PRE SHOT ROUTINE

The difference between thos that win the big tournaments and those that just don't make it all the way is often lack of routine and a natural "pre-shot-routine". A pre-shot-routine makes you perform your best results during any circumstances. Which leads to not being nervous or thinking about problems but focusing on getting the ball in the hole.

During my time with the national team and on the tour we trained almost constantly on our pre-shot-routine to bring out our strenghts and positive thinking which leaves for a better game.

Rocking yourself into the calm
You might have heard the expression "rocking yourself to sleep" and that just what a pre-shot routine is supposed to. Although not to acctual sleep, just calm.
According to the rulebook a player has 30 seconds to make his or her shot. This sounds like a very short time and many great golfers has gotten penalties for taking to long before hitting the ball. But 30 seconds is acctually quite long and most pros try to shorten their routine so that they DON'T HAVE TIME to get nervous and start thinking about problems, just focus on the TARGET!


Focus on the target
Once when legend Bobby Jones asked: Where should I aim? Someone answered: Aim for the left tree on the horizon. To which Bobby asked: Which branch?
When it comes to picking a target the target should be as small as possible. It can be anything from a leaf, a tussock, a dark spot on the fairway or green or simply the hole (which is a must when close to the green).
There is nobody on the tour that can focus on a target (or the hole) like Tiger Woods and that is why he makes his irons from the fairway almost every time and makes more birdies than his opponents. Once you get focused on the target and hole the results are improved.


Pick small targets
Just think about it, if you aim for a little turf on the fairway and miss by 5 yards you're most certainly still on the fairway. On the other hand, if you merly aim for the fairway and miss by 5 yards you might end up in the heavy ruff or even out-of-bounds. Same thing goes when it comes to having a shortgame towards the green. If you're just aiming for the green and miss by 1 yard it might mean a difficult bunkershot or that the ball bounces into a water hazard and this might cost you 1 or 2 strokes. Instead the target should be a safe part of the green or the hole itself and if you miss by 1 yard you can often putt for birdie or in a worst case scenario make par.