Drill library · Driving range

Play the Front Nine

Driving rangeHandicap 5–3020 minrandom / pressurecourse strategydriverirons

Why this drill

The range's best-kept secret: play your home course from memory, shot by shot, changing clubs the way the card demands. It converts range time into course time — decision, target, consequence — which is the part of golf a bucket of stock 7-irons never touches.

Setup

Full bag, about twenty balls, and a course you know well enough to walk in your head. Pick range targets to stand in for each fairway and green before you begin.

The drill

First tee: play the club you actually hit there, at a range target standing in for that fairway. Judge the result honestly — that flag left of your line is out of bounds if the card says so. Play the approach the tee shot leaves you (a pushed drive means a longer, harder second), on down the hole; inside 30 yards, call it holed out and move on. Nine holes, full routine on every shot, score against par as if each shot's range result had happened on grass.

One thought to take with you

Pick the target a smart caddie would give you, not the one your ego wants.