Which clubs to take to the range?

[dn0614]

Which clubs do you hit on the driving range?  It seems excessive to hit every club, but I may be wrong (wouldn’t be the first time and definitely won’t be the last). 

[Hawkeye77]

I’ve never hit every club in one session. 
 

I might just hit some 7 irons, might just hit some wedges, might hit a few spaced out through the bag - depends what I went to the range for. Working on something vs. pre-round warmup and all sorts of combinations. 
 

Headed to a clinic this week and just taking a couple irons, 3 wedges and a putter, lol, no need to take the whole bag. 

[Soloman1]

the clubs you don’t like or hit the worst.

[stryper]

Four or five clubs pulled more or less evenly from my bag.  Always a wedge for warmup and short work.  Always the driver on top. May or may not end the session with whatever wedge I have on hand that day.  Sometimes it’s just more satisfying leaving after a bomb. 

[HGLucky13]

Because I am currently trying to ingrain what my coach is teaching me, I will grab a 9 iron or a PW and only hit it for most of a bucket. If it is going well I might move up to a 5 or 6 iron and see if it still works with the longer iron. If it starts to go bad, I'll drop back down to the 9 iron again and get a groove going again. Then back and forth until whatever I am working on is consistent. I feel like if I can do it with both ends of the loft range the clubs in the middle will fall in line.

I could get away with only my gap wedge, 8i, and my 5i and either driver or 3w for most days and feel like I was getting value out of a few buckets at the range.

But some days id rather hit a 9i and a 7i, others maybe my PW and the 6i. If I had a bad day off of the tee box, I might hit an entire bucket of just 3w and Driver. Or my putting has been worse than usual, so I will only putt for an hour or so.

So I usually just take my whole bag.

[alittleoverpar]

I generally take all of my clubs, when I go to the range (which is not as often as I should).  I like to hit a few wedges to warm up and then I visualize playing a round of golf on my favorite course.  Hitting each shot in order that I would hit if playing a round.  If I mess up a shot, I will often hit another.  I continue this process through a simulated 18 holes.  It keeps me from just mindlessly banging balls, and allows me to mimic actual play.  

 

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it makes my range sessions more valuable.  

[Kuuuch]

If I'm running low on time, I'll hit 60*-8 iron and then all my woods since I use those clubs the most. I'm preferably hitting every club in the bag during a range session. 

 

To Soloman's point, I will tend to spend more time on 4-6 iron as I hate long irons and tend to struggle with those clubs the most. 

[Pepperturbo]

Varies per the person and what their golf goal might be if they have one? 

 

I might hit a small bucket of short to mid-irons before teeing off.  But don't go to the range like I used to.  When I do, focus is on short-irons or mid-irons or long-irons, or woods.  

 

When learning, I was at the range six days a week.  Excessive is how I, at 40yr old, reached an index of 2 in six years.  Each day had a designated plan, including targets; short irons, mid-irons or long irons, woods or wedges or putter, and hit 1100–1400 balls per week, did that for nearly six years.

Edited February 26, 2024 by Pepperturbo

[KeepCalmandCarry]

Excluding short game work (one ball and my 54* at a dedicated short game area for 20-60 min), a range session of one large bucket of 45 balls is:

 

-10 Pw (feet together, at a target in the 50-100 yd range; sometimes all ten to the same target, sometimes not (with a club I won’t play to carry beyond 135 or so (for reference))…

 

-5 comfortably full 5w (teed up early in the season, off the grass as the year progresses (and assuming a good lie is feasible; otherwise I’ll tee it up)…

 

-10 Pw, feet together as per above…

 

-5 comfortably full 5w…

 

-10 feet-together Pw…

 

-3-5 comfortably full drivers…

 

…taking my time, rehearsing feels/intents between balls.

 

And if it’s early pre-season, or I’m working a change, or I need to get back to basics, etc.—then it’s nothing but feet-together PW’s to 50-100 yds!

Works for me! 

 

[596]

On just a range/chipping day.

 

SW or GW

Left hand PW (chip lefty)

9 or PW

7 or 8

 

Just 4 clubs. I only hit driver/fairways/hybrids when warming up for a round.

 

 

[ferrispgm]

SW, 7 or 8 iron and 2 or 3iron is about all I hit on the range.  Maybe I'll hit 10 drives at most if any.

[kamaaina1]

Wedge, 7-iron, rescue, & driver...  

 

[YouDaHamHider]

I usually hit all of them. I Play a game where I have to hit 2 consecutive shots to my imaginary green/fairway. Start with wedges and go through the bag. E.g. 2 consecutive lob wedges to my imaginary target 70 yards away, 2 consecutive SW to my imaginary target 80 yards away, and so on through to driver where I have to hit 3 consecutive shots to my imaginary fairway. I like it because it naturally makes me practice more with the clubs I need to practice with. I.e. i rarely hit 2 consecutive 5 irons to my 175 green so I end up hitting more 5 irons than LWs during a session. It's also a good game because you can count how many balls you have left after completing all clubs and try and improve on it the next time you practice.

[Justsomeguy]

Depends what you're working on.

I always want to warm up with a wedge, usually my sand wedge.

I also need the most work on my driver, so that's coming. Then I pick one fairway or hybrid and one big iron and little iron.

But really that's the limit. I've got a Sunday bag I use for the range.

But today for example I just took a wedge and my driver bc I had the driver regripped and wanted to see if I liked it (I did. It's great. Totally joining the tour now.).

Sometimes I'll just take a 7 iron.

But again whatever you're working on.

[BombinJim]

I’ll usually hit SW, 8, and Driver if I’m warming up. Maybe throw in a 4 iron and a fairway wood if I have time. I’ll always go back to SW and make sure I’m hitting that the way I want, and then finish with a mental practice shot of the first tee.

 

If I’m working on something I’ll take my whole bag.

[Jayjay_theweim_guy]

One trick to make practice fun is to take a deck of cards, shuffle it, replace in pack, then draw at random for your next club to hit.  13 non putter clubs; 13 cards in a suit.  Works well if you're trying to engrain a full shot routine.

 

Usually it's evens one day for me, odds another.  But usually hitting driver every session at some point.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

For full session and not a warm up I usually start with a 60 then work my way up the irons hitting either evens or odds. Then I'll hit all my longest clubs, in my case hybrid/3 wood/driver. If I'm working on things a lot of those will be with middle irons with less speed/drills.