This PGA Tour range data should be the blueprint for how you practice

Golf Digest

I came home from the driving range recently and told my wife that I’m fascinated by watching how golfers choose to practice. A guy I’ve seen often takes such mighty lashes with all his clubs that he ends up facing completely forward after contact. Others can go through a large bucket in 20 minutes like they’re being timed on an assembly line. It’s fun, and to each their own, of course. I thought about that while reading Luke Kerr- Dineen’s fascinating deep dive into how PGA Tour players practiced this season. He breaks down 250,000(!) shots into 10 observations. LKD covers everything from shot frequency and sequencing to which clubs the players focus on the most. (Hint: It’s not the driver.)

10 key insights from analyzing how the pros practice

The PGA Tour is now tracking every shot pros hit on the range. A deep dive revealed some secrets you can steal

By Luke Kerr-Dineen

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Tod Leonard Aug. 8

The pressure was enormous, and Mac Meissner seemed to have steeled himself for it. The 27-year-old birdied two holes on his back nine Friday in the Wyndham Championship to be inside the bubble to make the cut and keep alive his chances to reach the playoffs for the first time. But that made what happened at the 18th hole even more crushing. Needing only a bogey, Meissner hit his drive left into the trees and could only punch out. His third shot found the green, but he three-putted from 43 feet for a double bogey. Meissner missed the weekend by one shot and currently is projected to be 72nd in the FedEx Cup standings—two spots from a playoff berth. That’s brutal and happens to the best of them: 13-time tour winner Jason Day saw his 18-year string of making the postseason come to an end, too.

Tod Leonard Aug. 8

There’s no sugarcoating it: Tony Finau really struggles with his short putting. He’s 108th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained/putting this season, and that’s his best result over the last four years. He’s tried just about every method of gripping the club and came up with a new one for this week’s Wyndham Championship; he’s going one-handed. “It’s been a positive thing to just try, and it’s definitely a freeing feeling knowing you can make a bunch of putts with one hand,” Finau told Golf Channel on Saturday after shooting a third-round 69 to be T-61. Well, sort of. Finau made a 22-foot birdie putt early, but he also didn’t touch the hole with a three-footer and missed another from seven feet. At a projected 97th in the FedEx Cup standings, the six-time tour winner is going to miss the playoffs after 11 straight appearances and called 2026 "a failed season" to this point. “I'll just continue to learn from the mistakes that I'm making and see how I can be better for next season,” Finau said.

Tod Leonard Aug. 8

Can a 17-year-old star be made to feel “old?” She can when she’s taking on a 14-year-old buzzsaw in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. Junior sensation Asterisk Talley reached the quarterfinals at The Honors Course in Tennessee on Saturday and faced fellow Californian Maggie Ma, who was bidding to become the youngest U.S. Women’s Am winner ever. It was Ma who knocked out reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champ Clairey Lin in the Round of 16 after a spectacular bunker hole-out on 18; she then won on the 19th. But Ma couldn’t take down Talley despite a tremendous comeback that saw her win the final three holes of regulation before Talley prevailed on the 19th. Talley was set to play another Californian, Lily Peng, 17, in Saturday afternoon’s semifinal. The other match features Alabaman Gabriella Nicastro against top-seeded Anna Iwanaga, 17, of Japan. Nicastro eliminated Pimchompoo Chaisilprungruang in the quarters after the Thai knocked out sentimental favorite Rachel Heck 2-up in the Round of 16.