Pros Do This Simple Thing On The Range But Amateurs Won’t Listen

Whether you’re a pro or weekend hack, we all need a pre-round range session before we head to the first tee.

And the time when pros and weekend hacks most often intersect is on the range during a pro-am day on the PGA Tour. This is when we see the game’s best and the game’s, let’s say, not the best hit balls next to each other.

I went out to the Arnold Palmer Invitational pro-am this year with a question: What is the difference between pros and amateurs when it comes to hitting range shots?

Pace

There are several things Tour pros do on the range that ams don’t do (more on that in a separate story coming soon) but one variable stood out to me immediately: time between shots.

At Bay Hill, you could predict a player’s skill level by their pace.

Were they taking their time and preparing for each shot? They were probably playing golf for a living.

Were they raking balls over one after the other and hitting as quickly as possible? They probably don’t play golf for a living.

I sat down with a stopwatch and tracked a few dozen golfers—everyone from 30-handicappers to Scottie Scheffler—as they prepared for the pro-am.

My findings were clear: the pros took, on average, 35 seconds between shots. The amateurs took an average of 15.

Why pros take so much more time

To get a better handle on exactly why that happens, I asked a number of pro golfers what they thought of the discrepancy.

“Pros are getting feedback from every shot,” said PGA Tour Champions player Scott McCarron. “What did I feel? Was I fully committed? Did I hold the target in my minds eye through the swing? Did I trust it? Then I pick another target and shot to hit.

“Amateurs are just trying to swing and somehow hit it solid.”

The disparity in time intervals also didn’t surprise Tour veteran Paul Goydos.

“It’s not a matter of how many balls you hit. It’s a matter of the quality of the practice. The amateurs are rushing through their session because they’re not practicing the right things. You know, I think that you need to practice what you’re going to do on the course that day, and on the range it’s all about leaning into your routine.”

When five-time PGA Tour Champions winner Kevin Sutherland heard of the difference in time between shots, he thought it made sense.

“Pros want to make every swing count. You can learn from every swing. But if you’re in a hurry, it’s just a wasted swing.”

And then there is the concept of how pressure can get underneath an amateur’s skin.

Ryan Ballengee is the founder of Golf News Net and he’s played in pro-ams. He thinks nervous energy also factors into how quickly amateurs hit their range shots before a pro-am.

“Most people tend to play faster when they’re nervous so I think that’s part of it. And I think some amateurs feel like they’re wasting the pro’s time if they take too long to hit.”

Stuart Appleby has seen this play out at pro-ams throughout his career. And he believes the preparation of pros naturally leads to more time in between range shots.

“More than likely (amateurs) are rushing to the tee, so they just want to do reps. We pros have more organizing structures to our warm-up session. We try to keep it consistent every day with our certain routines that we follow.”

That’s an important lesson: keeping a structured practice routine is more important than getting in a few hurried swings before heading to the first tee.

And when you’re under the pressure of a pro-am or another tournament, sticking to that routine becomes even more critical.

Amateurs don’t like to listen to this advice. Their routine is to “see ball, hit ball, repeat” until it’s time to play—but that isn’t particularly helpful.

When in doubt, take an extra deep breath and visualize your shot. It will help a lot more than a few extra swings without a plan.

What goes through the mind of a pro during warm-ups?

McCarron gave this example of the process that goes through a pro’s mind in their warmups.

“Let’s say I want to hit a high fade 7-iron. What is my target? Am I setting up for high fade? Where do I want to start it? How high do I want to hit it? Can I see the shot now? Can I feel the swing that matches what I see now? Can I trust it? Then swing.

“We do this so it mimics what we do on the course. Practice like you play.”

These pros are dedicated, as they should be, to their craft. Maybe we weekend golfers don’t have to wait 35 seconds between every shot but it wouldn’t hurt to make more of our pre-round shots count.

Practice like you play.