Am I a Range Queen?

[miles2go]

So I hit balls at the range twice a week. Maybe 80 balls at a pop. I carefully work through the whole bag, starting with an 8 iron or PW through Driver and back to Sand wedge.

 

Usually have an unacceptable miss with maybe 2 of my iron or wedge shots (the others are not all perfect, just acceptable or very good). Out of 10 driver swings, I will likely hook or slice one. The rest pretty darn good. Afterwards I go chip and put with no issues. Pretty good short game. Maybe miss some gimme putts due to poor concentration (i.e. boredom) .

 

So why, when I get on course, I routinely miss 3 or 4 drives (left or right), miss several iron shots by 20+ yards and scull or fat several wedges or mid irons from the fairway. Not to mention the 2 or 3 missed 3 foot putts.

 

Is this just performance anxiety or am I some kind of range whiz with no actual on course golf ability? I even go to different ranges just to mix it up.

 

At the range I am a single digit HCP (with newbies asking me if I am a PGA pro). On course I average mid-high 80's.

 

What is my problem?

 

 

[cardoustie]

There are many Ranger Rick's out there

 

This is not uncommon miles2go

 

There are no ponds and OB's and, most importantly, dire consequences for piss poor swings and shots so you make less of them

[cardoustie]

I will also add that hitting 6-10 shots in a row with 1 club is easier for pretty much everyone

 

Next time you practice play a course in your mind. Hit a driver, then a 7i, then a 3w and a PW, then a driver and a 4h etc etc

 

And, not being critical, if you are a 10 cap you may want to evaluate the accuracy of your percentage of misses on the range

[BrianMcG]

It’s easy to get in the groove on the range.

 

 

When was the last time you hit the same club twice in a row on the course?

 

Hit a different club for every swing on the range.

[miles2go]

Thanks Cardoustie. HCP has probably creeped up to 12-14. Not really keeping up with it.

 

The advice on practicing like I am on a course or a particular hole on a course rather than just hitting clubs makes sense.

[dodgyman]

When I practice at the range I always leave 20 balls at the end and play a simulated round at a course I usually play. I hit my drive, estimate distance left and hit the approach. If I’m close enough for a simulated GIR I score a par, otherwise a bogey or worse. If I hook my drive I’ll pitch out etc...

 

While not the same as on course I’m still amazed that I do much worse at this than my range session. I start seeing things go wrong and don’t have the luxury of practice shots to address it, I aim at a target, I visualize the danger of water/hazards etc...

 

There is still a big gap between on course and this simulated practice. If it’s helped me a lot! (Plus it’s fun!)

[rama5]

my history has always been the more I practice the worse I scored, warm up had to be cut to almost nothing over a 1/2 hour or one bag regardless then I was more consistent. One summer I spent four days a week at least two hours a day practicing and sure result I shot worse - regardless of additional lessons

[thejazzmarauder]

my history has always been the more I practice the worse I scored, warm up had to be cut to almost nothing over a 1/2 hour or one bag regardless then I was more consistent. One summer I spent four days a week at least two hours a day practicing and sure result I shot worse - regardless of additional lessons

This is why people are scared of golf instruction. If you don't see some immediate improvement in the quality of your contact and/or ball flight, run. Making the changes permanent and becoming consistent enough to meaningfully improve your scores can be tough, but that's another thing entirely.

[uitar9]

I've been trying to just hit at targets at the range during the winter. Different distances, different targets. I believe its helped on the course each year. If I don't hit the target, I know I've missed and I try to figure out why.

 

If I have no target every shot looks good.

 

Like Cardousti posted, theres no penalties on the range

[Boricua Golf]

Yeah, I used to be the same way, at the range I was Tiger, on the course I was more like Tigger...

[BB28403]

Sit in a chair after each shot, now rattle the chair, take a call, drink some water, grab a few M&Ms, stand for 5 minutes complaining about a wait.

Ok now you are ready for the next shot.

[OTT]

Range equals nice flat "PERFECT" lie.

300yrds wide sometimes. No trees,bunkers, OOB, no fringes, bare patches or rough, and also downtime between shouts this is probably the most important thing to deal with.

 

Course equals, uneven lies, even on tee boxes, something which a lot of people never check for, uneven lies on every hole, penalising rough, thick fringes, water,bunkers,OOB, and a miss area of maybe 60-70 yards wide at driving distance. Plus you also have the added pressure of a card in your back pocket...

 

Next time your on the range play your course in your head. Hit your 10 or 15 balls to warm up and then give yourself your play lines, ie. The with of your hole. It could be the space on the range between to markers or a flag and a marker, whatever you want..

 

Hit your tee shot and see how you fair out.. if you happen to be lucky enough to have a grass range and you think that your tee shot was too far off line and ended up in the rough try and find the dirtiest little salty like you can and imagine the distance to the green in your head. Pick your target and club carefully, go through your routine. And execute the shot.. the only way this works is if your completely honest with yourself.

 

But have downtime on the range like you have on the course.

As has been said above, you get into a routine on the range of hitting maybe a half dozen balls with the same club and the sanme lie.. you won't get that in the course. Ever.

 

[596]

When I'm on the range I don't hit too many of the same shots in a row. I like to hit a hook, hit a slice, hit a fade, hit a 50% shot, etc. I use the same club but I vary my swing. This allows me to see different flights and use different swings without constantly changing the club. I don't want to get into a groove hitting 50 of the same shots in a row. This doesn't equate to the course. But hitting different shots with the same club will serve you better on the course.

 

I run through my bag the same as the OP. Start with little 50 yard 8 irons, working on through driver then back down. But never more then 2 or 3 shots the same with each club. As stated I'll vary the flight, the direction and the distance constantly.

[Nard_S]

Ranger Rick here:

 

Range (practice) & play mental state are completely different. The best remedy I've utilized is make range/course mentality more symbiotic yet keep practice much more demanding & work like for every rep. For course time, let go and have fun with it, score be damned. Practice is work, play is play, score/cap is more an audit on the practice/work and less the play. 180* from what most burden themselves with. Adjusting to that has allowed me to be a RR and take it to the course in a more seamless fashion and play at a better level and walk off happier.

[Itsjustagame]

No matter how much structure you create at the range it's not the same as being on the course. Your practice session is 80 full swings in maybe an hour and a half?

On the course you have about 40 full swings in 4+ hours.

As suggested it's pretty easy to groove a swing at the range- even a bad swing. When you have to make a good swing every 5-10 minutes it's a whole new world.

[Nard_S]

No matter how much structure you create at the range it's not the same as being on the course. Your practice session is 80 full swings in maybe an hour and a half?

On the course you have about 40 full swings in 4+ hours.

As suggested it's pretty easy to groove a swing at the range- even a bad swing. When you have to make a good swing every 5-10 minutes it's a whole new world.

 

Completely agree. Key issues in practice vs play is rhythm & tempo are easily grooved and naturalized at a 2 ball per minute pace.Every five minutes with"consequences" is a different beast and often it;s because we become"careful".. Also, practice is much less fatiguing on legs and overall energy. Playing 18 challenges body more and it's easy to lose sight of that now matter how fit you are.

[sandtrap]

If you have to ask.....

[aliikane]

Golf is so mental. Practice is a different mentality than playing. The course never is the same as the range. Practice is good but you still have to play a lot in order to get better at playing. When I was at my best, I was playing a lot more than practicing.

[miles2go]

Sit in a chair after each shot, now rattle the chair, take a call, drink some water, grab a few M&Ms, stand for 5 minutes complaining about a wait.

Ok now you are ready for the next shot.

 

Dang... a 5 hour range session? Maybe I'll take up tennis.

[miles2go]

If you have to ask.....

 

Lol.

[rgk5]

So I hit balls at the range twice a week. Maybe 80 balls at a pop. I carefully work through the whole bag, starting with an 8 iron or PW through Driver and back to Sand wedge.

 

Usually have an unacceptable miss with maybe 2 of my iron or wedge shots (the others are not all perfect, just acceptable or very good). Out of 10 driver swings, I will likely hook or slice one. The rest pretty darn good. Afterwards I go chip and put with no issues. Pretty good short game. Maybe miss some gimme putts due to poor concentration (i.e. boredom) .

 

So why, when I get on course, I routinely miss 3 or 4 drives (left or right), miss several iron shots by 20+ yards and scull or fat several wedges or mid irons from the fairway. Not to mention the 2 or 3 missed 3 foot putts.

 

Is this just performance anxiety or am I some kind of range whiz with no actual on course golf ability? I even go to different ranges just to mix it up.

 

At the range I am a single digit HCP (with newbies asking me if I am a PGA pro). On course I average mid-high 80's.

 

What is my problem?

 

At the range there is on "miss penalty".

 

On the course there is.

[Hawkeye77]

Let's ask David Johansen ........

 

[augustgolf]

Its easy to get in the groove on the range.

 

 

When was the last time you hit the same club twice in a row on the course?

 

Hit a different club for every swing on the range.

My putter, on a normal day....sometimes 3 times in a row...

[LeftDaddy]

I agree with everyone in here, and really love what Nard_S had to say. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that your assessment of your range shots is very different than the reality of them. You think that 8 or 9 of 10 drives are “acceptable “ but in reality they probably aren’t. I do this too...I’m like “I hit 100 iron shots and 90 of them were great”, but as soon as I play a “simulated “ round in my head and create imaginary boundaries, I realize my shots weren’t nearly as good as I thought they were.

[Nard_S]

I agree with everyone in here, and really love what Nard_S had to say. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that your assessment of your range shots is very different than the reality of them. You think that 8 or 9 of 10 drives are "acceptable " but in reality they probably aren't. I do this too...I'm like "I hit 100 iron shots and 90 of them were great", but as soon as I play a "simulated " round in my head and create imaginary boundaries, I realize my shots weren't nearly as good as I thought they were.

 

Very true. You have to be exacting of what you are looking for and getting, especially on dispersion/targeting end of it. Percentages, clustering of impact,rhythm/balance issues take precedence over power and glory shots though one should push that envelope too. A great session is one where I walk away mentally fatigued not because I was pressing myself but because I was dispassionately absorbing everything that was going on. For the record, I'm not a range rat by choice. Life gets in the way of blocking out 6 hours for rounds week in week out. 2 hour blocks, several times a week is much easier to accommodate for.

[msh134]

I am guilty as charged I am a 0 handicap on the range and a 10 on the course if anyone ever figures out the way to fix the brain cramps that show up on the tee box you will be a millionaire for your knowledge

[Forged4ever]

I prefer the term “range rat” cuz I would think that a “range queen” would have far more issues than a propensity to “live” on the line along with an inability to take whatever nice strikes that he might have from the line to the course. This being a PC dominated world, I’ll stop there however I will say that when I owned a driving range, I had a lot of rats ? though few, if any, queens that I could see?

 

That being said, I always had two types of practice routines, a “competitive” versus a “mechanical.” Those should be self explanatory however I do have a thread somewhere on here where I went into the specifics(as did Madison as she teaches these two routines to her students) of these two routines.

 

The biggest difference in the two is the mindset that one must be in and while there is no substitute for on course, competitive experience, the “competitive” practice routine puts one in the frame of mind where form doesn’t mean s***, the only thing that matters is the outcome/target, exactly what occurs on a golf course.

 

That’s the best and most useful mindset to have on a course, and it is implanted, grooved & etched into one’s subconscious mind on both the line or in practice rounds and away from the game when one has quiet time to visualize their swing, shot and the outcome.

 

Trust me here, I don’t care how much ya practice, how many tens of thousands of balls that you hit or how many hundreds of thousands of putts that you run on the practice green, if you can’t clear your mind on a course, under pressure, of EVERY thought except that target, welll, You’re never gonna get it done under pressure.

 

Ya gotta TRUST Brothers, you gotta TRUST!!

 

THAT takes more practice than your physical swing~

 

I’ve trusted when I’ve had my “C” game and while that was never good enough to beat the “Elites,” and I even lost to em with my “A” game, though that’s why I was never “Elite,” however my “C” under pressure could beat 98%+ out there, cuz when all the bulls*** had settled, I TRUSTED my ability to put that ball on target and then to put it in the hole.

 

There ain’t no style points on that card Gents?

 

Even the queens’ll tell ya that?

 

Stay well Gents & have a nice week?

RP

[IamMarkMac]

Yeah, I thought the same. I could string up a bunch of sweet hits but didn't notice I was ignoring one or two mishits inside the cluster. It was literally only on video that I realized how many mishits I actually had. When you're hitting, you just tee up another one and, assuming it's good, the mishit is forgotten.

 

Since then, I've stopped myself from hitting consecutive balls and then had some beers between shots to simulate actual course conditions.

[PoeKingShankspeare]

After a friend's advice, I have one day at the range working my game - putting to driver. Then another day simulating each hole on the course just for 9 holes using a 40 ball bucket. I use a SC200 to give me the distance only, and use my swing x swing app give me the distance for the next shot off the fairway.

 

The key is to be honest. If I go OB or under the trees, I use the next club to get me back into the fairway, hitting 25 yards each time. I played this course so many times I memorized each hole. I also try to play my favorite distances 80, 120, 145 etc.. and hit the targets on the range which have those distances. With the driver, I pick a very narrow target to hit at like between to. And, I too can hit targets over those long distances with my driver.....

 

With that said... I have a mental issue with my driver. I can't get off the tee box lately lol. Yips sucks.

 

Lastly, I know many range rats (or queens) who can driver for miles, chip like a king, and putt like a jedi master. But rarely, or if not, play the course at all.

[YMark]

my history has always been the more I practice the worse I scored, warm up had to be cut to almost nothing over a 1/2 hour or one bag regardless then I was more consistent. One summer I spent four days a week at least two hours a day practicing and sure result I shot worse - regardless of additional lessons

 

I'm going to go on a limb here and say you weren't practicing correctly, and you need to work on "how" to practice.