Course Management

Chapter 2 Routine

There are specific steps to follow, to give yourself the opportunity to hit the best shot you are capable of hitting. As you approach your ball in the fairway, you must begin to mentally analyze the conditions and picture your pending shot in order to choose a club.

LPGA tour player. Meg Melon says you have to visualize which way that golf ball is going and how you’re going to play it. You have to be creative in looking at what the green is giving you or what the wind is doing for you and allow those things to help you rather than hurt you in any given situation it’s taking in all the ingredients and in a positive way, coming up with a shot that reflects the input.

• Let’s look at the factors that make up this analysis to the point of club selection. What I’d like for you to picture now is a series of chain links connected in a vertical line.
  • Link one, you approach your ball, survey your lie and consider the natural ball flight that lie will produce.
  • Link two. you Find a target, a very precise target.
  • Link three. You determine your distance from the target.
  • Link for. Check the winn.
  • Link five. You determine the type of shot you were confident you can hit. Can you hit a draw fade? Can you hit it high? Can you hit low and.
  • Link six. You make your club selection deliberately removing your club from the bag and moving quietly behind the ball.

These steps are called course management. The better your course management, the more likely you will choose the correct club. And the more focused you will be on your shot. It is important that you know how far you can hit each club in your bag. Then consider when weather and course conditions.

For example, if the conditions are dam, you will have less role and need to carry the ball closer to your targets, some elevated greens are not part of the natural terrain. These greens will tend to be harder and you won’t be able to hold them as well with your approach shots.

Choosing the right position to tee up your ball and the tee box and knowing what club you hit, what distance and varying wind conditions are two examples of good course management course management is a consideration of the broad information pertaining to your shot. Whether when lie, yardage carry your history of success with is shot during practice in play and so on.

As you integrate this broad information and decide on the shots are going to hit your attention moves from abroad to a narrow focus. The closer you get to hitting the shot, the more narrow your focus becomes.

Your narrow focus is seeing the shot and seeing, and feeling the swing you want to make. Your total attention goes to a specific target ball flight and a feeling of the swing you want to make. As you move into your setup, your focus broadens again. After the shot.

let’s look at a few strategies for moving from abroad to a narrow focus, mental preparation. Once you have finished your course management, there are several strategies you can use to get yourself relaxed, confident, and focused in the present.

As you move behind the ball and look at the target, recall the same shot you have hit well in the past picture. First, the ball flight, and then this way you made feel the shot as you do next.

Tell yourself with confident determination, what you were going to do. You must believe in your ability to hit the shot images of similar successful shots from the past will reinforce this belief, your movement, and moment to moment. Focus are important here.

As you survey your target, you should be breathing deeply and moving at a pace that fits your desired swing pace you thought should be only on the present.

The concept of describing the shot you want to hit with confidence. Determination is amplified in Tom Watson’s description of his famous chip shot on number 17 at the 1982, US Open at Pebble Beach. He was tied with Jack Nicholas for the lead. When he hit his tee shot over the back left side of the green Watson had a 16 foot chip to the hole from deep rough, with a downhill lie and a downhill roll Watson described his interaction with his caddy regarding that shot. My caddy said, get it close. I said, hell, I’m going to sync it. I thought if I could get my shot online, it would hit the pin and go in, that’s the way I envisioned it. He made the shot for a birdie, which was a two on that hole and on to win the tournament. If Watson had been trying to get it close, his ball would have likely rolled five to six feet by the whole leaving him a test putt back for par. He never considered anything but making the shot. And as I said, he went on to birdie 18 and beat Nicholas by two strokes for the 1982, us open title, lots and focused on the target described and felt the shot he wanted to hit and that he made it. He only thought about what he wanted to do.

Patrick Burke, PGA and Australian tour player finished second in valley one week and one the Victorian open the following week. These finishes placed him at the top of the Australian tour money list. In November of 1994, he said the describing the details of each shot, he was going to hit out loud to his caddy, kept him focused in the present and gave him confidence. Consider the same shot you have hit well in the past. See the ball flight of the ball and see, and feel the swing you made to hit that shot. This will build confidence and a positive motor program breathe deeply describing the shot to yourself. And your mind will paint a picture. We call the picture visualization. The more aroused you become, the less accessible or fuzzier these visual images will be. The more confident you are, the more relaxed and focused you will be. The clearer these images will become. And the less likely you will be to add, delete or change the link in your routine chain, take a practice, swing, see, and feel the swing you want to make. Now settle into this image behind the ball and find an intermediate target in front of your ball, with which you will align your club face. Begin to move back to the ball slowly and deliberately at a pace that you want to match your swing piece, move to your setup position.

Your sensory input should be flooded with a feeling of the club. In your hand, the weight, the texture of the grip, the feeling of the ground under your feet, your target and the color of the landing area. This sensory flooding keeps your focus in the present. And only on the shot you are playing. The links in your routine chain will remain unchanged with as mindful one shot at a time focus. Once you are over the ball and have checked your setup, turn your focus back to the target. Look at least twice at your target and deliberately shuffle your feet into position and slowly and comfortably waggle your club. Settle into this setup. Take a final deep breath and take another look at your target. Remember the following phrase, stare at the target and glance at the ball.

You will read in a later chapter, how Fred Couples never hits a shot without thinking of that same shot he has hit well in the past.

Sam’s need used a strategy for what he called the first tee jitters. And this is discussed in the chapter, fine tuning your nervous system. This strategy of thinking of a shot you had well in the past has a similar neurophysiological effect to describing the shot you want to hit. This process is summarized in the chapter title visualization. I noted that your routine is like a chain and that each link in that chain makes up another step in your routine. Let’s review the links in a pre swing mental chain, as it moves from abroad to a narrow focus,

• let’s start with a broad focus. And once again, I’d like for you to visualize. If you would a series of chain links lined up vertically.
  • Link one, you approach your ball, survey your lie and consider the natural ball flight that lie will produce.
  • Link two. you. Find a target.
  • Link three. You determine your distance from the target.
  • link four. Check the wind. Now here’s where you begin to integrate broad focus information with narrow focus.
  • Link five. you determine the type of shot you are confident. You can hit a draw, fade high or low. And now we began the narrow focus.
  • Link six. make a club selection deliberately remove the club from the bag and move quietly behind the ball.
  • Link seven. you recall or call up a similar shot from the past that you’ve had. Well.
  • Link eight. you set up and take a practice swing you see and feel the swing you want to make.
  • Link nine. You find an intermediate target in front of your ball that is aligned with your primary target.
  • Link Ten. You described the shots you are going to hit to your primary target.
  • Link eleven. as you move back to the ball, you remain focused on your intermediate target. Your movement to the ball matches your desired swing tempo.
  • Link tvell. You feel the club in your hand and the ground under your feet. As you returned to the ball, your entire visual focus is on your intermediate target.
  • Link thirteen. You quietly set your club behind the ball and square your club face with your intermediate target.
  • Link, fourteen. your eyes go to your primary target. As you shuffle into your setup, your eyes never leave your primary target until you are aligned.
  • Link fifteen. you feel grounded and balanced. You stare at the target and glance at the ball.
  • Link sizteen. Your waggle is quiet and deliberate. As you focus on your primary target and settle into your setup position in preparation to start your backswing.

Again, you stare at your target and glance at the ball, choosing your targets. Notice the primary target focus in all phases of the pre swing routine. The target is important in consideration of distance type of shot and club selection, maintain ongoing visual contact with your target. As you move back to the ball and during your setup, this will help you keep a target orientation and a one shot at a time. Focus,

LPGA tour Player. Meg melon says a lot of people get locked into their golf ball and forget about where they’re going to hit it.

PGA tour Player, Doug tool describes a pre swing routine where he doesn’t take his eye off the target. He finds a target as he stands behind the ball and remains focused on that target until he sets up for the shot only then does he pay attention to his grip, stance and posture? He says that feeling his way into the shot instinctively with this target focus produces more accurate shots.

As a psychologist. I would say that the purpose of routine is to integrate broad focus information about the shot in a sequential progression that provides you with positive content and determining a club and target as the routine chain progresses from one link to the next, your focus should narrow to a specific target images of ball flight to that target and a feeling of the swing to produce that shot. This structured repeated mental routine creates a 100% focus in the present and ensures that you relax through movement and breathing while staying focused on your target. As you focus in the present, describe to yourself with confident determination, the shot you were going to hit.

This internal discussion will produce visual images of the shot and help you maintain a focus on your target. The net result of these behaviors is to provide the brain with information that produces the highest level of performance within your capability.

The positive confident thoughts in your routine are incompatible with thoughts of hazards, your score, the last shot, what someone is going to think tomorrow’s meeting.

And so on in summary, this mental strategy ensures a one shot at a time. Focus. It blocks undesired intrusive thoughts that are unrelated to the present or a focus on hazards looming in the distance.

Sam Snead, Winter of 81, regular PGA and senior tour events was playing against a young pro in Charleston, West Virginia, on a course with which Sam was unfamiliar. As Sam stepped to the tee, the young pro said, now watch it Sam, over to the right there’s woods and a big drop-off there. And you can get into real trouble if you hit it there. Sam commented on the young pros discussion of the hazardous follows this sort of strategy.

I cut my teeth on warning, a man of something so strongly that it will prey on his mind to the point of creating an almost magnetic pole. When you swing the club, talk of trouble can draw you straight into trouble. If you have discussions on the tee with your playing partners regarding trouble, or you think about the hazards looming in the distance, the result is the same.

The hazard will become your focus and target to hit or avoid. You will likely either hit into the hazard or to the extreme opposite direction of the hazard.

Ben Crenshaw won the 1990 PGA event, the Colonial during an interview, after his win, he said that as he stood on the 17th tee with a four shot lead, all he was thinking about was not hooking into the trees on the left.

He overcompensated and pushed his tee shot into the hazard on the right.

The focus on hazards becomes the target of your nervous system. The do’s and don’ts of hazards. Don’t matter when the sensory information is processed to the brain, the flood of sensory information of thoughts, images, and discussion regarding the hazards becomes the central focus or target in the nervous system.

The chapter titled visualization pictures, equal performance provides a detailed discussion of how images are precursors to behavior through the motor program, the brain constructs.

I would encourage you to ask the other members of your group, not to discuss the hazards, just to describe and show you the targets.

If you’re on your home course, turn your focus to targets and off of hazards. When you walk onto a Tee on a strange course, ask what your target is, not where the hazards are, regardless of where you are. Those hazards are stationary. If your ball is going to find them, it will. There’s no reason to give your brain a headstart.

Anytime you approach a situation where you’ve had difficulty, your focus will likely go to the problem rather than your target. You may have difficulty hitting from sand or playing from the rough, or there may be a particular hole that you don’t play. Well. If these thoughts intrude on your pre swing routine, step off the ball and start your routine over from behind the ball.

A good saying to remember is what you feed attention, grows, feed attention to your targets and the fairways and greens and cups will widen.

Please continue with: Starting your Pre Swing Soutine