Your practice session at the range?

[The Recreational Golfer]

I get a bucket of 99 balls. Then, four balls each with the PW, 9i, 8i. Six pitches with the sand wedge, six pitches with the lob wedge. Four balls each with the 7i, 6i, 5i. Six pitches with the sand wedge, six pitches with the lob wedge. Four balls each with the 4h, 3h, 2h. Six pitches with the sand wedge, six pitches with the lob wedge. Four drivers. Done.

Then to the practice green for chipping practice: out of the high grass, and greenside chips. Putt out every chip for short putt practice. Go around the putting clock for approach putt practice. Back to the bucket and go through the bag again, each club once, then pitches with the remaining balls.

The whole thing takes about two hours. I don't get any sand practice because the facility's bunker is in disrepair. When they had it, I would take five balls, toss them in, hit them out, repeat until I was satisfied, then drop them in again and hit them into the range with irons as fairway bunker practice.

[hoser]

I break my range practice sessions into one of 3 types: mechanics, shot making or tournament prep.

Mechanics will be directly related to whatever I happen to be working on with my instructor. It is generally some combination of setup, alignment, takeaway and tempo.

For shot making, I'll work on distance control (full, 3/4 and full but choked down), trajectory (low or medium) and shot shape (fade, draw, straight). I'll switch targets about every 5 shots and select clubs throughout my bag.

If I'm preparing for a tournament, I'll make a mental list of key shots including drives, approach shots and 40 - 90 yard wedge shots. I'll practice each of these with a specific focus on the first hole, the par 5s and any trouble holes that I think could introduce a double or higher (usually OB potential or water).

[Kieran123]

Usually 100 balls, around 50 with 6/7 iron, 30 with wedges aiming at flags, maybe 10 with driver and 10 with 3h

[golfro]

Half of my time spent at the range will be with either a 6, 7, or 8 iron. I practice to get consistent ballstriking so I spend quite a bit of time working one club and just getting my swing right. The rest will be all kinds of wedge shots, driver, etc.

[Koth]

I will go and hit up the putting range and chipping area first, and practice my putting and chipping until I get bored. Then I'll head over to the range and practice whatever club I feel needs some work. I'll then head back to the putting and chipping area and practice that until I get bored again. In total, I'm usually there for a couple of hours. If the course is open after that I'll play a round and try to get in as many holes as I can before it's too dark to play. I usually end up having to run the last three holes so I can finish.

I also go to the range on my lunch hour and hit a large bucket. I've just been hitting balls one after another trying to get my feel down, but I think I'll pick up a small bucket next time and really focus on each ball I hit.

[Shindig]

Lately, my long game practice is limited to four clubs: 6-iron, utility metal (usually the 4), 4-wood, driver. I figure I need a long enough club that a bad swing will produce a bad result. My metals and longer, but forgiving enough -- and, given that I'm a relatively short hitter (something I'm working on!! 6-iron up to 150-155 finally), they're something that I hit far more often. I realize this is the opposite of the traditional wisdom of practicing with the 8-iron, and then applying that good swing to the longer clubs in small doses. But I think there are more things you can get away with in a swing with a short iron that a longer club will bring out.

And really, I find my short irons almost too easy. Not that I always hit them well, or that I knock down pins with them. But I have the problem that I can't hit them for more than a shot or two at a time, because I'll develop a bad habit by not focusing (a similar reason was part of my motivation to go straight from SGI to PI a few years ago).

I'm working on hitting the ball a little more... for lack of a better word, side-arm. Since doing this, I've been using muscles that I had been developing that hadn't been incorporated into the golf swing. In about a little over a month of working on this, my 6-iron SS went from 75-76 to 80-82. I try to start the downswing with kind of a throwing motion. I'm really at a loss for words (a rarity for me) on how to explain what I'm doing.

[bshack]

I have two different practice sessions...

Short and Long

If im on a break from work or running out of time I go with a short practice session which consists of wedge work. I take my 52 and 56 to the range get a small or medium bucket and hit to designated areas on the range.

Long would be what I do more often. It normally takes me an hour and half or 2 hours. I hit the jumbo bucket which is 115 balls. I go in this sort of order hitting each club roughly 5 times


7 I
56
5 I
52
Driver

then I play about 9 holes in my head

for example par 4 I would hit a D and a 8 then do a par 3 ... then a par 5...

after those 9 holes I normally hit my woods for 20 to 30 balls, then long irons. Then a good amount of wedge shots. End with 1 shot with the driver that way I go out to the course the next day ending from a good drive.

THEN i got to the chipping area and hit a good 20 shots from the sand.

to end i putt.

It seems like a lot but I like to try and do the short session at least 1 time a week and the long session 2 times...

Wish I could do the long session every other day

[Leftygolfer]

I get either the small or medium bucket, 40 to 60 balls or so.

I always use a club for aligment, pick a target, always start with a wedge. Then as I get going, I move up through the bag to a 6-8 iron, (just depends on how far the target that I choose is away). I hit around 15 shots each, then go to the driver, focusing on alignment and swing plane (come over the top and hit big pulls) and working on hitting a push fade. I then go back down to either a short iron and wedge, hitting at a target with a club down for alignement. For me that is one thing I have issues with.

[soloredd]

I start off with a 50 bucket. I usually start with my 9i as I shoot for the 135 yard target. I'll take probably 15 or so. Then I'll move to 7i and just work on ball flight for 15 more. Then move to my 3h and shoot for the 215 marker. Depending on how I feel I'll then choose either the 178 or 185 marker and go 6i or 5i, respectively. Then whatever I have left in the bucket I'll hit drivers. Then I'll get another 50 bucket and hit wedges to 100 and 110. If I feel comfortable with the work I've done, I'll offer the rest of the bucket to someone else. If I don't feel good about what I've done I'll work on just that aspect. Then I putt for 10 minutes and leave.

Lately my range work has paid off. I'm conscious of each and every shot I take, I always have the same repeated pre-shot routine, and I've been using an alignment stick (this was a major negative in my game a few weeks ago).

[Shripe]

I don't really have a true routine yet as I'm going without lessons, plus little experience. However, I do try to follow a pyramid approach.. hitting more with the short irons/wedges as I slowly move up toward the long irons, hybrids, and woods. I hit fewer balls up top than I do down below (not only to not exhaust myself, but also because where I play (right now) is a short par 3 course, so I don't really need the long irons/hybrids or woods.

I do need to work on slowing things down, as right now I'm the kind of driving range golfer who likes getting into a rhythm, so I take shots too quickly.

When I'm at one of the nearby ranges, I've just started practicing at the short game area, and haven't quite worked anything out there yet.... I need lessons!

[B-Con]

I usually hit about 60 - 70 balls. If I can, I start with free balls on the pitching green. Then I move to the 9 iron, 7 iron, and 5 iron, giving each about 15 balls, and I give the rest to the driver. If I have one problematic club, I'll usually remove the club I feel the best with and give its balls to the problematic one.

[holeinon3]

I usually hit about 100 balls in a sesh starting with my PW and work my way up to driver, usually skipping a club here or there (i.e. PW-8-6-5-and so on). I usually think about getting that right shoulder down to get the down swing on a better path and shortening the back swing.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Here's a professional practice plan from SwingImprovement.com http://www.swingimprovement.com/arti...acticeplan.htm You have to scroll down the page to see it.

[RC]

I think the earlier comment: "At the range you either testing or trusting" is very insightful. Before a round, I work on trusting (that is not the time to test,) after a round there is a little testing. If you are not playing that day, then a bit of testing and trusting, going back and forth, seems logical.

[PooN]

My range has a couple pitching greens, so I start off with chipping/pitching from various distances. I may spend a full hour just going through a bucket, picking up the balls, and relocating to do it over again. Then I pick up and move to the grass line and hit from 9 iron through 3 iron... usually 10 shots per. I'll pull out my Driver and hit a few, and if I like what I see I'll put it away and focus on the clubs I felt didn't hit the way I would've liked... usually my 3 and 4 would squeak right, or sometimes my 8-9 would pull left... so I'd focus on those. Then on my way back to the Jeep I'll stop at the putting green and putt for 15 minutes or so.