Playing at a golf course can get overwhelming at times. The golf course comes with its constant audience presence.
As a beginner, the driving range is probably the best place for you to practice. You do not have to dress up like you would have to at the golf course.
Also, driving ranges tend to be cheaper than going to a golf course. Unlike in a golf course, you can go at your own pace at practice.
However, the driving range is a great place to practice only if it is utilized correctly. Often beginners will go there and pointlessly hit golf balls. That is not just a waste of time but also embeds faults in your muscle memory.
We will be talking about specific drills you can do at a driving range. Then we will help you with some tips so that you can be more efficient in your practice. Let’s get right into it then!
Our Best Driving Range Drills for Beginners
In any type of sport, efficient practice is the key to success. For driving range drills, talking about efficient practices will be our focus. These will help you become a better player at the golf course.
Posture Setup
The foundation of golf begins from the very positioning of your feet on the course. The perfect shot you dream of depends on your posture when taking the chance. Therefore, if you want to improve your game, begin there.
We will talk about the step by step process of how you can do it correctly.
1st Step : You can get a golf club and golf ball to practice for posture or you can choose to imagine a golf club golf ball during the drill. But it is recommended that you use them or similar objects for effective practice.
2nd Step :Measure how far you have to stand back to put the golf club’s sole flat on the ground behind the ball. Now stand back the measured distance from the ball. Face the golf ball in a way that your front is perpendicular to the target line.
3rd Step :In this third step of the drill, keep your legs closed together and hold your golf club in front of you. Lock your knees firmly.
4th Step :Now measure the distance from your left shoulder to the right one. Spread your legs to match the distance between your shoulders. Keep your knees locked still.
5th Step :Holding the grip of your club bend slightly to put its sole behind the ball on the ground. Make sure you keep your back flat throughout the process. Also, hold the club in a way that your hands are aligned together from the side.
6th Step : Now that you have reached the position to take a swing, unlock your knees. That will conclude this drill. But remember to keep the knees firm throughout the end of your swing.
This is an essential drill, especially for the beginners. Keep doing this drill until it starts feeling like second nature to you.
The Bench Drill
Unlike other traditional drills or practices, this will not require you to practice taking shots. This drill aims to help you give an experience of how a takeaway will feel like. You will also understand what it looks like.
Let’s talk about the steps required for this drill.
1st Step : You have to find a regular bench that can be seen at your driving range. Usually, you can find them on the tee boxes. Also, you will need iron for the drill. A six or five iron would be the best for the drill. With a mid-iron, you can see the orientation of your club’s toe easier than any other iron.
2nd Step :Now stand with both for your shins as close to the bench as possible. This should be done as you are bending to address the golf ball. Make sure you avoid touching your shins to the bench even slightly.
3rd Step :From addressing the golf ball, start taking your club behind slowly as you begin the backswing. While you are doing this, let the shaft of the golf club ride next to the corner of the bench.
4th Step :In the final step, continue on with your backswing. The head of your golf club will get to a certain point. There will be no more contact between the head and the bench. At this point stop the swing. Remember the position of your golf club’s shaft and head.
If you did the drill correctly, the toe of the club would be facing upwards. The shaft will be facing the opposite of the target line. This is a great drill for beginners to improve their takeaway.
Before Shot Drill
Preparation before the shots can help you a big deal. Before shot drill. few practices of certain things will help you to get ready your mind and body at the driving range.
Accordingly, you will be able to take a better swing at the golf ball.
1st Step : Do a proper postured stance before the ball and address it. After you have addressed the ball, take a couple of swings at it for practice. Do this without actually hitting the ball.
2nd Step :In this part of the drill, fix a spot on the face of your club that you will use to hit the ball along the target line. Then start visioning how the shot will be played out.
3rd Step :Address the ball again and waggle to settle down on your posture. This is to readjust your posture for your envisioned shot.
4th Step :The final step is simple. Once you have prepared yourself mentally and physically, hold the club firmly and swing away!
This drill will not take you more than a few seconds. It can be just as important for a beginner as any other technique drill out there. This acts as a key to access your comfort zone before you go for your actual swings.
Aim with Iron Drill
Playing golf includes not only techniques but also course routing and management. Practicing a good drill in the driving range helps to measure the distances with your club. This will develop you mentally to understand how far you should take your shots.
The instructions below are the steps of doing this drill.
1st Step : Find a large visible target near the flag. The target can be anything starting from a fence to a human wearing a noticeable shirt. Once you have found a target, focus on the target.
2nd Step :For the next step in the drill, imagine a straight line from the ball to the target. Then imagine another target on the straight line. This target should be less than ten feet from you.
3rd Step :Now take the short target and square your club to that. After that, take your stance. Remember to keep your body and target line in parallel.
This drill should be practiced every once in a while to understand the golf course better. Justin Rose, one of the PGA professionals suggested this drill.
The Distance Drill
This is a drill to improve your putting at the driving range. And ultimately at the golf course. Here are the steps for the drill.
1st Step : Choose a point on the putting green. Make sure that it is as flat as it can be.
2nd Step : Take twelve golf balls and put them down. Then you will be taking three more of those golf balls. Now start walking on a straight line out.
3rd Step :The straight line you are walking on, drop the three balls at eight, at twelve and finally at sixteen paces. Once you have dropped the balls accordingly, return to the point you started.
4th Step :From the starting point you have to hit the balls with a club. Start hitting the balls at the ones you dropped at three different paces. Each of the paces will need four balls to be hit towards them. Begin with putting four balls at eight paces and end with sixteen paces.
The goal of this drill is to improve beginners at putting. Try to get the twelve balls as close to the dropped balls as possible. If you want to make the drill more fun, turn it into a game.
For example, if you put the ball within a foot from the target ball, give yourself a score of two. If you end up hitting it further than the target, deduct the same amount. Give yourself a possible goal to reach when start. Keep repeating the drill to improve the score and get better at putting in the end.
Conquer Peeking Habit Drill
When playing at the golf course, a lot of time, players peek on and miss their short putts. This can be very frustrating and struggling for the beginners . You can do a simple drill at the driving range to overcome this issue.
The steps for this drill are the following.
1st Step:You have to find a practice green in the driving range that is four-foot putt.
2nd Step:Once you have seen the green, get a tee and stick it entirely in the ground. Otherwise, as an alternative to the tee, you can put down a small coin in its place. Although, a tee would be much easier to put the golf ball on.
3rd Step:Finally, put the ball on the tee or the coin and putt balls off the top. The aim of this technique is to see the tee once you have struck the golf ball.
This is a great drill to set your head straight as well as your putter.
Driving Range Tips for Beginners
So far we have discussed a few driving range drills you can do when you are just starting as a beginner.
We have also compiled a list of tips for you that you can follow. These tips will go along with your drills and help you to improve your game further.
Don’t Worry Too Much about Clothing
If you have played in a golf course, you must have noticed the clothing pattern. Everyone at the course tends to resort to the same kind of clothing style. It is usually a plain colored shirt with regular shorts or pants.
This is not the case when it comes to driving ranges. There is no specific style of clothing for the driving range. So, you can wear anything you want to the range that is appropriate.
Do Situational Practices
Usually at the driving range, people will get a bucket of golf balls and start hitting them mindlessly. As a tip, you should avoid doing that. Whenever you are at the range, have some sort of a plan.
In the golf course, you will find yourself facing various elements of the environment working against you.
You will face sand or out of bounds many times. What you should do is, try to create similar situations for yourself to practice. This is a great way to prepare yourself for the uncertainties in the golf course.
Try Out Different Grips
Golf swings require a good deal of control on the club to be able to hit a good shot. One tip is to try out or experiment with different kinds of grips on the golf club when taking shots.
Keep your hands separate from each other on the club’s grip instead of putting them on top of each other. This way of holding the club offers better control over the club. Try different levels of pressures for your grip with your arms without pressing too firm on the club.
Figure out the best grip that fits you and the club. The goal here is to mix up your max speed of the club head and get constant face control.
Do Your Putts with Only the Right Hand
A tip to get good with your putts is to use only your right hand for them at the range. This will help you out in two different ways.
Firstly, you will learn to let go of the putter head correctly. This is the most important point to focus on when you are constantly missing your putts.
Secondly, your hand-eye coordination will improve a lot. By doing this, you are technically ridding your mind of the technicalities of the putting part. You simply see it as hitting a ball into a hole.
Practice All Kinds of Shots
One issue with beginners is that they will keep practicing their long game at the range. Practicing long game is not a bad thing. But the issue arises when the short games are not given equal importance.
No one is perfect, so you cannot expect to bring your A-game to the course every day. You will have bad days when your long game is not just working. In that case, you will need your short game to back you up.
One tip for this is to break down your time at the driving range into three parts. Practice your long game in one and your short game in another part. Keep one part for practicing your techniques. This will make you a better player on the whole.
Take Your Time with the Bucket of Balls
Often at times, the beginners rush through their bucket of golf balls. The idea they have is that, going through the bucket faster will improve their skills faster. This is not entirely wrong but is not completely true either.
For beginners, it is only right to slow down and take time with their practice. Of course, the fast method will improve their muscle memory. But the flaws will be embedded as well that were overlooked in the process.
Use Only One Ball for Putts
In a golf course, you have to hit the same ball over and over again they get to the hole. A good practice at the driving range is to replicate the same. When you are putting on a practice green, follow up with the same ball. Repeat the process until you finally get the hole.
Try to Swing Less than Full
Always practicing to be parallel to the target line might not be the most efficient with the club. A good tip is to not still practice getting the full swing. A full swing might provide you with good yardage but it might not be great for your future as a beginner.
You should try to tone the swing down from the full. That way, you are preparing yourself to be more consistent with your shots in the long run. It can take a while to get used to this. But you will always have that extra bit of yardage in reserve for whenever you will need it.
Our Final Thoughts
These are the most common and helpful driving range tips and drills for beginners. If you follow these, you will be able to excel further than the players at your level right now.
Even if you are a more seasoned player, you will greatly benefit from these tips and drills.
