Two Drills Every Golfer Should be Doing on the Range
By: Patrick Stephenson
When it comes to improving your golf game, the driving range is where real progress happens—but only if you practice with intent. Many golfers head to the range, grab a bucket of balls, and aimlessly swing without much thought, hoping that sheer repetition will lead to improvement. While there’s value in hitting a lot of balls, the reality is that practicing without a clear purpose can actually do more harm than good. This is why professional golfers, like Bryson DeChambeau, are so meticulous in how they approach their time on the range.
Purposeful practice not only helps refine your swing but also develops consistency and confidence, two of the most important elements for success on the course. The key is to focus on specific drills that target different aspects of your game, helping you build muscle memory, sharpen your ball-striking skills, and improve your body control under pressure.
In this article, we’ll cover two driving range drills that every golfer—whether beginner or advanced—should include in their practice routine. From mastering one shot shape with precision to developing distance control with your wedges, these drills will elevate your practice sessions and, ultimately, your performance on the course. Let’s dive into how you can make every swing count with focused, structured practice.
The Problem – Unfocused Practice
Many amateur golfers make a common mistake when they go to the driving range: they swing without intent. While hitting ball after ball might feel productive, it often leads to refining bad habits rather than building good ones. Without a clear focus, you end up reinforcing the same mistakes in your swing, making it harder to identify and correct flaws. This is one of the key reasons many golfers plateau and fail to see real improvement, no matter how often they practice.
When you practice without intent, your body goes through the motions, but your mind isn’t fully engaged. This type of “random practice” is like shooting in the dark—there’s no strategy, no feedback loop, and no path to improvement. You may feel a temporary sense of accomplishment after hitting a few good shots, but without a consistent, focused approach, those moments of success are hard to replicate on the course. In fact, random practice can be damaging because it ingrains poor muscle memory, making bad habits harder to unlearn later on.
On the flip side, practicing with a specific purpose in mind is where real improvement happens. By setting goals and sticking to drills that challenge different parts of your game, you can make each swing more effective. Structured practice helps you engage both mentally and physically, keeping your brain focused on the task at hand. The key is to work on drills that not only groove your swing but also help you think critically about how you’re hitting the ball and how you’re moving.
In the next sections, we’ll cover two essential drills that will take your practice sessions to the next level, helping you build consistency, improve your ball-striking, and hone your decision-making on the course.
Drill 1: The Bryson DeChambeau Drill
Bryson DeChambeau has become known not just for his power, but also for his meticulous approach to practice. One of the drills that helped him refine his game as made famous by his YouTube channel involves going through a full routine on the driving range, focusing on hitting the same shot shape repeatedly with one club at a specific target.
The goal? To make a specific shot so consistent that you can hit a set number of perfect shots in a row, just as you visualized them. This drill is all about building precision and repeatability, two of the most critical factors for a successful golfer.
- Choose your club and shot shape: Start by selecting one club (e.g., a 7-iron) and one shot shape (e.g., a slight draw). This will be your focus for the duration of the drill. You can choose any club and any shot in your bag as this drill can help you with a short wedge shot all way up to a full driver.
- Set your goal: Decide how many perfect shots in a row you want to hit. For beginners, this might be three consecutive well-struck shots. For more advanced players, the goal might be five or even ten shots that land exactly where you aimed with the desired shot shape.
- Full pre-shot routine: Go through your entire pre-shot routine for every swing, as if you’re on the course. This includes visualizing the shot, setting up your alignment, and focusing on a specific target.
- Hit the shot: Execute the shot with full commitment, focusing on making it as close to your intended shape and trajectory as possible.
- Repeat until perfect: If you hit the shot exactly as you visualized it, mark it as successful. If not, reset and try again. The idea is to repeat this process until you reach your goal of consecutive perfect shots.
Why This Drill Works
The Bryson DeChambeau drill is powerful because it mimics the mental and physical demands of playing a real round of golf. By committing to one shot shape and one club, you’re learning how to master a specific movement pattern, which builds muscle memory and consistency. This drill also emphasizes discipline and patience—two qualities that are crucial for success on the course.
Self-Discovery and Improving Your Swing
As you progress through the drill, you’ll start to learn a lot about your swing. This is a process of self-discovery, where you begin to understand what adjustments your body needs to make in order to produce the desired result over and over again. If you’re slightly off on your alignment, grip, or tempo, this drill will reveal those weaknesses and give you a chance to correct them.
For beginners, success might be simply hitting solid, straight shots in a row. More advanced golfers can challenge themselves by getting “picky” with their results—focusing on ball flight, trajectory, and landing position. You can adjust the difficulty level based on your current skill set, but the end goal remains the same: achieving repeatability and precision.
Drill 2: The 9-Shot Drill
The 9-Shot Drill is a favorite among professional golfers because it teaches shot versatility and helps you develop control over your ball flight.
By mastering the ability to hit different trajectories and shot shapes one after the other, you become more adaptable on the course, capable of navigating various conditions and obstacles. This drill involves hitting three different shot shapes—draw, fade, and straight—at three different trajectories: low, medium, and high. The goal is to hit all nine combinations successfully in a row.
- Pick a club: Start with a mid-iron, such as a 7-iron, as this will allow you to control trajectory and shot shape. You have the easiest time using a mid iron but eventually, you want to be able to complete it with every club in your bag.
- Low, medium, high shots: Your first task is to hit a draw, fade, and straight shot at three different heights—low, medium, and high.
- Low shot: For a low ball flight, position the ball slightly back in your stance, lean your weight forward, and make a shorter backswing while controlling your follow-through.
- Medium shot: This is your standard ball flight. Set the ball in your normal position and swing as you typically would.
- High shot: To hit it high, move the ball slightly forward in your stance and make a full, high follow-through to get extra loft.
- Shot shapes: For each trajectory, hit a draw, fade, and straight shot.
- Draw: To hit a draw, aim slightly right of your target (for right-handed golfers), close the clubface, and swing along your body’s natural path to promote right-to-left spin.
- Fade: To hit a fade, aim slightly left of the target, open the clubface a bit, and swing along your body line, producing left-to-right spin.
- Straight shot: For a straight shot, align directly at your target, square the clubface, and make a neutral swing path.
Track your progress: Hit each of the nine combinations and aim for accuracy, hitting your target with the correct flight. Once you’ve gone through all nine shots, evaluate which ones you found the most difficult and repeat those until you feel more confident.
Why This Drill Works
The 9-Shot Drill forces you to think strategically about each shot, mimicking the variety of conditions you’ll face on the golf course. By practicing all nine combinations, you’re training your body and mind to adapt to different scenarios, making you a more versatile player.
Control and Confidence Under Different Conditions
On the golf course, you’re rarely faced with the same shot two time in a row. Sometimes you need a low draw to keep the ball under the wind, or a high fade to carry over a tree. The 9-Shot Drill prepares you for those situations by allowing you to practice different ball flights and shot shapes in a controlled environment. Over time, you’ll develop the confidence to execute these shots during your round, whether you’re playing in windy conditions, hitting over hazards, or navigating tight fairways.
Building a Versatile Toolbox of Shots
Many amateur golfers fall into the trap of hitting just one or two types of shots—usually their comfort zone swing. The 9-Shot Drill helps you break out of that mindset and build a more complete game. By learning to control the height and curvature of your shots, you’re expanding your shot-making ability and giving yourself more options when you’re out on the course. You’ll also gain a better understanding of how slight adjustments to your setup and swing can produce dramatically different results, helping you become more in tune with your swing mechanics and own them.
Staying Engaged and Focused During Practice
The final benefit of the 9-Shot Drill is that it keeps you mentally engaged during your practice session. Instead of hitting the same shot over and over, you’re constantly adjusting and challenging yourself to hit different shapes and trajectories while thinking critically. This helps prevent the boredom and mindless practice that often happens when golfers hit balls without intent. The challenge of completing all nine shots successfully adds a layer of focus and discipline to your practice that will translate into better performance on the course.
Key Takeaways
Practice with Purpose: Practicing without a clear focus leads to ingraining bad habits and limits improvement. Setting specific goals during practice helps golfers develop muscle memory, consistency, and confidence.
Intent Over Repetition: Simply hitting a large volume of balls won’t guarantee progress. Quality-focused drills, like the Bryson DeChambeau Drill and the 9-Shot Drill, build precision and adaptability, leading to more meaningful results on the course.
Targeted Drills for Success: Structured drills help identify and correct flaws in your swing. The Bryson DeChambeau Drill improves shot consistency, while the 9-Shot Drill builds versatility by challenging you to control ball flight and shot shape.
Mental Engagement is Key: Purposeful drills keep you mentally engaged and focused during practice sessions, preventing mindless repetition and helping to cultivate discipline and patience.
Versatility on the Course: By practicing a variety of shot shapes and trajectories, you prepare yourself for real-world situations on the course, improving your adaptability to different conditions.