3 range drills for more consistent ball striking

Why practice with a plan?

It's easy to stand there hitting your favorite club until the bucket is empty. It feels good. But that's rarely where the round is decided.

These three drills make your session more like the course. Every shot gets a purpose, and you quickly see where the weak spots are.

1. Nine shots with one club

The drill is known from Tiger Woods' 2001 book How I Play Golf. It's hard, and that's the point.

After warming up, grab a 6- or 7-iron. Then hit nine different shots with the same club:

• Straight – high, low and normal
• Fade – high, low and normal
• Draw – high, low and normal

Try to make all nine come off the way you pictured them. They won't the first time. But you'll quickly learn which shots you can trust. The drill suits players who can already shape the ball a little.

2. Aim at an intermediate target

The smaller the target, the sharper the focus. A branch on a tree beats "right side of the fairway" every time.

Sometimes there's no good target in the distance. Then pick something close to the ball that's on line with the target: a blade of grass, a leaf, a mark. It's so much easier to line up with something one meter away than something 150 meters away.

1. 1
   Set a target

   Place a towel, a headcover or a glove half a meter to a meter in front of the ball, on line with the target.
2. 2
   Stand behind the ball

   Before every shot: step back, look down the line and walk into the shot again.
3. 3
   Make it a routine

   Same steps every time. That's how a pre-shot routine gets built.

From the guide

Alignment stick headcover

See the headcover

3. Hit more fairways

It's easier to hit the green from the fairway. The better the player, the more fairways they hit. This drill trains exactly that.

1. 1
   Pick three clubs

   Take the three clubs you hit most often off the tee.
2. 2
   Build a fairway

   Pick two points on the range as the edges, like a flag and a sign. Start wide.
3. 3
   Keep score

   Ten balls. One point per fairway. Add an imaginary hazard on one side and take a point off if you end up there.
4. 4
   Narrow it down

   When it's going well, make the fairway narrower. Switch clubs between shots, just like on the course.

No drill makes every shot straight. But these tell you which shots you can trust when it counts.

How to structure a range session

The drills work best in a session with a clear beginning, middle and end. Here's a simple structure that takes about an hour.

1. 1
   Warm-up (10 min)

   Start with mobility and a few half swings with a wedge. Build up the length gradually. No driver until your body is warm.
2. 2
   Technique (15 min)

   Work on one thing at a time. One grip, one position, one feel. Swing slowly and without a target.
3. 3
   The drills (25 min)

   Pick one or two of the drills above. Keep score and write down the result.
4. 4
   Play the course (10 min)

   Finish by playing an imaginary round. Driver, then an iron in, then a wedge. Change clubs every shot, like the real thing.

Block practice or random practice?

Block practice is hitting the same shot with the same club over and over. It feels good, and the swing finds a rhythm. But on the course you never hit the same shot twice in a row.

Random practice is changing club, target and shot type all the time. It feels harder and the results look worse on the range. But it's what carries over to the course. A good rule of thumb: block practice when you're learning something new, random practice when you want to be able to use it.

Common mistakes on the range

• No routine. You hit quickly, without setting up properly. On the course you take your time. Do the same on the range.
• No target. Without a clear target you don't know if the shot was good or just felt good.
• Too many tips at once. Pick one thing per session. The swing can't handle ten thoughts at once.
• Only the favorite club. The driver is fun to hit. It's rarely what decides the round.

Take the drills out on the course

The intermediate target is the easiest to use right away. Pick a spot one meter in front of the ball on every tee shot and see what it does for your alignment.

You can play the fairway drill as a competition against yourself. Count how many fairways you hit over nine holes and try to beat it next time. It's a simple way to see whether the practice is paying off.

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