Range Chat

RANGE CHAT VERSION  From time to time — and let’s be honest, it’s probably way more often than I should admit — I get absolutely sucked into the YouTube golf vortex.  It usually starts innocently enough. One quick video. Five minutes. Just checking something. Next minute it’s an hour later, I’ve changed my grip twice, rebuilt my backswing in my head, and I’m standing in the lounge room doing slow-motion practice swings while my family wonders where it all went wrong.  I’m a s

If you’ve ever stood in a golf shop staring at ball boxes wondering what compression actually means, you’re not alone.    Compression refers to how much a golf ball deforms at impact.  Low compression balls compress more easily.  High compression balls require more force.    A ball only performs as designed if you compress it enough.    High compression balls suit faster swing speeds and consistent strike.  When compressed properly, they offer efficient launch and spin contro

For years, I played far more golf than I practised.    Like most golfers, I teed it up whenever I could and wondered why my handicap wouldn’t budge.    So what actually helps more — practice or play?    Practice should work.  It allows you to focus on fundamentals without pressure.  But most golfers don’t practise — they just hit balls.    Bad practice grooves mistakes.    Playing more doesn’t magically fix flaws either.  The course simply exposes them.    Lessons change the

Picking a golf ball isn’t just about price or brand.    Spin can either help your game — or expose it.    Too much spin and the ball curves wildly.  Too little and it runs on longer than expected.    Spin controls:  Flight.  Curvature.  Stopping power.    High spin golf balls:  Reward clean strikes.  Offer control for fast swings.  Punish mishits.    They suit players who control face and path.  For many amateurs, they exaggerate slices and hooks.    Low spin golf balls:  Lau

Ever walk off the range feeling busy… but not actually better?    You’ve hit a bucket of balls, broken a sweat, and yet nothing really feels different.    A lot of golfers confuse practice volume with practice quality. More balls doesn’t mean better results.    Effective practice isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing the right things, on purpose.    What makes practice effective:  Variety.  Context.  Intent.    Hitting the same club to the same target teaches repetition,

At some point in every golfer’s journey, the question comes up:    “Should I be playing a 4-piece ball now?”    Usually after someone hits one great shot and starts thinking they’ve outgrown their current ball.    The truth is simpler than most people want to admit.    4-piece golf balls aren’t “better” balls.  They’re just more specialised.    And unless your swing speed and consistency demand that specialisation, they’re unlikely to help — and can actually make things harde

Most golfers think they’re working on skill.    They practise.  They play.  They hit balls.    But what they’re often building is habit — not skill.    Habit is what your body does automatically:  Grip.  Setup.  Tempo.  Decisions.    Skill is adaptability.  Handling wind.  Uneven lies.  Pressure.  Recovery shots.    Repetition alone doesn’t create skill.  It just reinforces whatever habits already exist.    Practising the same way, in the same place, builds comfortable habits

There aren’t many things in golf you can fully control.    You can’t change the weather or the pin positions, and your swing isn’t getting rebuilt overnight.  But you can choose the golf ball you play — and for most golfers, that choice quietly matters.    2-piece balls are built for distance, forgiveness, and value.  They launch higher, spin less, and fly straighter for most amateurs.    3-piece balls add a mantle layer.  That extra layer improves feel and control, especiall

One of the biggest myths in golf is that you need perfect conditions to improve.    Perfect weather.  Perfect range.  Perfect amount of time.    If you wait for everything to line up, you’ll practise far less than you think.    Golf doesn’t really have an off-season.  You either stay connected to it — or you start again every year.    The good news?  You can practise golf almost anywhere, all year round.    Full swing practice doesn’t require full swings.  Half swings and slo

Most of us have rocked up to the first tee with barely enough time to stretch, let alone warm up.    A couple of lazy practice swings, maybe a shoulder roll, and away we go.    For years, golfers have told themselves:  “The first few holes don’t count anyway.”    But skipping a warm-up usually costs you shots — you just don’t notice until it’s already on the card.    The warm-up myth:  Many golfers think warming up doesn’t matter.  That distance is distance whether you’re col

If you’ve played golf in Australia for more than five minutes, you’ve been here.    Miss the green by a metre or two.  Putter in one hand. Wedge in the other.  And that little voice asking what to do.    This decision shows up every round — and it matters more than most golfers think.    Putting feels safe:  It keeps the ball on the ground.  Limits disasters.  Turns misses into manageable outcomes.    But fringe, grain, and mixed grass can make putting tricky fast.    Chippin

Golf is full of promises.    One tip.  One drill.  One swing thought that’s meant to fix everything.    Yet most golfers keep practising and don’t actually get much better.    The problem isn’t effort.  It’s focus.    You only get better when you practise one thing at a time.    Most golfers arrive at the range and try to fix everything in one session.  Ball striking.  Direction.  Distance.  Tempo.    That’s not practice — that’s chaos.    Before you can focus, you need to ch

Most golfers rock up to the driving range with a full bag, hit a few wedges, a few irons, then spend the rest of the bucket trying to smash driver.    It feels productive. It usually isn’t.    If you actually want your range sessions to translate to better scores, what you bring to the range matters just as much as how you practise.    The biggest mistake is bringing every club and never settling into a pattern. Constantly changing clubs means changing setup, tempo, and feel

Let’s be honest.    Most of us rock up to the range, dump a bucket of balls on the mat, start ripping drivers, and quietly hope something magical happens.    Sometimes it does.  Most times… not so much.    Practice without a purpose is just exercise with golf clubs.    Before you start swinging, you should know why you’re there.    There are three real reasons golfers practise.    Practice for long-term improvement:  This is the work that actually moves your handicap.  It foc

For years, I played far more golf than I practised.    Like most golfers, I teed it up whenever I could and wondered why my handicap wouldn’t budge.    So what actually helps more — practice or play?    Practice should work.  It allows you to focus on fundamentals without pressure.  But most golfers don’t practise — they just hit balls.    Bad practice grooves mistakes.    Playing more doesn’t magically fix flaws either.  The course simply exposes them.    Lessons change the

Ever walk off the range feeling busy… but not actually better?    You’ve hit a bucket of balls, broken a sweat, and yet nothing really feels different.    A lot of golfers confuse practice volume with practice quality. More balls doesn’t mean better results.    Effective practice isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing the right things, on purpose.    What makes practice effective:  Variety.  Context.  Intent.    Hitting the same club to the same target teaches repetition,

Breaking 90 isn’t about flushing it like a tour pro.    It’s about avoiding disasters and playing smarter golf.    An 89 can be:  17 bogeys and one par.  No birdies required.    Play the right tees.  If you’re hitting hybrids into every par 4, you’re making life harder than it needs to be.    The two biggest score killers:  Three-putts.  Penalty shots.    Eliminate those and your scores drop fast.    You only need three reliable shots:  One iron you trust.  A stock pitch from

Every Aussie golfer hits the same point sooner or later.    You lose a few balls, card a couple of disasters, and walk off thinking,  “How hard can breaking 100 actually be?”    Breaking 100 in Australia isn’t about perfect swings.  It’s about managing firm fairways, wind, tight lies, and avoiding the bush.    What breaking 100 really looks like:  Mostly bogeys.  A few doubles.  One ugly hole you survive.    Eliminate triples and quads and you’re nearly there.    The biggest