MP3 Training: An intriguing , modern and free driving range tool

If you are like me, you like banging balls on the range. Just call me a monkey. The problem, is while we feel like we’re putting in the time and effort, we’ve actually become mindless robots as we bash 20 7-irons in a row, then dedicate an entire small bucket to the driver. It can be difficult to stay focused and taking too many shots can cause bad habits. I notice especially that I can often have an entirely different ball flight on the range than the course. It’s frustrating to say the least.

At the PGA Merchandise Show, Eye Line Digital is offering an interesting strategy to keep yourself focused: MP3 training lessons you can download just like our wonderful podcasts. They offer “choose your shot", “choose your target” and “play the course", which is a simulated round of golf.

As you listen to the “Play the Course” lesson, you are sung soothing course visions from a mature, responsible Obi Wan-like voice: “You are on the tee. Hit this drive down the left side of the fairway” or “The pin is tucked front left, 150 yards away guarded by water on the right.”

You pause your player, swing, then listen to the next shot. It’s the kind of tool that, depending on your practice habits and imagination, could range from “kinda cool” to “pretty dumb". It is an intriguing concept for those of us who lose focus on the range. For the time being it’s also free, at least until David Leadbetter begins endorsing it.

They should have some more fun with this imaginary golf shot concept. Along with yardage and pin locations, how about inserting intermittent car honks or your buddy starting up a sentence right before your back swing. Or maybe mention that on this drive there is $20 on the line or say it’s the 18th hole and you need to get off the course immediately because your wife just called furious after you forgot to pick up her sister at the airport.

That would be far more realistic.