KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE TARGET
By Darren Smith, Certified Coach, GolfTEC Westheimer, Houston Texas
Having a consistent routine can eliminate many of the mental distractions that we can all face in the process of hitting a shot. We shouldn’t expect ourselves to stay focused for an entire round of golf, but each of us should have a 40-60 second routine in place for every shot. This will keep your mind fresh and sharp during the entire round and help you make better decisions.
The first component of a good pre-shot routine is to make a thorough assessment of the situation. How many of us would find our ball at the 150-yard marker, walk over to our bag, pull out our normal 150-yard club and settle into our address position? As you are about to pull the trigger you realize that the pin is in the back of the green and the wind is blowing. Now you begin to wonder if you have enough club. Will I come up short and in the water hazard or bunker? You might be telling yourself that you should change clubs. You now have been over the ball for far too long and have been thinking about everything, except your target.
Once you get your original yardage, 150 to the middle of the green for example, you should take into consideration a few factors. Where on the green is the pin? What direction is the wind blowing? Is my shot uphill or downhill? You may even take into consideration the distance to stay short of or completely carry a hazard, especially off of the tee or even laying up on a par five. In just a few seconds and with a little simple math you may have decided that you need your 175-yard club for this shot. Now you have eliminated all of the second guessing you faced in the prior example and can execute with a clear mind.
Then you need to fix in on your target, which should be a very specific one. When hitting a shot, your target should never be the fairway or the green—these are too wide and general. For example, if the fairway is 30 yards wide and you miss it slightly to the left or right your ball might land in a hazard or the tree line. Try picking out a tree on your intended line. Now select a specific branch or leaf that you want the ball to fly at. If you miss that small target slightly to the left or right you have still hit a very good shot. By picking out a very specific target you also take a lot of things out of your field of view (water, bunkers, the out-of bounds to the right) and your mind is now focused on where you want the ball to go instead of all the wrong places it could end up.
Now you are ready to get into your set-up routine. As you have seen on television, there are many different styles and routines. You can develop any style with the ultimate goal being to complete your set-up in a timely fashion and repeat it the same way every time. This is one of the main things that you should practice when on the range —technique practice is for inside the GolfTEC bay. Try going through your full pre-shot routine for every shot you hit on the practice tee. This will help you get comfortable with your routine and help you develop some memory of your routine, just as you have done with your swing.
Foremost, you should aim the clubface to the target first, before you take your grip and before you set your feet into place. This will keep the target oriented as you take your address and allow you to grip the club with the face square to the target.
Unfortunately only Tiger gets to have Steve Williams over his shoulder for every shot he hits. However, we can still take a few small, easy steps to select the right club and prevent us from becoming distracted over the shot.
