Top 10 Driving Range Drills to Improve Your Golf
The driving range is useful when you practise with a plan. Hitting a bucket of balls with no target, no note-taking and no idea what you are checking rarely transfers well to the course.
Good range work should test strike, start line, distance control, clubface control and routine. You do not need a complicated setup. A couple of alignment sticks, a towel and a clear target are enough.
FootWedge also gives you somewhere to keep the session. With the FootWedge Range feature, golfers can save key practice shots into structured range sessions, add notes and use Range Replay to turn selected swing clips into mapped shot-tracer videos.
The goal is not to hit perfect range balls. The goal is to build shots that hold up on the course.
1. Alignment Stick Start Line Drill
This is one of the simplest ways to check whether your ball is starting where you think it is.
Most golfers aim worse than they realise. They may blame the swing when the problem is actually poor alignment.
How to do it
Pick a clear target on the range
Place one alignment stick on the ground aimed at that target
Place a second stick parallel to it for your feet
Set the clubface square to the target line first
Build your stance around the clubface, not the other way round
Hit 10 balls and watch the start line, not just the final result
Add a quick FootWedge range note if the ball kept starting left, right or online
If the ball starts left or right of the target line, check the clubface first. Start direction is heavily influenced by face angle, especially with shorter clubs.
2. Towel Behind the Ball Strike Drill
This drill helps stop heavy strikes.
If you hit the ground before the ball, you lose speed, distance and control. On grass, you see the divot. On range mats, a fat shot can still look acceptable because the club bounces into the ball.
How to do it
Place a small towel flat on the mat behind the ball
Start with the towel roughly one grip length behind the ball
Hit shots without touching the towel
Begin with half swings using a wedge or 9 iron
Move to fuller swings once contact improves
Note in FootWedge whether contact improved, stayed heavy or moved too thin
The aim is to strike the ball before the ground. If you keep hitting the towel, your low point is too far behind the ball.
3. Gate Drill for Clubface Control
The gate drill gives instant feedback on strike and face control.
It is useful because many golfers do not know whether they are missing the middle of the clubface. A shot can feel fine but come off the heel or toe.
How to do it
Place two tees or range basket dividers just wider than your clubhead
Put the ball in the middle of the gate
Make slow practice swings through the gap
Hit 10 balls without touching either side of the gate
Start with a short iron before using longer clubs
Record which miss showed up most often in your range notes
If you hit the outside object, you are likely moving the club too far away from you through impact. If you hit the inside object, you may be getting too close to the ball or cutting across it.
4. Nine-Ball Flight Drill
This is a proper ball-control drill.
You try to hit three heights and three shapes: low, medium, high, then draw, straight, fade. You do not need to master all nine straight away, but attempting them teaches you clubface and swing path control.
How to do it
Pick one target
Use a mid iron, such as a 7 iron
Hit one low shot, one normal shot and one high shot
Then hit one draw, one straight shot and one fade
Repeat the pattern twice
Judge the shot by whether it followed the intended window, not whether it was perfect
Save a good example in FootWedge Range if you capture one on video
This drill is especially useful if you usually hit the same stock shot without understanding how to change it.
5. Random Club Drill
Golf is random. The range often is not.
On the course, you rarely hit the same club twice in a row. This drill makes the range feel more like real golf.
How to do it
Pick a target and hit one shot
Change club after every ball
Change target after every ball
Go through your full pre-shot routine each time
Include awkward yardages, not just comfortable full shots
Score yourself out of 10 based on target, strike and decision
Write down the clubs that felt reliable and the ones that did not
A good version would be wedge, 7 iron, hybrid, pitching wedge, driver, 8 iron. Do not stand there raking balls across with the same rhythm.
6. Fairway Finder Driver Drill
This drill is for building a driver swing you can trust when you need the ball in play.
Not every driver swing has to be full speed. Some holes call for a controlled tee shot that finds the short grass.
How to do it
Tee the ball slightly lower than normal
Grip down by about an inch
Make a three-quarter backswing
Feel like you finish balanced rather than fast
Pick a fairway-width target on the range
Hit 10 balls and count how many finish inside your chosen window
Use FootWedge notes to track the fairway count each session
The goal is a controlled driver, not your longest driver. If your normal miss is a slice, this drill also helps you find a calmer tempo.
7. Wedge Ladder Drill
Distance control with wedges is more important than most golfers admit.
A lot of dropped shots come from 40 to 100 yards, where players are too close for a full swing but too far for a simple chip.
How to do it
Pick three wedge distances, such as 40, 60 and 80 yards
Hit one ball to the shortest target
Hit the next ball to the middle target
Hit the next ball to the longest target
Work back down the ladder
Use the same wedge first, then repeat with another wedge
Note your best wedge distance and your weakest yardage in FootWedge
Focus on swing length and tempo. Do not just hit harder. Good wedge play is usually about controlling length of swing, strike and flight.
8. Three-Ball Shot Pattern Drill
This drill helps you understand your usual miss.
Golfers often say they are inconsistent, but many have a pattern. They just have not measured it properly.
How to do it
Pick one target
Hit three balls with the same club
Do not change anything between shots
Walk behind the bay and look at the grouping
Note whether the pattern is mostly left, right, short or long
Repeat with three different clubs
Write the pattern down before you forget it
Do not judge one shot. Judge the group. If all three shots miss right, that tells you more than one random good shot down the middle.
9. Pressure Finish Drill
This makes the end of your practice matter.
Most golfers leave the range after a good shot, but on the course you do not get to end the hole because you finally found one. You need to hit shots when there is a consequence.
How to do it
Pick one final target before leaving
Choose a club you would actually use on the course
Give yourself one ball
Go through your full routine
Set a clear pass or fail target before you hit
Do not hit another ball afterwards
Add a short note on what happened and whether your routine held up
If you fail, you fail. That is the point. It adds pressure and stops you from chasing the fake comfort of “just one more good one”.
10. Simulated Course Drill
This is one of the best range drills because it turns practice into decision-making.
Instead of hitting random balls, you play a course in your head. It could be your home course or a course you know well.
How to do it
Choose a course you play regularly
Start on the 1st tee
Hit the club you would actually hit from that tee
Based on the result, choose your next club
If you miss badly, play the recovery shot you would face
Continue for 9 or 18 holes in your head
Use FootWedge notes to record which holes or shot types caused problems
This stops you pretending every shot is from a perfect flat lie to a wide target. It also shows whether your range game matches the way you actually play.
Using FootWedge Range
FootWedge Range gives your practice somewhere to live.
Instead of finishing a session and forgetting what happened, you can save key shots, write notes and build a clearer record of what you worked on. That matters because range progress is easy to overrate in the moment.
You might feel like you fixed your driver, but a note saying “started well, slice came back after 20 balls” is more useful than pretending the last good shot solved it.
With FootWedge Range Replay, you can upload a swing clip, trim the action window, set the shot start and landing point, adjust the height and curve over a real map and export a finished side-by-side range video. FootWedge also lets you save key practice shots back into structured range sessions.
That is useful for:
Keeping a record of swings that produced good shots
Comparing ball flight from different sessions
Saving driver, wedge or iron clips for later review
Adding notes about what feel, setup or drill you were using
Tracking whether a practice change is actually sticking
The notes are the important bit. A shot tracer looks good, but the value is knowing what you were trying to do and whether it worked.
How to Structure a Good Range Session
A good range session does not need to be long. It needs a clear purpose.
A simple session could look like this:
10 balls warming up with wedges
10 balls on strike using the towel drill
10 balls on alignment and start line
10 balls on wedge distances
10 balls changing club every shot
5 balls with driver
1 final pressure shot
2 minutes adding FootWedge notes before you leave
That is 56 balls with a reason behind almost every swing.
What to Write in Your Range Notes
Your notes do not need to be long. They just need to be useful when you read them back later.
Good range notes might include:
What drill you worked on
Which club exposed the problem
Your main miss
Your best feel
What changed when you slowed down
Whether the strike improved
Whether the ball flight matched what you expected
What you want to check next time
Avoid writing vague notes like “hit it well” or “swing felt bad”. They will not help later.
A better note would be: “7 iron started right most of the session. Strike improved when I kept weight more centred. Driver slice still showed up when I rushed transition.”
That gives you something to work from.
What to Avoid at the Range
The biggest mistake is practising in a way that never happens on the course.
Avoid:
Hitting ball after ball with no target
Only using driver
Ignoring bad alignment
Judging practice only by distance
Hitting too quickly
Never going through a routine
Trying five swing fixes in one session
Leaving without writing down what actually happened
If you want to work on technique, keep it focused. Pick one feel or one change. Do not rebuild your entire swing in one bucket.
Good practice is not about hitting more balls. It is about hitting better ones with a clearer purpose.
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