I went to the range today and found, again, that I'm by far the slowest guy there when it comes to practice. A little background- I took a decade away from the game when my wife was taken ill in 2001. I was a 10 hdcp when I stopped and started up again about 16 months ago. Part of why I'm slow is that I have psoriatic arthritis and neuropathy in my legs and feet that I didn't have before I quit and have to step back and sit down every 15 minutes or so. During the break I'll clean the clubs that I just hit and wait for the pain to subside so that I can go back out and hit some more. When I go back out I still take a minute or more to hit each ball as I try to think about the next shot, visualize what I want the ball to do, and set my grip (I'm working on my second grip change of the year). I then approach the shot as if I was on the course in a situation where it might have some significance. It takes me about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to hit a 100-110 ball bucket.
That's what I do at the range, but while I was there today five people showed up as much as an hour later than me. Every one of them was done well before I was. One guy finished his large bucket of 100-110 balls in less than 45 minutes. That's about 2 1/2 balls a minute, or one every 25 seconds or so, in 95 degree heat with high humidity and no shade.
How do you practice? Are you fast, to get a little exercise and just go out to hit some balls, or do you approach hitting at the range as an opportunity to work toward improving your game? Am I just too serious about how I practice? My game is improving but I don't really have a lot of fun while I'm at the range since I'm always trying to better my game.

















