Driving range before a round?

[retexan599]

I have arthritis in my hands and it limits the total number of full swings I can make before the hands get really sore (sort of like a baseball pitcher's 'pitch count'). So I tend not to make many full swings before the round. I do some short chips and some putts beforehand and that helps. I have recently gotten larger grips on my clubs and am eager to see how they will help my 'swing count'.

[chipper2]

Being past my mid-60 and only started playing at 57, I just don't flex. Hitting a small buckets gets things loosened up. It works like 3-in-1 oil on the joints.

[Voiceontapex]

for me, and my friends we have figured out for us, NEVER go to driving range haha, it just doesnt end well =] lol

[Cooker]

Even if I can't hit some balls I like to show up early and take swings like I'm hitting balls, then chip and putt.

[Three Putt]

Putt and Pitch shots a must for me, even if it's on the 1st tee box.

I always play better if i can hit full shots on the DR. 7 iron, hybrid, and Driver warm up leads to much better scores for me on the first 5 holes or so.

[JetFan1983]

Lots of interesting replies to this one. Ok, my turn.

The course I usually play at doesn't have a range, which I find to be a huge detriment to my scoring ability on the front 9. That being said, the front 9 is much much easier than this course's back 9, which I think is pretty hard.

So, all my rounds at this course, which makes up basically the majority of my handicap, have been without a range warmup session.

However, when I do get a chance to actually warm up for a round (which is basically never given time constraints), I tend to hit the ball better during the round. My ball position is so weird that sometimes I need to find it that day. The faster I found out where my clubhead is bottoming out that day, the better chance I have of hitting the ball where I want to. I know that sounds bad, but hey, I'm a high handicapper! This game is brutal like that.

One of the things though that is interesting about the warm up range, is often times when I do get a chance to hit ball before hand, my expectations for the round go way up. That in of itself can cause a bad round, so lately, when I do get to hit balls first (which is rare) I really have to remind myself to keep the ego in check and not to assume I'm going to play really well now.

In an ideal world though, I would have an hour to warm up at the range before every round I play, but this world is far from ideal, my friends!!!

[Parker0065]

I bit the bullet this year and added unlimited range ball use to our membership this season. It's still early in the year but I'm already convinced this is something I will be doing every year from here on out.

The nice thing is I only live 10 minutes from the course and my son and I will go over and hit balls even when we don't have enough time to get in a round.

It does make a difference to hit a small bucket to warm up before a round. I also have a net in my back yard set up that I use to use to warm up with but it is not as effective as you can't really tell where the ball is going. I like to hit maybe 15-20 balls before I play. We usually hit more after a round for actual "practice" to work on the problems we incured during the round.

[rjfan91]

I bit the bullet this year and added unlimited range ball use to our membership this season. It's still early in the year but I'm already convinced this is something I will be doing every year from here on out.

My problem is that our range ball option is $500/year. I don't think it makes sense for me. I usually take a wedge and chip. Towards the end of chipping I'll make near full swings. After 10 or 15 minutes I'll be loose enough to swing. It doesn't seem to effect my score too much if I hit the range or not. This is probably because putting is my biggest issue.

[DavidFehertysBike]

It's interesting how I can hit the ball horribly in warm-up then play lights-out during the round. Most of the time, the better I hit ball during warm-up the worse my round will be and vice versa.

Hitting the ball and playing the game are two completley different things..

[bogeyhitter25]

I only stretch. If given the oppurtunity, I'll hit at the range. But it isn't a necessity.

[putput]

If given the chance I spend 15-20 mins, normally start on the putting green, I drop 3 balls about 10 feet from the whole and practice my speed with the ball, most of the time I more worried about under/over hitting it then I am with my line up. I then hit up the range and I grab my pitching wedge and practice just hitting the rubber tee a few times, making sure my swing is aligned before I go through 20-30 balls out on the range. By then I am all warmed up and ready to have a good golf game.

[TheWarHound]

I always shoot better after a small bucket of balls on the range. Get all stretched out, warmed up, and hopefully get the swing on plane.

[MI Rob]

I will usually just stretch unless I have time to hit up the range before a round.

[JawjaDawg]

It doesn't matter to me if I go to the range or not, but I have to hit the putting green. Chipping, putting, and stretching is usually all the warmup I go for.