Hitting a lot at the range...good or bad?

[FLOG4]

Your scoring starts at the hole.  Work back from there if you want to bring a 20 handicap down. And any 20 who says he shapes shots is outta touch with reality.  If your range is mats vs grass then banging a bunch of balls can cause tennis elbow.  Chipping and putting should be over 50% of everyone's practice.  It's over 50% of your stokes.

[Callahan14]

Originally Posted by paddlefoot

I talked to the local "golf pro" at the range today, and he told me that coming to the range and hitting a lot of balls in a short amount of time is not good.  I disagree.

Basically I have two types of range visits:  1.  Sometimes i'll go and wear out my 7 iron, aiming at various targets.  I'll hit a lot of balls quickly, one after the other.  2.  Other times I go and work on ball placement and ball shaping, rotate through my clubs, putting and chipping.

I have found, that over the last couple of years, #1 has helped me tremendously with ball contact.  I rarely miss hit the ball or shank one while playing a round.  I usually always hit the ball solid, and i think it's because i have hit so many balls, which i think has improved my ball striking.  So many times i'll see these guys with a perfect golf swing, but often miss the ball or shank one off into the woods.  I'm not saying I'm any better than these guys, but I feel i've gotten to the point where i can strike the ball with confidence, because of #1.

Opinions?

Our head Pro says bad habits can easily form on the range, use your time working on something, dont just go out there to bang golf balls, More lessons are learned "ON" the course then on the range.

[djackson89]

Couldn't agree more.

Originally Posted by MackJL06

my head hurts

On the topic, I've recently started to pick up practicing a lot more. I've never been much of a range guy and I've been holding strong at 17-18 HDCP for about 8 months now. Went through a bit of hiccup in my swing lately,  but I'm back on track. I've realized that for me to start lowering my HDCP, which is the ultimate goal I need to do things outside of the course itself for that to happen. Which is when I started hitting the range 2-3 nights a week, and spending at least 50% of my time, chipping and putting. I took some advice from SandTrap and got Phil's DVD Secrets of the Short game, and have really used some of the drills from it and I'm feeling better and better with each round.

My main area of concern right now is judging swing tempo from inside 50 yards. I haven't found "the club" I feel really solid with from within that yardage. I'm using my 60* now, and it feels okay, but I really don't know if I'm sold on it. So that's been probably 80% of my practice lately.

[Leftygolfer]

I don't believe there is a one size fits all practice routine.  I think you should work on what is hurting you the most.  If you can't get off the tee or around the greens in regulation, your practice starts there.  If your making doubles from greenside, short game.

I have a good short game, I can putt well.  For me to get better, I need to be putting from better places.  To do that, I have to get of the tee better and hit solid irons.  Almost all of my practice is on the range.  I know where I need to get better and work on that.