guys at Me And My Golf:

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