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.

During the recent President’s Cup we saw the impact distractions can have on even the best players in the game.  Distractions disrupt the flow and efficiency of the routine used to play golf shots. 

Distractions that occur during the final stages of the routine are particularly harmful unless the player knows how to react.  This article discusses two examples seen during the Presidents Cup and what we can learn about handling distractions properly.

Distractions are an integral part of golf so players have to learn techniques for handling distractions as they occur.  Without handling distractions properly prior to striking the ball,  the player can expect unpredictable and in many cases, bad results.

During the Foursome matches on Thursday, the European Team of Retief Goosen and Y. E. Yang were playing the US Team of Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard.  On the tee of the Par 5 18th hole, the US team was 1 up.  All the US team had to do was tie the 18th hole and they would have won a full point over the European team.

While Y.E. Yang and Jim Furyk played the hole along with their partners, as the drama played out, the two players that could impact the final results were Justin and Retief.  Both players played good tee shots and had second shots that were within range of hitting the green in two.  Retief’s second shot missed the green right while Justin’s hit the green in two. 

At this point, all Justin had to do was two-putt unless Retief hit his third shot into the hole.  Justin hit a first putt that was a little short of the hole but certainly setup a very makeable second putt for birdie.  Retief played his shot within range of having his next shot conceded, which left the door open for Justin to tie the hole and win the match.

Retief lost track of where the match stood and took off his hat in a gesture of sportsmanship as Justin was finalizing his putting routine for his makeable 3 foot putt.  Retief thought the US team had won the match if he did not sink his chip shot.  When Retief took off his hat it was a puzzling thing for Justin and caused a serious distraction.  Justin seemed to back off momentarily and then proceeded with his putt which missed and gave the European team a tie and 1/2 point.

The Friday Four Ball matches featured a pairing of Hunter Mahan and Zach Johnson playing Robert Allenby and Camilo Villegas.  This was a match the US team was ahead in most of the day.

On the Par 4 17th tee box, the US team was two up and dormie.  Robert Allenby and Zach Johnson both had makeable birdie putts.  If Robert made his putt and Zach missed the match would be extended to the 18th hole.

Robert made his putt which put pressure on Zach to make his putt.  Zach went thru his routine and as he made his last practice swing with the putter prior to stepping into the ball, a highly spirited observer in the gallery, yelled "go in the hole".  I wish people like that would stay home.  They are an embarrassment to themselves and have no place in the game of golf.

Zach was clearly distracted and annoyed.  He backed off, reset, and went back thru his whole routine.  The enormity of that putt was significant.  Zach made the putt and the US team won the match.

I do not believe we will ever know for sure whether Justin had completely cleared the distraction with Retief from his mind prior to striking his putt.  It’s not the kind of thing Tour players discuss.  From my vantage point it did not seem like he did.  The announcers also asked him about the incident so they also were also curious.

On the other hand it was obvious that Zach handled his distraction, completely reset his routine, and hit his putt with more authority than Justin.

Justin is a great golfer and one of the games really good putters.  The example shows that distractions can have a negative impact even on the best players.

The type of distractions faced by Tour players, and the average Joe playing with his buddies on the weekend, are different but no less harmful.  The truth is that most of us could not handle the pressures and distractions that Tour players face.

Contrast the Tour player with the average golfer who faces golfers yelling from the next fairway over, players in your group talking as you’re trying to hit your shot, or someone in the group behind you slamming on the brakes of the cart as your ready to hit.  We can induce distraction on ourselves by engaging in a conversation while trying to hit a golf ball.

How many times have you been distracted, hit the shot anyway, and after the bad result, said…"I should have backed off?"  If it has not happened to you yet, it will because distractions are everywhere in golf.

So what can the average golfer learn from these examples?   There are two things to consider when dealing with distractions.

The first thing to consider is awareness.  Start to think about how many times distractions, whether external or internally induced, result in a bad outcome.  It is also important to see how the distraction causes a break in your concentration and pre-shot routine. Some golfers are affected more by distractions than others.  I’ve had friends who could hear someone talking 100 yards away.

If the distraction happens as you are gathering yardages, picking targets, or formalizing your strategy, it will be easier to deal with than if it happens during the last 10 seconds of your routine.  Remember from past articles, the last 10 seconds of your routine is about seeing the target, feeling the desired swing, and then triggering your back swing by saying trust it….your mantra is see it, feel it, trust it.  Distractions during this 10 second count down can be disastrous to your outcomes so learn when to back off and start over.

Please be careful not to make your rounds a 6 hour adventure because of backing off of every little thing that causes some amount of distraction.   This point leads us to the second consideration.

Train yourself to handle distractions better.  In many cases this means learning how to make the distraction less meaningful.  As your pre-shot routine becomes better and you become more focused, your concentration levels will become more intense making distractions less noticeable. 

You have probably had times after hitting a great shot one of your playing partners remarked about a distraction that took place as you played the shot.  You were aware of the distraction as a back ground noise but because your concentration levels were high, the distraction for the most part went un-noticed and had no impact upon the success of your shot.

Learning how to deal with distractions is critical to your success as a player.  Not only do you have to increase your awareness, train yourself to be less effected by distractions, but you will also have to refine your pre-shot routine so that your maximum concentration efforts are focused to brief 10 second intervals.  If you try to concentrate for extended periods between shots you will exhaust yourself and your efforts will have marginal success.

The ability to handle distractions and remain focused is part of your mental toughness.  As you become mentally tougher your scores will drop and you will become a better player.