This Tricky Driving Range Drill Unlocks the Perfect Distance Control originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
When you’re hitting balls on the driving range, there’s a good chance you don’t have a good plan that actually helps you improve your golf game.
That’s not a knock, but the cold hard truth, as most amateur golfers just whip out their driver and try crushing drives over and over.
But if you really want to translate your golf practice from the driving range to the golf course, you need to mix up different shot types and scenarios on the range. This means using different golf clubs and hitting different types of shot shapes.
Since understanding how to dial in your distance control is so crucial when trying to score lower, practicing that skill on the driving range is an absolute must!
So what’s a good way to start doing that? I caught up with golf coach Anthony Wik during a recent trip to Claremont Golf Club in Oregon to get some pro-level tips. So take a look below and follow Rainmakers Golf Club on YouTube for more golf instruction.
Add this Drill to Your Next Driving Range Session
When you’re on the driving range, Wik reinforces something that I often hear from a lot of the best pro golfers (like Justin Thomas) and golf teachers: Golf practice should be intentional.
After telling me he set up a small landing area for me by using sticks, Wik shares why intent is so important in golf.
“Everyone looks at this shot and thinks, ‘I want to put it on the green’ — that’s not measurable, though. That’s not with intent,” he says. “So I’ve got two sticks up there [in the green] that are four yards short of the pin, and four yards long of the pin — so we’ve got a small circle.”
Obviously, this throws me for a loop — and is more than just a little bit intimidating. But Wik says the whole point is because, “if we’re going to aim small, then we’re going to miss small.”
Wik then gets me into the driving range drill, using five balls to see how close I can get to that circle he set up for me around the hole on the green.
Since this is a distance control drill, the whole point is to experiment with different swing lengths and grip heights, trying to figure out the most manageable way to hit this shot on the range so we can translate it to the golf course.
Wik chimes in to give me some pointers, knowing I’ve got a Pitching Wedge in hand that I typically hit between 122-to-127 yards — and the shot in front of me is 115 yards with a slight breeze into our faces.
“I suggest getting a baseline by taking a stock Pitching Wedge just to see what we’re measuring against,” he says. “You have to sail this 150 yards before it touches anything [behind the putting surface].”
As I work through the first few shots, it quickly becomes apparent why this is such a great drill for distance control — because I didn’t land one of the balls in Wik’s landing zone with my Pitching Wedge, often coming up just short.
That’s where Wik suggests making a club change, saying there’s no rule that I have to use my Pitching Wedge — and guides me towards using my 9-iron.
“Using your Pitching Wedge is barely getting you there, so why not take a half-inch off your 9-iron [on the grip]?”
Even after mishitting my first shot using the 9-iron, the ball rolls up on the front right side of the green. So I’ve now put three of four shots on the green; just not within Wik’s landing zone.
“You want to take stress out of golf,” Wik reminds me. “You don’t want to feel like you have to hit a perfect shot in order to get it where you need it to.”
So by practicing this tricky distance control drill on the driving range, it not only allowed me to rethink my club choice when I come across a similar situation on the golf course, but it actually made me realize clubbing up to something “safer” eliminates performance anxiety and let’s me hit a confident shot — even if it’s not the cleanest contact.
“What’s golf giving you that day? Knowing your yardages and knowing what club goes a certain yardage when you choke down on it an inch, that gives you self-confidence to be able to score lower,” Wik adds.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
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