So many golfers seem to have a love-hate relationship with the driving range. Some only visit when they have to. Perhaps their games have gone horribly wrong and they’ve gone into desperation mode. Or maybe they only see the range as a place to squeeze in a few balls before they tee-it up, rather than a place where they can actually spend a solid chunk of time.
Myself, I’ve always been a driving range rat — perhaps too much so. As a junior golfer I’d spend hours on the range, addicted to the idea of trying to figure it all out. Even now I try to squeeze in solo range sessions every couple of weeks, which always seems to help me keep the gears in my game turning in the right direction.
But whether you’re like me and love to practice or a golfer who sees it mostly as a means to an end, there’s a one product that I can hand-on-heart reccomend to every single golfer out there this Cyber Monday: A good set of alignment sticks.
Before you roll your eyes, I know you’re probably wondering if you really need them. Personally, I think they’re the kind of must-have purchase every golfer needs. Why? Because as I see pros do time and time again whenever they’re on the range: they plop one down on the ground, and they instantly have peace of mind knowing they’re aimed exactly where they want to be.
And, of course, they can also use them for other things, like checking their swing plane. It’s why you see our GOLF Top 100 Teachers recommend them for drills all the time.
Some people convert driveway reflectors into alignment sticks, but having gone that route myself before, I’ve found it doesn’t take long for them to get misshapen, which is why now I use a collapsible one, which I keep in the pocket of my golf bag. There’s a bunch of them out there, but here are two I’ve tried recently and can recommend:
The first are Callaway’s Alignment Stix, which comes in a pack of two and are both collapsible. You can use them for alignment from tee-to-green, or to use for help with drills.
Callaway Alignment Stix
$19.99
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The Alignment Pro is slightly more expensive, but that’s because it’s more multi-purpose: Like the others, you can use them to line up your feet of as a visual aid for drills, but you can also fold the ends to turn it into a putting start-line trainer.
