Driving Range Winter Practice Tip

Last updated: February 17, 2023

With the lingering winter season, now is a great time to work on contact – the ability to stand over an iron shot and know it’s going to hit the green.  Working on this skill can help to improve your distance and direction and, most importantly, your consistency from shot to shot.

Practicing this skill year-round is one of the perks of living in this part of the world. Unfortunately though, during cold spells like this, off-centre shots can send vibrations up your arms and through your entire body. But let’s take this negative, and turn it into a positive.

Here is one quick and easy tip you can use to practice during this cool season.  Be sure to have a roll of painter’s tape handy – essential for practicing this skill to improve your contact.

Place a piece of tape on your clubface, and try hitting a few golf balls on the range.  You’ll instantly be able to see if you are hitting the balls on the toe, heel or centre of the clubface. Once you start finding the middle, you’ll probably start to notice a real difference in the sound and feel of your shots.

Once you feel comfortable, peel the tape off and see if you can guess where you made contact on the clubface just through the feel and sound of the hit.

Quick tip: There are many causes for off-centre hits, but the most common mistake is the distance we stand from the ball. If you’re mostly hitting the ball off the toe of the club, simply stand a little closer at setup and see if that makes a difference.

You can also check out this Golf Burnaby video about how to achieve better contact and its relationship with power creation.