“Golf is not a game of great shots. It’s a game of most accurate misses. The people who win make the smallest mistakes.” – Gene Littler
By Ian Hardie
Regardless of how good a golfer is or how long they have played golf for
Every golfer has a pre-shot routine
In fact they have at least two
One for their full shots
As well as a different one for putting
If we really think about it
Most golfers probably have more than two
As they will generally have variations going on when chipping
The way they do it before a sand shot could be different
As could trouble shots, shots out of the rough……………..
There could easily be up to ten or more variations I suppose
As ‘pre-shot routine’ is effectively a term we use
That describes the steps a golfer goes through
To get ready to hit their shot
For most golfers it starts after the shot has been chosen
And they are on their way in to set up to and hit their shot
It usually involves aligning the feet and aiming the club
Setting the body position and grip
Some golfers will be taking practice swings during it
And most often some sort of visualization of the intended shot
Unfortunately though
A lot of golfers don’t put a lot of thought into their pre-shot routines
Mainly as they aren’t aware of how powerful a really good pre-shot routine is
Because theses golfers don’t pay attention to what they are doing
The way they approach each shot can be different each time
Or the order of the routine they use isn’t efficient
Sometimes they just get ‘caught up in the moment’
Becoming transfixed by the flag or still steaming from the last shot that they just messed up
And start doing things that are totally different than normal
In my experience as a teaching professional
Problems or inefficiencies with golfers pre-shot routines
Most often around aiming properly
Cause a lot more bad shots than are caused by poor technique
Read that again – that was the important bit!
Think of it this way
Let’s say that you didn’t play so good in your last round
Maybe you missed a few greens when using a short iron to approach them
So a few days later you head out to the practice area to hit some 8 irons and sort your problem out
At the practice area you will (hopefully) have a target to aim at
As well as maybe putting a club or stick on the ground to help you line up your feet
You may even spend some time making sure the ball position is consistent
And as you will be hitting a bunch of similar shots
You will most probably hit some good consistent 8 irons
Upon leaving the practice area you will no doubt decide that
‘I’m hitting it great, can’t wait for my next round of golf’
The next round of golf comes and guess what?
As your practice session with the 8 iron had very similar conditions for each shot
But your pre-shot routine on the course doesn’t
You do the same things during your round again
Missing a bunch of greens with short irons
Maybe on one shot you had your feet aiming to the right
The next 8 iron shot the ball position may have been too far forward
On another one you may have had your feet aiming to the left a little
Yet on another one you may have lost sight of the flag as you were lining up and got the clubface set up off line
You may have hit a shot without even having a practice swing
During that round, even though you thought you were aiming at the target every time
Due to your inconsistent or non-existent pre-shot routine
Your brain will be having to work overtime to try and get the ball to go in the right direction
Instead of being able to focus on a single target
Your variations will mean your brain will end up seeing multiple ones
Like the image at the start of this post
And getting completely confused as to where exactly to hit the ball
Resulting in your poor shots
The reason good players have not only a consistent pre-shot routine
But that they strive to have the best golf pre-shot routine
Is that they are attempting to make things as consistent as possible
Which allows them to transfer their consistent shots and skills from the practice area
To allow them to hit those same consistent shots on the golf course
As Gene Littler’s quote at the start of this post said “………………It’s a game of most accurate misses. The people who win make the smallest mistakes”
That’s why you need to have the best golf pre-shot routine
I’m going to let you know what I think is the absolute best soon
Until then
Play well
Related posts
