Get full benefit from your time on the driving range

5 ways to make the most of your practice swings

On visiting my local driving range, I have watched someone hit ball after ball. The question is, are they really accomplishing anything? I think not! Practice does not make perfect... for perfection in golf is rarely achieved. Practicing your golf swing is only beneficial when you understand what is wrong and how to correct it. If transferring your weight is your problem, hitting dozens of balls off the back foot is not going to relieve the problem. Paying a CPGA instructor is a very good solution, but that may not always be financially possible. Fortunately there are other solutions.

In speaking with David Wright, the head teaching professional at Birdies and Buckets Family Golf Centre in Surrey, he offers some excellent suggestions to improving your golf game through structured practice. They include:

1. Do not hit balls aimlessly, but pick a target. Distance is not important, because you are hitting used range balls. Hitting a target produces accuracy and control.
2. Practice how you want to play. For example, if you have a pre-shot routine on the course, use the same pre-shot routine at the driving range. If you bump and run on the golf course, practice that shot at the driving range.
3. Make contact with the ball your first priority. Without solid contact, distance and accuracy are impossible.  Expressed another way: hit it.
4.  Practice with all the clubs in your bag and not just your comfort clubs. Especially use that one club that gives you nightmares.
5. Utilize two types of practice methods: 
A. Block practice is what most people do. For example, hitting ten balls with a seven-iron and then ten balls with a driver. This may develop muscle memory, but it is not game realistic. On a golf course, you seldom use the same club back-to-back and often go from the driver to an iron.
B. Random practice is the second type of practice and is more realistic. In this method, never hit a club more than once. Visualize that you are on a real golf course and play each hole. You can even keep score, plus two putts per hole. 

Wright turned pro in 2001, is a graduate of the Humber College Golf Management Program and has passed four levels of the TCCP program of the CPGA. David teaches at Birdies and Buckets Family Golf Centre in Surrey, B.C.  In 2002, Birdies and Buckets was voted the Best New Driving Range in North America and is listed in the Top 10 Golf Practice Facilities in North American and number one in Canada.

You cannot lose with either the facilities at Birdies and Buckets or the excellent advice from Wright. He can be contacted at 604-592-9188 or 778-995-9501.