Does this ever happen to you? You spend every other day at the driving range trying to perfect your swing only to have it disappear when you arrive on the first tee box. The good news is there is probably nothing wrong with your swing. The bad new is...Well there is none really. All you need to do is change the way you spend your time at the driving range.
The first thing to understand is that you do not need to spend anymore time mindlessly hitting balls rapid fire out into the sunset. Your mind and your muscles can no longer retain anymore information about the mechanics of your swing. What you need to do now is easier than you might think. You simply come up with a neat little procedure you can consistently use to approach every shot you take on the course and at the range.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, but if possible you will want to get off the artificial tee boxes and onto the real grass practice area for this. That is because the way you are going to be practicing now requires you to vary your target more often and I find hitting a shot at a target that is not directly aligned with the preset aim of those artificial tee boxes will reek havoc on anyone's swing. Consider that unless you are hitting from the wrong fairway, the general flow of a course is going to lead you to your target. That is not the case when you are practicing on a fixed tee box and your target might vary from left to right by 40 yards.
The trick is to play every shot you hit on the range as if you were actually playing a round of golf. That means do not hit your driver 20 times in a row. Instead hit one drive then a middle iron and then a wedge. That series of clubs would represent a par 5 for me. That also means you should not only pick a target but also visualize where the rough should be for each of those targets. You can use a distance marker as a target and two flags or trees in the distance as the edge of your imaginary fairway. That way you know if the practice shot you just hit would have been in play on an actual course. It will also improve your ability to visualize each shot and give you a more realistic understanding of the consequences of your shots. Maybe you will finally learn to stop trying to hit every drive 300 yards when a calmer swing stays in play much more often.
Finally at the end of a good practice session take a couple quick notes describing the procedure that gives you the best results. Do you visualize your shot while standing behind the ball? Do you take one practice swing or two? Or do you swing the club until it brushes the grass just like you want it to when you hit the ball? How do you set your feet and shoulders in relation to the target before you swing? Now you may never read those notes again, but you will have made a mental cheat sheet that you can rely for consistent play during your next trip to the course.
Here is a sample of the notes I took after hitting my last bucket.
1 - Line up with shoulders back and club pointed up.
2 - Lower club and lean at the waist.
3 - Confirm line from feet to ball is perpendicular to target.
4 - Practice Swing
5 - Repeat Steps 1-3 and strike.
While my notes may not make any sense to you, that does not matter as long as it helps me be consistent on the course. Because in golf you will never see the same shot twice, but if you approach each shot with consistency you will see your scores come down.
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