Stephen D. Simmons

Editor and Publisher - StrategicGolfer Instruction Series

You are standing on the 18th tee box with a 1 shot lead.  All you need on this demanding par 4 is to make a par that all but guarantees a win for your first tournament victory or club event.  Maybe a par will win all of the bets with your buddies.

If you were to ask most golfers what they need to be thinking about in a circumstance like this, they would respond, "win the hole".  While that may sound like the right answer it’s actually getting the cart in front of the horse.

Your highest priority in this situation is hitting the fairway on your tee shot so that you have a higher probability of getting the ball close to or on the green with your second shot.  That’s where the "Go-To’ shot has tremendous importance.

This article discusses how to find and practice your go-to shot.

Your go-to shot, is a shot you have practiced many times, and because it is repeatable has the greatest probability of success under the circumstances.  You’ve seen Tiger hit his "stinger" many times under the stress of tournament conditions.  You have seen many examples of the go-to shot when watching a PGA Tour telecast.

Tour players are willing to sacrifice significant distances to increase the odds of hitting the fairway.  These players understand that the probability of hitting the green from 200 yards away in the fairway is much greater than hitting the green from 150 yards away in the deep rough, a deep fairway bunker, or behind the trees.  They are willing to choose a club, even an iron, that increases the probability of hitting the fairway.

Finding your go-to shot happens during a practice session on the range.  This practice session needs to have your full attention and should not be part of your normal range practice.

Start by analyzing the range for structures that can be used as imaginary boundaries.  Two greens or flag positions would be an example.  The structures need to be the approximate width of   a typical fairway on your course.  One flag will mark the left rough, the left most position you can hit the ball without going into the rough. The right flag defines the right most fairway position.  Your goal is to imagine a golf hole on the range that can be used to evaluate the success of several shots.

The next step is to select the longest club you think will be used on the greatest number of tee shots during a typical round of golf.  Most golfers start with the driver.  If you are a beginner golfer you can save yourself some time by starting with a three or five wood.  Most golfers do not have the fundamentals to use the driver as their go-to shot.  Even Tiger Woods has a go-to shot other than a driver.  For 99% of us, the driver serves as a starting point that will not end up as our go-to shot.

Hit ten balls at your imaginary hole.  Measure the results of the ten shots.  How many shots stayed on the fairway and did not roll into the rough?  If you hit more than 7 drives that stayed in the fairway you can congratulate yourself and then re-evaluate your imaginary hole to make sure it’s not too wide.  You want this test to be difficult enough to really help you find a shot that you can rely on when the pressure is on.  Your go-to shot should have a success percentage of at least 70 percent.  Chances are that your success percentage with the driver was less than 70 percent, so go to the next club in your test, the three wood.  Hit ten more balls using the three wood and measure the results.

Continue this process until you  find a club that you can use that will get the ball into the fairway at least 70 percent of the time.  You may find that you can only keep short irons in the fairway because your shot dispersion is to wide. 

The first time you try this test you may find that your shot dispersion is all over the range, some right and some left.  The success of your go-to shot will be higher if you can identify your most natural ball flight tendency.

For Kenny Perry, his natural ball flight tendency is a right to left draw.  The process of finding his go-to shot would be to aim down the right side of the hole and rely on his natural shot shape to curve the ball to the left and into the middle of the fairway.  For a left to right player that hits a fade , the process would be the opposite.

In both of these cases the player is maximizing the space the ball can curve in the air, roll after landing, while staying in the fairway.  All great players learn how to eliminate  one half of the course or the other.  It might seem that aiming down the middle of the fairway is your best option, however, that only gives you half of the golf hole to work with.  Ben Hogan learned how to eliminate the left side of the hole which gave him the entire width of the fairway to work with.  Jack Nicklaus also hit most of his shots with a left to right ball flight.

It will be much easier for you to find and practice a go-to shot if you can find your natural shot shape.  If you hit a slice because you have an over the top club path, play your slice until you can straighten your shots.

For beginner golfers it is important to work with your PGA Professional to find your most natural ball flight pattern.  Your goal should be to find a simple golf swing that  repeats itself with reasonable certainty.   If you want to change your pattern over time, work on that change during your practice sessions.  Learn how to play golf by maximizing your opportunities for success. Learn how to play golf with your most natural ball flight tendency; right to left, or left to right.

For more accomplished players find the shot that has the highest probability for success.  Your go-to shot will save you many dollars if you gamble or will help you win more competitions as a tournament golfer.  Your biggest challenge will be learning a second go-to shot; the shot you can rely on if your primary go-to shot is not an option.  What are you going to do if your primary right to left shot is blocked by a very large tree guarding the right side of the hole?  Have you found a go-to left to right shot that can be played under these circumstances?  If you can’t hit a left to right shot with any level of reasonable accuracy, what are your options for shooting the lowest number on the hole?

Regardless of your skill level, you need to practice your go-to shots during every practice session.  You don’t have to hit a lot of go-to practice balls but you need to hit enough that keeps your confidence as high as possible so when it comes time to use the shot your ready.

You will also want to keep searching for the longest possible shot that you can rely on from the tee box.  You may start out with a 2 iron as your go-to shot from the tee and then club up to a three wood with practice.

Go-to shots should not be limited to tee shots.  You need to have a go-to fairway approach shot. and you need to have a go-to short game shot. Your golf scores will be lower, if  during  a round of golf, you only play golf shots that have been practiced on the range.  Play golf like a pro.  Find and practice your go-to shot.

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.

Stephen D. Simmons

Editor and Publisher                 StrategicGolfer Instructional Series

I was invited to play golf this last weekend with a friend of mine and it’s a story that has to be told.

Tim and I know about how powerful the instructional message is we write about inside StrategicGolfer.  When you see it in action, especially for a higher handicaps, and how the creative side of golf if allowed to surface can overcome significant golf swing flaws, it’s a message hard for me to surpress.

Its Saturday afternoon and a beautiful fall day in south Texas.  The temps are around 85 degrees and while there are thunderstorms in the area, none of them will bother us this day.

My friend is an 18 handicap golfer give or take a few strokes.  On easier courses he can break 90 but this day we are playing a private layout that is blanketed by tree lined fairways, heavy rough, very deep green side bunkers, and small undulating greens.

I don’t get to play his course a lot but its a real gem.  Nick Price and other tour players compare it to the Valderrama Golf Club in Spain.  Exacting tee shots, lots of doglegs, elevation changes, and small target greens.  Needless to say this is not a pushover golf course.

My friend gets off to a slower than hoped for opening hole.  The opening hole is not long but requires a very exacting tee shot and approach shot into a heavily fortified green.  He makes double and we move on.

While standing on the tee of the demanding par 3 second hole he starts to describe his strategy for this hole.  He wants to intentionally hit a shot that end ups short of the green and then chip and putt for par.  The green side bunkers are severe and he knows his limitations.  He does exactly what he intends on his tee shot, hits a pitch shot, then lips out his putt.  He almost makes the par he strategized from the tee.

As we walk along on our golf journey that day he continues to tell me what his strategy is for some of the more challenging shots he faces.  He is offering this information to me unsolicited. 

All of our golf nstruction on StrategicGolfer.com emphasizes the importance of playing with pictures.  Pictures give the brain a much clearer sense of what the intended action is than words.  Pictures are more in line with feeling and golf is all about feeling, tempo, and touch.

When golfers try to execute based upon specific verbal ques the outcome will be suspect. What do you think would happen if you tried playing golf like this?

"I’m going to keep my left arm straight until the 9:00 position on the back swing and then I will rotate the forearm 45 degrees to the right and back which will allow me to set the club in a parallel position to the target line….."

I don’t know why my fried was in such a verbalizing mood last weekend but I did not interfere.  I let him continue to tell me as much about his strategies as he wanted to.

On the toughest golf hole on the course, a 440 yard dogleg right par 4, playing uphill and into the wind, he pictured a strategy that would play to the right side of the fairway to minimze the length, hit a three wood to within wedge range, and then pitch and 2 putts for a "bogie".

He did everything he intended but made his 6 foot putt for par.  4 net 2….hmmmmm.  Later he pictured a shorter club on a dogleg right par 4 from the tee to keep the ball out of the rough.  From there is strategized hitting a 3 wood to somehwere around the green with his pitch and putt strategy.  He hit the green in two.  While getting ready for his putt he said I should be able to two putt this for par.  I said why not 1 putt for birdie.  He one putted for a natural birdie…3 net 2….hmmmmmm.

The more he verbalized his strategizes the better his pictures were.  He played great and I think it was his personal best on that course.  This picture development process is one of the most important aspects to playing great golf. 

Most golfers chase the perfect swing.  They spend hours trying to develop something that does not exist.  Try spending that time learning how to develop a picture based strategy.

Its Called Visualization

Stephen D.  Simmons

Editor and Publisher - StrategicGolfer Instruction Series

Think back to some of your best rounds or greatest shots.  Everything around you at the time seemed to be moving in slow motion; with vivid colors, sounds, and smells.  It was like you were part of a painting that was happening without effort and you were the center of attraction.  Your canvas was the course.  Your brush was creativity and sense of inner calm.

There were many things you noticed; birds chirping, the wind, the warmth of the sun.  Many things…other than swing mechanics.

Great players express their paintings with a lot of detail.  Poor players struggling with their performance do not see details or they see a lot of details, all of which are about the wrong things.  A beginning or poor player will tend to see a lot of detail about process and mechanics….head still, arm straight, low and slow.  Good golfers tend to see a lot of detail about the intended outcome.  Good golfers see the process of playing golf as part of a bigger picture with successful outcomes being paramount.  Amazingly they paint  smaller paintings that become part of the whole; several shots that become a great round of 65.

Learn how to play golf with good mental pictures.  Your pictures can be created from the creativity of your brain in the form of visualization.  See the result before you make the golf swing.

I recall Jack Nicklaus talking about playing golf is going to the movies.  He saw very vivid and detailed pictures about hitting good shots before he would swing the club.  His greatness came from his ability to do this repeatedly, time after time.  He would see the flight of the ball and its roll.

Raymond Floyd talked about seeing the ball in the air with the proper trajectory, hitting the green, bouncing twice, and then spinning back into the hole.

Intention is a very powerful expression of the mind.  When you intend to do something you set the stage for success.  You give the brain all of the signals needed to chart a great course of action.

I believe that Tiger Woods is the epitamy of the power of intention when it counts the most.  His last two putts at Bay Hill on the 18th green to win his last two starts there are the story of legend.

After his last Bay Hill victory this year he described what his mind and his pictures were like as he pondered the putt.  Among other things he spoke about a temperature change, more dew on the blades of grass in the late afternoon,  the impact those things would have on the grain, and how that would influence the break and speed of his left to right downhill breaking putt. 

 Are you getting the picture…."a master at work".

It’s as if he is willing the ball into the hole.  Non of us would presume that his mind can control the ball after it leaves the putter blade, however, his power of intention is strong enough to control all of the variables before the stroke is made and that intention manifests itself as success, time after time.

You can intend to make good putts or you can intend to make your putts.  We would encourage you to work on the latter.

This is a dogleg left par 5 that makes a 45 degree bend to the left at 260 yards off the tee.  From the tee it seems that there is a wide landing area.  There is a fairway bunker on the right side that would seem out of play.  The problem;  there is out of bounds on the left side of the hole all the way to the green.  The out of bounds characteristic of this hole tends to force you to the right, however, the right hazard pinches in at the landing area so accuracy is paramount.

If we frame the hole with safe margins based upon what we know now, this is what we should consider as a safe landing area (green).  We want to stay left of the right margin (red) and right of the left margin (white).

The key to playing great golf is to play using pictures.  You must learn how to create a sense of feel and a design for the intended shape of the ball flight to hit your best golf shots.  Great players call it visualization.

The brain responds better to pictures than words.  Picking targets is critical to giving the brain a sense of what needs to be accomplished.  If you were standing on this tee box and thought to yourself, "I’ll aim at the fairway in the direction of the apartments", you are defining an area that is far too large.

The smaller the target the better.  Small targets are much more specific.  You give the brain a very exact area that we are hitting the golf ball to.  Typically if you aim at a small target you will have a very good picture of what the shape of the ball flight will be; left to right, right to left, straight, high, or low.

Depending upon the intended ball flight we would pick one of these targets.  If we intended to hit a draw we could aim at the corner of the apartment.  Unless we don’t have a choice we would prefer to aim at targets that are close to the ideal landing area.  In this case if we intend to hit a draw and the ball goes straight we will still be in or close to the landing area.

If our preferred ball flight is left to right, the corner of the red roof in the distance would be a good selection.  A good straight shot target would be the tree top in the distance.

Occasionally you will hear a pro on TV say that he was not committed which led to a bad shot.  In many cases it’s because the target and shape of the shot were not pictured.