If you were thinking of popping into a golf course for the purpose of practice, a driving range is the best option for you. However, it’s often seen that golfers often use the driving range without a clear purpose or strategy, so don’t get as much out of their practice sessions as they could.

 

This blog contains a few tips that will help you get the maximum output of your time on the driving range.

 
  1. Stretch out rightly: Stretch out your hamstrings, quads, back, arms and neck before you even hit a ball. You may feel a bit silly but having a good old stretch before you begin will enhance your feel and performance from the very start of your range session. This is the most important thing to prevent any little niggles or injuries.

 
  1. Start Small: Begin your range practice with some half-swings with a sand wedge or pitching wedge. This will aid in the development of feel and strike, as well as the establishment of a comfortable range tempo.

 Shlok Jain golfer
  1. Practice your pre-shot routine: You’d be stunned how much more relaxed you’ll feel on the course when your pre-shot routine is constant and well trained.

 
  1. Focus on diverse practice: Don’t hit 50 balls with the same club. Change your club or the target, at least every 10 balls. This will help you focus on that specific batch. I count how many I struck well and hit the target, and then I try and beat that ratio in my next batch of five.

 Shlok Jain golf swing
  1. Challenge yourself: Having a purpose with your practice is something that most golfers tend to forget at times. So have a purpose and challenge yourself to improve. This is the part that I enjoy the most, so here are a few examples: • Choose two points and stimulate a fairway to see your spread with that club • Shape your shots. It can be from left to right, right to left or dead straight • Make a gate with your alignment sticks and hit low shots through it. ` In all the above challenges, you shall see your score out of 5 balls and try to do better than that the next time.

Shlok Jain golfing with alignment sticks on range  

Wishing you many birdies and eagles, Shlok Jain

 
Shlok is a young amateur from Pune and is aiming to be a professional golfer on the tour. Shlok used to regularly play in the Poona Club Golf Course before moving to the USA this year. He is nationally ranked no.7 in the country for category 13-14 year old boys (Category B) and was the winner of US Kids Indian Championship 2020. During the ongoing Covid crisis in India Shlok actively promoted Awaaz Foundation which provided verified covid leads to aspirants all over India. Apart from golf, Shlok also actively plays cricket and football and is also interested in coding.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to Shlok Jain. 

Shlok is an ambassador for Golf Partee, the collection of polo shirts that he loves can be found here