I shoot for 1-2 times a week

The Range… I’m possibly going to be a little controversial here, even upset one or to people along the way. But going to the golf driving range is possibly the worst thing most golfers can do for their game.  The golf driving range is where almost all amateur golfers go to practise a poor golf swing.  By doing so they ingrain these poor swing traits into their muscle memory making it ever harder to correct.

You must have seen the guy at the range, ball bashing his way through a $10 bucket, he mops the sweat from his brow whilst balls are flying in all directions. Then there’s the guy who’s aiming 40 yards to the left, then slicing the ball back to the middle and thinking he just hit a great shot. Is this doing their game any good? The answer’s NO, in fact it’s doing more damage than good. The golf driving range has been the salvation for many wanabe golf pro’s who never made it. They spend their days hanging out at the range waiting for another weekend warrior to finally give in and get himself a lesson.  Ironically the guy goes to the very place where for the last year he has spent hours practising his snap hook.  Years ago, when I first got started in this game we didn’t have driving ranges, we had practice areas with mock greens and a bunker or two.  Later came driving nets where you could really let one go, but because you never saw the full flight of the ball you were not left with the notion that you somehow had to fix this wildly erratic ball flight before striding out onto the First tee at 7:15 on a Saturday morning. Where did it come from? It had somehow crept into your game while you had been hard at work all week. If we had a bad day on the course, we would wait a week to see if the problem went away as quickly as it came, or we would go and see the pro

Why do we go to the range?  We go looking for that silver bullet, the thing that’s going to turn us around and have us bombing it straight down the middle 330yards and shooting a lights-out 72 the next time we play. I know this, because I’ve done it, I’ve tried weird stances, strange grips and wild swing thoughts all in the quest to find the secret that will make me the golfer I have always dreamt about being.  The truth of the matter is that there is no silver bullet and on the add occasion that one of my crazy ideas resulted in a great shot it was always short lived with a crash down to earth shot not too far away.

Why then do the pro’s hit the range before a tournament round I here you asking? Well, yes they do, but they also have their swing coach with them watching and providing feedback on each swing they make. They will quickly point out any problems preventing the pro from making further poor swings. Primarily, the objective for the pro is to warm up NOT to fix something, it way too late in the day to start fixing stuff just before you tee off in a tournament.  Antony Kim recently said that he will hit the range before a round to workout which way the ball was going that day. Then go to the course with that ball flight as his default shot for the day. Antony Kim is one of the élite, if he works out which way the balls going on a day-by-day basis, what chance do we have.

Where does this leave us?

• If you want to work up a sweat and ball bashing is your thing, then go to the range and have fun.
• If you want to warm up before a round of golf, try some stretching exercises.  Stretching prior to a round of golf will reduce the chance of injury and can add 10% extra distance to your driver.
• If you want to hit balls before a round of golf, you will get way more benefit from chipping and putting than you will ever get from hitting range balls. (During a round of golf you will only hit your driver 10 – 14 times, yet you will putt 30+ shots in most cases)
• If you want to make full swings with the driver and your irons before your round, go ahead have as many swings as you like, you don’t need to hit any balls though. This is great because you don’t go to the first tee with any negative thoughts from all the miss hits on the range.
• And finally, if you want to work on an aspect of your game, don’t go to the range, go and see a professional coach. It will cost you less in the long run.

Borya said:

In a way I have to agree wit hthis article. If i'm lucky to hit the range before the round and I start struggling with any club, then I get a carryover effect to the course. However i feel the need to get a bit loose before the round and I happen to achieve it best with few full shots with my pitching wedge or 9 iron, which I can't do at the course practice green. However putting is another story. I can never practice enough. But thats the weakest part of my game which I desparately want to improve.

First read my article on Putting. ( JW has put it in the blog section).  Then go and get Stan Utley's book “the art of putting” after reading, if your putting doesn't dramatically improve I'll give you your money back.  That's how confident I am.

Mark