Is Your Range Game Really That Good (Video) - by Pete Styles
Is Your Range Game Really That Good (Video) - by Pete Styles

If we first explore the site there the golfer feels like that much better on the range when they go on the golf course, it doesn’t quite happen for them. We are first going to understand, well, really is your game that good on the driving range or is it just that the driving range conflate you a little bit. So you might feel like you are brilliant when you go on to the first tee and you are completely rubbish, but actually you might have been rubbish from here in the first place. So when you are on the driving range, let’s make sure that we are doing a couple of key fundamentals that has to happen out in the golf course.

The first thing is on the range let’s make sure we are picking a target, you know you can see in front of me here, it’s quite big, wide open field, there is not that much to aim at, on this practice area. But if I made the mistake of just saying, well somewhere near that hill, that will do me, that’s where I am hitting it, smash the ball up there, feel like I have got a 100% success rate, then they go to the first tee and the first tee plays narrow lightly but that bounce all there in one side in the bunker up here, certainly my target is a lot smaller. So I have gone from a 100% success rate here on the driving range, to a 50% success rate or less out on the golf course. Let’s make sure that I am recreating realistically sized targets here on the driving range, that I can actually measure my success against. I might be better off picking two flags, two trees, two markers and saying let’s try and get between those because that’s the same size as the first-first fairway. Then I can measure the success here against my success out there on the golf course. The next thing you might do is you just consider the law of averages that we know when we come to the driving range; we normally sit there with the basket of 50 or a 100 balls in front of us. Within that basket of 50 or a 100 balls chances are, I am going to hit the ball pretty well at some point. It’s then that that I will remember, so I might start off badly, then hit a few good ones then hit a few bad ones, go for the golf lesson with the Pete this weekend and say, “Hi, Pete, I hit the ball brilliantly on the range the other day.” Well you did for that section and the lower of averages dictate that if you hit 50 balls some of them are going to fly quite well. So let’s just make sure we are not always remembering the best ones and sometimes we have got to consider actually there was quite a few pull ones around that good section as well. One last thing you might consider that’s particularly relevant to hitting balls in the driving range, is you get into a grove, you might take your driver out if you back tee up 50 balls and within those 50 balls you really get into a grove the same swing over and over again, getting super consistent, hitting the ball over and over again, finding the fairway, finding the fairway, finding the fairway, but you in a grove and it’s a rhythm that would be great if you could take out on the golf course and recreate it, but simple fact is you can’t, you can’t go on the golf course and take all 18 tee shots first, then all 89 shots than all 18 chips and all 18 putts that’s just not how the game works. It would be wonderful if it did, we would probably all score better. But out in the golf course, you don’t get into that grove, that consistent rhythm, you get to hit alternate shots, long shots, short shot, chip, putt, long short, short shot, chip, putt. So maybe we should do the same thing here on the range that we practiced with the driver, than with the mid iron than a short iron, than a putter, than a driver again and if you were doing that, chances are, you wouldn’t find yourself in that same super consistent grove, which then doesn’t so the cloud, the issue that oh yeah I am brilliant on the range and rubbish on the course, you would never got into the grove on the driving range so you won’t be that difference between I am brilliant here and I am not great on the golf course. Ultimately you want to try and improve your range game, I am not suggesting you want to get worse on the driving range, but it’s just a bit of a falsehood if you think you are fantastic on the range because you have got loads of golf balls and you got yourself into a grove. And your range game might not actually be as good as you think it is. 2016-10-03

If we first explore the site there the golfer feels like that much better on the range when they go on the golf course, it doesn’t quite happen for them. We are first going to understand, well, really is your game that good on the driving range or is it just that the driving range conflate you a little bit. So you might feel like you are brilliant when you go on to the first tee and you are completely rubbish, but actually you might have been rubbish from here in the first place. So when you are on the driving range, let’s make sure that we are doing a couple of key fundamentals that has to happen out in the golf course.

The first thing is on the range let’s make sure we are picking a target, you know you can see in front of me here, it’s quite big, wide open field, there is not that much to aim at, on this practice area. But if I made the mistake of just saying, well somewhere near that hill, that will do me, that’s where I am hitting it, smash the ball up there, feel like I have got a 100% success rate, then they go to the first tee and the first tee plays narrow lightly but that bounce all there in one side in the bunker up here, certainly my target is a lot smaller. So I have gone from a 100% success rate here on the driving range, to a 50% success rate or less out on the golf course. Let’s make sure that I am recreating realistically sized targets here on the driving range, that I can actually measure my success against. I might be better off picking two flags, two trees, two markers and saying let’s try and get between those because that’s the same size as the first-first fairway. Then I can measure the success here against my success out there on the golf course.

The next thing you might do is you just consider the law of averages that we know when we come to the driving range; we normally sit there with the basket of 50 or a 100 balls in front of us. Within that basket of 50 or a 100 balls chances are, I am going to hit the ball pretty well at some point. It’s then that that I will remember, so I might start off badly, then hit a few good ones then hit a few bad ones, go for the golf lesson with the Pete this weekend and say, “Hi, Pete, I hit the ball brilliantly on the range the other day.” Well you did for that section and the lower of averages dictate that if you hit 50 balls some of them are going to fly quite well. So let’s just make sure we are not always remembering the best ones and sometimes we have got to consider actually there was quite a few pull ones around that good section as well.

One last thing you might consider that’s particularly relevant to hitting balls in the driving range, is you get into a grove, you might take your driver out if you back tee up 50 balls and within those 50 balls you really get into a grove the same swing over and over again, getting super consistent, hitting the ball over and over again, finding the fairway, finding the fairway, finding the fairway, but you in a grove and it’s a rhythm that would be great if you could take out on the golf course and recreate it, but simple fact is you can’t, you can’t go on the golf course and take all 18 tee shots first, then all 89 shots than all 18 chips and all 18 putts that’s just not how the game works. It would be wonderful if it did, we would probably all score better. But out in the golf course, you don’t get into that grove, that consistent rhythm, you get to hit alternate shots, long shots, short shot, chip, putt, long short, short shot, chip, putt.

So maybe we should do the same thing here on the range that we practiced with the driver, than with the mid iron than a short iron, than a putter, than a driver again and if you were doing that, chances are, you wouldn’t find yourself in that same super consistent grove, which then doesn’t so the cloud, the issue that oh yeah I am brilliant on the range and rubbish on the course, you would never got into the grove on the driving range so you won’t be that difference between I am brilliant here and I am not great on the golf course. Ultimately you want to try and improve your range game, I am not suggesting you want to get worse on the driving range, but it’s just a bit of a falsehood if you think you are fantastic on the range because you have got loads of golf balls and you got yourself into a grove. And your range game might not actually be as good as you think it is.