WATCH: Why you are wasting your time on the range

By Lea Pouillard
It’s a scene repeated around the world every day. Club golfers roll onto the range with a basket of balls, fresh hope and, in most cases, no plan whatsoever as to what they should do next. Most whack away until the pyramid of range balls has vanished in a blur of good, bad and downright ugly shots and realise they’ve made little progress to their game improvement plans. Mostly the outcome is just more frustration.

In this time poor world in which we live, making the most of your practice time is doubly important. At Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy, one of our main goals is to help those taking lessons cash-in by planning efficient and effective practice regimes.

Structuring your practice sessions starts with at least a five-minute warm-up. My colleague Matthew Brookes has shared plenty of tips on this at golfdigestme.com. Next, focus on technical drills depending on what aspect of your game you are working on with your coach.

When working on the full swing, ensure you change clubs often and the target you’re hitting towards just as regularly to get a feel for all the different shots you’ll encounter out on the course. Even if you are working on short shots, changing targets adds focus and builds up your touch.

Finish every range session with a brief period of reflection. It can be helpful to write this down in a notebook you keep in your golf bag so you can go back and measure your progress. Jot down the swing triggers, feelings and shot patterns during the sessions. They can be shared with your coach to ensure both parties are tracking the player’s progress and are also great to revert to out on the course when you’re not quite in the zone. A reminder of how you were feeling or what you were doing during that amazing range session you planned and executed so well can quickly help you turn around a round that threatens to get out of control. – with Kent Gray

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Lea Pouillard is PGA teaching professional at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.