Most range sessions are a bucket of balls hit with a driver until it's empty. It's fun, it's a decent workout, and it does almost nothing for your scores. If you've only got an hour to practice, here's how to spend it so it actually shows up on your card.
Practice where you lose shots
Here's the uncomfortable truth: the majority of your strokes happen within 100 yards of the hole, yet that's where most golfers spend the least practice time. If you want to score lower, your practice hour should be weighted toward the short game and putting — the exact opposite of how most people practice.
The 60-minute plan
- 10 minutes — warm up. Start with short wedges, half swings, loosening up. Work up to a few mid-irons. No driver yet, no swinging hard.
- 20 minutes — short game. Chips and pitches to a target. Practice your bump-and-run landing spots and a few greenside bunker shots. This is your highest-value block — protect it.
- 15 minutes — putting. Split it: long lag putts to a three-foot circle for speed, then a batch of three-to-four footers to build confidence on the ones that matter.
- 15 minutes — full swing with purpose. Now hit the bigger clubs — but every shot gets a target and a full routine. Quality reps, not a machine-gun bucket.
Practice like you play
The biggest upgrade you can make: stop raking ball after ball to the same spot. Instead, play a hole in your mind. Hit a driver to an imaginary fairway, then the approach to a target, then a chip, then a putt. Go through your full pre-shot routine every time. Random, target-based practice transfers to the course; mindless repetition doesn't.
Point your practice hour at the shots that actually decide your score, give every ball a purpose, and you'll turn range time into lower numbers — instead of just a sore back and an empty bucket.