Easy driving range drills – what are the best and most effective exercises to use at the range today? We talked about how to practice your golf game the right way in a recent blog post. Today we are talking about some more practice drills to really help your golf game as a beginner like me. All of these can be done at the driving range with little to no equipment – just you, your golf clubs, and balls!
Practicing your swing doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes getting back to the basics is the right course of action. Here are 5 of my favorite drills to use at the driving range. They are effective and simple!
Ball Contact Drill
Ball contact – it sounds so simple, right?! It may sound easy but there are many layers to making contact with the ball. It has taken me a long time to consistently get the ball up in the air. So, here is an easy ball contact drill – create those divots to get under the ball!
TIP: Bring your golf rangefinder to see exactly how far you are hitting each club. Sometimes the flags at a driving range do not give an accurate distance.
When you do start making solid contact, you can see how far you average distance for each club is. This will really help when you get out on the course to play a round.
An awesome drill to work on contact is to spread out two golf balls to make an imaginary line where you will hit balls off of. You want to make sure you are compressing the ball and creating divots that are ahead of the line rather than behind it.
Easy Putting Drill
When you go to the range, don’t forget about your putting. This drill is simple & effective and will help you make more putts and be more consistent.
Chalk Line With Gateway Putting Drill
- Step 1 – add a chalk line to the hole
- Step 2 – add a gateway with tees
- Step 3 – set up 7-8 feet away from the hole
- Step 4 – don’t leave until you make 100 putts
We posted a short video of this putting drill over on our Instagram – check it out here.
Practice Your Swing Thought
If you don’t know what a swing thought is, it’s really just a mental note that you say to yourself or a feel that you create during your golf swing. For some examples, here are some swing thoughts of PGA tour players.
As you may know, golf is partially a mental game too. You can go from having an amazing shot to completely toping the ball and hitting a bad shot. It’s important to practice how you feel when you have a good shot and what you are saying to yourself in your head!
It’s hard to practice this on the course, so repeating your swing thought and feel at the driving range is a simple drill to use.
Alignment Sticks
Using alignment sticks to practice at the driving range is a great way to check yourself on where you are aimed.
Before you start using alignment stick drills, make sure you know how to aim at your target. Without this basic fundamental to your golf swing, the alignment sticks won’t do you any good.
The Short Backswing
A lot of beginner golfers start out with a backswing that may be too long. I know that I have had this problem without even knowing. It wasn’t until Tommy (my PGA Pro boyfriend) put me on the Trackman. I saw exactly how far I was going back and it didn’t look pretty!
At the driving range, try using a shortened backswing drill. This will help you control the middle part of your swing. Once you have that down, you can go back to making full swing.
Do you have a favorite drill to use at the driving range? Leave us a comment below!
