Driving Range - How many balls?

[jamo]

EDIT: Out of curiosity, does everyone here pay by the bucket, have a membership plan, or a home setup? I personally have unlimited range with my membership but I think a lot of guys have different habits if they pay.

I've got a membership at a driving range. It's not a ton of buckets (I'll probably have to renew it once later in the year), so the point is just to get a bit of a discount over paying every time I go. Plus it's easier to just have them quickly swipe my card rather than making sure I've got the cash on me.

[joekelly]

Would be interesting, i suppose, to poll the various users here and correlate the total number of balls hit per week/month and the handicap of those hitters.  I suspect the high H'cappers hit more balls as they are continually searching for ..consistency or distance or whatever. Whereas the more skilled players are refining technique and keeping in touch with the known skill.

[Hammer 4]

My range is pay by the bucket, ot you can pay 100.00 or 250.00 and receive a Big discount. The buckets are small 50, large 100, and jumbo 150. Small is 8.00 lrg 10.00 jumbo is 13.00. Open from 6 am to 10 pm.

[MS256]

No driving range anywhere close so the only practice I get is in the yard.

I have a net I can hit into but I don't use it much unless the ground is wet where balls I would hit in the yard would plug and be lost. I keep about 100 practice balls in the yard where I can hit up to 160 yard shots and I would say I probably average hitting about 50 balls a day, if the weather is decent, and then have to go pick them up.

Occasionally I might hit 3 or 4 balls with a fairway wood or driver down across the hayfield but those are usually guaranteed lost balls so I don't do it very often.

I used to play sooooo much golf that I really didn't notice not having a place to practice hitting longer clubs but I can tell now that I don't play nearly as much that it hurts my game quite a bit. Takes multiple holes of feeling it out, and hoping for the best, to get in any kind of a groove with the longer clubs.

I need to start playing more but this year life has thrown me quite a few curve balls and I haven't been able to play much at all.

[Wangus94]

My new routine advised to me was to try to hit 3 shots the same, then try to hit 3 different shots, like a fade for example. I need to visualize more and make changes to my set up to create the shots I need. I used to set up the same way all the time and didn't even realize it. It's tough.. Hahaha

[Buke]

Quality over Quantity - I rather hit 90 balls (at my range 2 x buckets), with all 13 clubs and use a full 90 minutes, than try to hit 200 balls in 45 minutes.

But I try to make every shot count; checking fundamentals before every shot, picking a spot exactly where I want to hit it and step away from the bucket for a few seconds after every shot. I do this four times a week. On the other three days I play full rounds, one of which is a practice round by myself where I take as much time as is available to hit as many tee and fairway shots as I consider necessary. Again, one practice round where you hit numerous balls from uneven lies and fairway bunkers etc (in other words, shots you cannot practice on the range anyway), is worth 10 range days.

Senselessly hitting hundreds of balls is counterproductive. It spoils your timing and rhythm and leaves you with nothing but a sore back and broken calluses on your fingers.

[Hammer 4]

Quality over Quantity - I rather hit 90 balls (at my range 2 x buckets), with all 13 clubs and use a full 90 minutes, than try to hit 200 balls in 45 minutes.

But I try to make every shot count; checking fundamentals before every shot, picking a spot exactly where I want to hit it and step away from the bucket for a few seconds after every shot. I do this four times a week. On the other three days I play full rounds, one of which is a practice round by myself where I take as much time as is available to hit as many tee and fairway shots as I consider necessary. Again, one practice round where you hit numerous balls from uneven lies and fairway bunkers etc (in other words, shots you cannot practice on the range anyway), is worth 10 range days.

Senselessly hitting hundreds of balls is counterproductive. It spoils your timing and rhythm and leaves you with nothing but a sore back and broken calluses on your fingers.

The theme in this thread now seems to be quality over quantity. Everyone is different, some of us can hit 200+ balls, and still make every ball productive. Pounding balls is useless.  That's why I plan my range time, all the time. If I only hit say 50 balls, that's not enough for me to do my drills, and hit a few with a full swing to see how I'm doing, maybe some of you can, I guess I'm a slow learner when it comes to golf.. So no, I don't Senselessly hit balls, that would be a waste of $$$ imho. 100's of balls do not equate to senseless time spent at the range.

[Lihu]

120 balls at most**. 1 minute per ball.

20 with my 52 degree wedge half swing taking about 1 minute per ball and getting the swing feel

10 60 degree full swings

10 52 degree

10 PW

10 9i

10 8i

10 7i

10 6i

10 3W

10 Driver

10 some other club or pitch shots with the 60

** sometimes double this amount, but that's a pretty decent workout.

[vangator]

One small bucket (45 balls) per week. I work on tempo. I tend to get bored hitting balls. I spend most of my time on and around the greens.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Well I hit 90 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week and 120 Friday. Then went and hit 45 this morning before my round. All but one really good. The. Sucked on the course because my back wouldn't let me swing well. First time ever In golf my swing thought was swing faster. So I guess I would say 435 and a round in a week is too much for me. I won't practice before my round tomorrow.

[Lihu]

Well I hit 90 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week and 120 Friday. Then went and hit 45 this morning before my round. All but one really good. The. Sucked on the course because my back wouldn't let me swing well. First time ever In golf my swing thought was swing faster. So I guess I would say 435 and a round in a week is too much for me. I won't practice before my round tomorrow.

You must swing pretty fast. 45 balls would be just enough warmup for me, and most likely 200 would be too much.

[Shagia]

There are 2 types of drills, one is grinding, which is try to make our muscle memory remember the moves, however not recommended if u are already a decent swinger, the others is hit balls just like when ure playing, preshot routine, take aim, same tempo which is much better for consistency. I always hit 50 balls long shot and 50 balls pitch, then chip putt til i get tired.