The Importance Of The Pre-Shot Routine

Stephen D. Simmons

Editor and Publisher StrategicGolfer Instructional Series

This weekend we were treated to a great display of exceptional tournament golf.   More importantly, we were treated to an excellent example of how important the pre-shot routine is to playing great golf.

Before I get to the discussion of the pre-shot routine I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Phil on an amazing performance.  Whether you like Phil or not,  you have to be impressed with his  performance on Sunday.   Phil shooting 65  yesterday under those conditions was one of the best golf performances of 2009. 

I may be one of the few that likes to see tournaments where other players challenge Tiger.    Multiple winners on golf’s grandest stages is good for the game.

As I was waiting for the television broadcast of the final round to start yesterday, I came up with an idea that turned out to be very supportive of the StrategicGolfer instructional message. At the core of our instruction we stress the importance of moving beyond swing mechanics to the creative side of golf; the mental and strategic aspects of golf.

Strategy, visualization, and the pre-shot routine are the most important skill elements that must be learned as part of significant golf improvement. 

Very important …as the numbers from yesterday’s tournament will demonstrate.  I wanted to measure the importance of the pre-shot routine as outlined below.

My idea was to pick three players that would get the most television coverage during the final round of the tournament.  Obviously, Tiger was going to get lots of coverage and Kenny Perry was playing well so they were my first picks.  I believed Phil was going to play well because of his new found confidence with the putter,  so I picked him.

My goal was to measure the pre-shot routine with a stop watch from the moment they made a move towards the ball until the club started the backswing.  In our intruction we define this as entering a "bubble"; a place where no conscious swing thoughts exist and this part of your routine should only take 10-15 seconds of time.  We stress the importance of limiting any conscious swing thoughts and only think about the target, the feel of what your intending to do, and then initiating the backswing with a trigger like "trust it".

Because television coverage is structured to bounce around and show as many golfers highlights as possible, it was impossible to time every shot.  I was able to time at least 30 shots per player.

I divided the type of routine into two types; full swing and putting.  We believe it is permissable to have up to three different routines by adding short game shots to the mix.  Whatever number of routines you have, it is important to make those routines as solid and consistent as possible.

 What I found from the analysis was very interesting.  Based upon the measurements of Tiger’s routine, his average full swing routine took 11.47 seconds.  Sixty one percent (61%) of measured routines were within .5 second of his average.  More noteable, he made two bad swings coming down the stretch; his tee shots on 16 and 18.  His routine on the tee shot at 16 was  2.5 seconds longer than his average.  The tee shot on 18 was 2 seconds longer than his average.  Something triggered the delay and the results were dissappointing.

Kenny Perry had an average full swing routine of 13.19 seconds.  Only forty four percent (44%) of his routines were within .5 seconds of his average.  The numbers indicate a lot of time variations, some faster and some slower than the average.  This is not good if you want a machine like performance. 

Phil Mickleson’s full swing routines averaged 11.25 seconds.  Ninety three percent (93%) of his routines were within .5 seconds of his average.  He did not have any measured routines that exceeded 1 second from his average.

 Based upon the measurements,  Tiger’s average putting routine took 8.61 seconds.  Sixty percent (60%) of measured routines were within .25 second of his average. 

Kenny Perry had an average putting routine of 6.25 seconds.  Eighty three percent (83%) of his routines were within .25 seconds of his average. 

Phil Mickleson’s average putting routine was 8.04 seconds.  Sixty seven percent (67%) of his routines were within .25 seconds of his average. 

All of the players on the PGA Tour have solid routines.  It is a very important aspect to playing great golf.  The proper routine allows players a safe haven from distraction and a consistent starting point on every shot.  The numbers show, that the best players in the world, can have variations in the pre-shot routine resulting in a significant impact upon athletic performance.  Most amatuers do not have a pre-shot routine or have variations that are sigificant and are a major contibutor to poor performance.

Phil had a statistical advantage over Tiger and Kenny because of the consistency of his routine.  He was very machine like in all of hits shots.  You could see it in the way he played.  I would bet a lot of money that when Tiger has his "lights out" days, his routine has very little variations in time and are indicative of a machine like performance.  Yesterday was not one of those days.

The other thing that was very impressive was watching how consistent all three players approached putts.  They all have a unique approach to stalking the putts and took a different number of practice swings, but when they moved into the ball it was the same every time;  or certainly within .25 seconds of their average on almost all of their putts.  This is especially true on shorter putts.

So what lessons can we learn from this discussion?  Here are a few things to consider if you want to play your best golf:

• Consider the pre-shot routine the most important club in your bag.
• Build a solid routine that can be used on all of your shots.  You can have up to three different routines; full swing, short game, and putting.
• Refine the routines to include the smallest number of steps  possible.  Steps could include the number of waggles, the number of times looking at the target, how you step into the shot, etc.
• Strive for quality and consistency in your routine.  Your scores and ability to play at your best levels will go hand in hand with the quality of your routine.
• As part of your move towards the ball, make the last 10-15 seconds of your routine as repeatable as possbile.  If anything distracts you start over.