At the range my irons have been amazing. I stepped on the course for the first time and I just kept topping it. Playing on grass add a whole different level of variability

There is a reason for this dilemma. Nick Faldo explained it in one phrase on a golf telecast this year. Said Nick, the body must swing the golf club, not the shoulders and arms". When the shoulders and arms swing the golf club it is all timing, and that never lasts over a couple of minutes. When the body swings the golf club there is almost no timing, and that breeds consistency. Doing this is extremely difficult. This is why Nicklaus INSISTED that the first 4 to 6 inches of the take-away is CRITICAL. This is the only place in the golf swing where the big body muscles can begin to "carry the shoulders and arms with it", not the other way around. Further the arms must stay centered to your chest. Touring players call this "staying connected". Another benefit is that the rotator cuffs only go up and down when you do this, not around. it is much simpler with no timing needed. When you have taken the club back with your shoulders and arms your entire life it is extremely difficult to change. This is why many pro's take the club back a couple of times before they hit the ball. They are using the big body trunk muscles to take it back and need to practice that just before the actual hit. I do that too. And I am as straight as a string right from the first tee. Many touring pros believe their game is only as good as the start of their backswing just as Nicklaus always insisted.

The real reason people cannot go from the range to the course with success is fear. Most people do not fear the range but when they get on the golf course they totally fear making a mistake.

I hit driver, hybrid or wood, 6 and then 9 on the range, in that order. NEVER hit the same club more then once, even after a really bad hit. This best emulates nerves and pressure like course play for me. Changing clubs and target with every swing also helps to develop a repeatable preshot routine. Aim for a target! More time, more effort, more real. Practice like you play and play like you practiced.

Great tips. My golf shots are spectacular on the range. As soon as I step up to the first tee in club tournament play, my brain becomes my worst enemy and everything changes. So frustrating!

One thing that differs between the range and most courses are angled tee boxes. Course designers cleverly angle the tee boxes to add to the challenge. I find that I struggle aligning myself on such tee boxes especially with my driver. Most of the time, I end up with the ball too far forward. When I properly adjust the ball position, I just don't feel comfortable because my mind is telling me the ball is in the wrong place. It can be a battle.

I’m stunned they didn’t discuss terrain, different lies, never the same shot twice in the course. Although their points are valid, pressure and expectation are much higher. I’ll bet these rockstars on the range just ignore that one out of 10 mishit that can ruin a hole and score with a big number. Not to mention you have to hit the next shot from behind a tree or off the cart path and not just roll the next ball off the pile.

I think one of the biggest reason, if not the biggest, is confidence. No one brings their range game to the course, there are videos of Tiger's range session warm-up and then a video of the first tee and the swings are totally different. The first tee swing is very quick and choppy. BUT, They can manage the nerves and confidence better than we can. Great video.

On the range most of the time its a plastic grass mat. On the coarse its real grass. That is the major problem. The mat corrects your mistakes by letting the club slide across it. So if your hitting too far behind the ball it will still give you a good shot. You get to the golf coarse and your club digs right into the grass causing a bad shot. Then you start adjusting and get way out of your swing you practiced for hours at the range. A real grass range is the way to go. But there are not many around that have real grass to hit off of. Maybe you just have to play more golf.

Just subscribed this has been me for the last few months thanks for the advice

Tension and rhythm...Tension is the killer of our swing.

All valid points . I also play the course on the range , Go from one club to another . But Many ranges you are hitting off a Mat . To this day while playing a course yet to see any mats

I can sling shots into orbit at the range, 7i 160ish and so on... on the course I'm lucky if I even get my 7i to get off the ground. It's infuriating but for me it's not even a matter of alignment, club decision, lie or anything like that. A ball in the center of the fairway might come off my club face miles left and dribble along the ground. What is happening. Otherwise, these are some fantastic tips I'll be bringing with me next time. This makes me wanna go to the course/range right now.

That is so me. If I was doing on the course what I was doing on the range, I would be breaking 80s one or two years ago. Thanks for introducing Quentin!

I hit the hozzle 5 or 6 times yesterday on the course. Went to the range this morning hit 90 balls with my wedges and high irons and didn't shank a single one. This game is so frustrating.

Yes just to echo the comment below... I find that one of the biggest keys is being able to adapt and read different lies... most ractice ranges we have up here in the North usually supply mats to hit off so when I'm not teeing the ball up the ball is lying on the mat which can be a pretty tight lie for the irons ... Switching between clubs is a good approach to simulate playing a round of golf on the course like Clay mentioned the 3 club drill. Playing and learning to read different lies is huge as far as dialing in club selection and distance control. 🏌️‍♂️The practice range has different target and yardage markers so one thing my wife and I do is to take turns picking a target the 75 yard sign or a vertical pole around 150 yards or a trampoline etc. so that puts us in a desicion mode of club selection and we alternate taking two shots each and the closest ball to the target wins and the players gets one point and bragging rights .. what I find this does that if on the first shot I say pull my 7 iron then I have a chance to do a self analysis to play a better second shot and maybe I'll opt to perhaps change my club if I think that will help . You can hit 3 or more shots each but when you only have two shots then you only have one chance to execute a better shot if needed ,,, each ball is worth one point . We will usally go thru a whole bucket each after we've hit a bucket each to warm up where we are focusing on swing mechanics and drills etc. so we have a bit of fun and make a game of it at the end of our range session being target feel oriented... its very random sometimes whereas say I'll pick a 200 yard shot and then my wife will pick a 80 yard target and then a 40 yard target back to a 250 yard target... we don't have a flight scope of any kind so we have to use our visual depth perception and feel the shot... when we play a real course we use the typical yardage markers and our visual skills along with the type of lie we are hitting from.... ⛳ 🏌️‍♂️We plan on getting something like a swing caddie which will teach and help us learn how far we hit all of our clubs throughout the bag so learning to read lies and target distance definitely helps alot with course and game management. .

great tip with the "play the course" practice, use bad shots too and use the greens on the range as the final target, so If the "drive" i hit goes shorter than Id like Ill pick a 7 iron and the target 160ish out vs the wedge going 120/130ish. that way you prepare having to play bad drives not just great ones.

Hi Clay, I really like the way you teach how a swing should feel. Could you talk a little more about how the rist and grip pressure should feel. Thank you! Jerry Odglen Michigan

Someone really needs to develop a practice tool to add variability to the range sessions or at home. Minimally you could stand with one foot on something to give you a different feel like an undulating fairway it mats that have a couple inches of Astro’s turf to grab your club face. Don’t forget to get a few beers in you before the range session and have your friends mock you or criticize your swing the whole time. It make 5 dollar bets to hit the ball retriever.

I wish (need2) practice enough 4 this to be an issue. Nice weather down there, good to c a nu video.

Quentin hit it on the head at the range its no pressure, on the course that one swing, one shot counts. Although if you strike it well on the range you should do the same on the course, but we tend to freak out when we mis hit on the course which causes a snow ball effect (become negative). Positivity is key to success.

Quentin, I heard your explanation about being great on the range and play poorly on the course, I heard yours and Clay's answer about hitting full shots. My problem is chipping, on the practice green I am awesome on the course, i can't swing the club worth a hoot. I look and feel like I never played before and my results exemplify that. I hope you can help me, because it is becoming so frustrating and embarrassing that I may give up the game, even though I understand chipping is very easy, but for some reason, not to me.......

The getting in a groove is true. The set up is different with different shots. You are more relaxed at the range more tense at play. All this can real havoc.

Most golfers think as long as they keep their shots with in the confines of d-range, that are hitting decent shots. Then when they go to the course, the width of the fairway is alot smaller than the width of the drange. Best to build your own skinnier fairway when on the d-range. The other factor is on the d-range, the golfer is hitting shot after from the same lie conditions. Finding these same conditions on the course are few, and far between.

I like to do the same thing I take the score card hit the driver then iron then chip if need be, try to work on smooth consistent swings my driver swing and wedge swing pace is the same...It works for me...

This thumbnail couldn't be more perfect for the title

God this is me all over, I always put it down to pressure on the course whereas on the range I don’t mind the odd loose ball

Playing from a mat on the range is easier than the course because of consistent support at the same height above the ball each shot, you can get away with hitting behind the ball on a mat and swing path improves from the unconscious feedback from hitting the same shot repeatedly.

I agree about pressure being the problem on the course but how can I overcome it. On the range I put the basket of balls ten feet behind me so that I have to hit a ball then go back and get another ball and set up for the shot just like I do on the course. I pretend to play a game by hitting a driver, then an iron and if I hit them both well I give my self a par. That is the way I have always practiced. And yet on the course I often top the ball in a way that I almost never do on the range.

I am working on a swing change following a lesson, trying to shallow my downswing, with a more upright posture. I practice twice a week, once on longer irons (say 4-6) and the second time on wedges and bunkers. I am still trying to make the new swing my only swing. But I struggle with practice perfection versus course play. Interesting but is there a video on HOW to practice?

I try to vary clubs on the range after working on specific swing mechanics but I still dont score well on the course. What do you recommend when "playing the holes" on the range and you hit a bad one? For instance, hit a bad drive. Start the hole over so to speak and hit another drive or just keep moving thru to the next shot?

That’s simple Michael Jordan plays basketball, come on Quentin. Rory or Justin. My range game is crap because I don’t care, I’m just loosening up typically I hit 7 iron only. Quentin you are pretty smart fella and I do like your analysis generally!

I've taken a score card from the course I'm going to be playing and used that to practice changing clubs. It does seem to help somewhat. But at the range its all flat surface hits. No range in my area has a variation of terrain to practice from. They do have a chipping area with mounds but that's not the same as when doing it with a full swing. So the best thing that I have found that helps is going after work (in the summer when the days are longer) and playing alone on an empty course. That way I can play multiple shots when I need to. Example: On one of the holes, my drive landed on the down slope of a mound. So for my next shot I was standing above the ball leaning forward and my shot went into the trees lining the fairway on the right. I was then able to drop another ball from the same spot and compensate for the lie, and I hit it straight towards the green (par 5). Playing with a group, I would have never had the chance to fix my approach and learn from it. I would have only been able to remember that it didn't work and next time I'm in that situation to try something else.

its not about changing clubs for me its got to be MENTAL pressure!!! Cant believe how bad I am on the course ! its got to be a mental thing

I’m a mess on the course w my driver. I shoot in the low 80’s on a regular and I CANNOT hit my driver ….. image if I could hit my driver….it’s beyond frustrating

Your videos are great Clay, but here I don't think you (or indeed any of the teaching pros I have seen on KZfaq) really understand the problems that many if not most amateurs have out on the course. Yes of course, our swings are not perfect. Because of this, we get afflicted by another problem - lack of confidence at the key moments. You have to carry some water, say, or drive down a narrow fairway and you get to the start of your backswing and suddenly an inner voice appears out of nowhere and says "Are you sure you can do this?" and your body's response to this unwelcome intrusion is to start tensing up some inappropriate muscles, like the grip or the shoulders, or in my case, the buttocks (!!) which then lock up making it difficult to impossible to really "clear the hips". Clearly a problem the pros don't have (or perhaps they do watching Rory pull some pretty bad drives at the Masters and British Open). In any case, I'm pretty sure that the "standing up" problem you mention in many of your videos derives from such muscular tension which in turn originates from a lack of confidence. Well that's only one reason for tension. If you end up in the water or in the woods a few times, then your muscles will tense up for a different reason: out of frustration you'll try to hit the ball out of the solar system and all muscles will queue up to do their bit to help. Then, by the end of the round you are tired and its actually hard to have the right type of concentration/relaxation when you are tired. It would be great to do a video on all this. The key (on the course) is to recognise that these inappropriate muscles are tensing up in this way and to try to focus on keeping them relaxed throughout the swing. Problem then is that you don't hit the ball as far as you would like because the ones that you do want stretched up are not fully engaged. Catch 22. Perhaps you'll need a psychotherapist and a few amateurs to help you out on the video!

im at the point I dont even wanna hit range before round anymore.. 7 handicap here...I hit range then I shoot 43../fuck

Before I play I hit my 4 iron off the grass about 4 times, if I hit that 4 iron 185-195 yards and my Trajectory Looks like Ben Hogans 4 irons I know my game is Sharp, if I chunk em or pull em I'm Doomed.

Simple - more variables both external and internal that people don’t practice for

Because there's those that can and there's those that can't

I have this problem with the driver

My biggest problem is over swinging when I get on the course.

We tend to forget the bad shots we hit on the range. Also, the fairway isn't 200 - 300 yards wide like the driving range.

My fundermentals are shit 😱😱😱

I just shot a 122 😂

you cant do that because the range is the same level it will never be like playing on the course