Mind BEFORE Matter

Have you ever stood in the middle of the fairway with a perfect lie, no wind, and about 120 yards to the pin only to leave it short or miss wide of your mark? Yet, when you are faced with the same shot over or around a tree you not only strike it well but typically hit it close. Why does this happen? In Dave Stockton's book, Putt To Win, he emphasizes the importance of detailed visualization. With a less than routine shot we start to calculate the shot very carefully. We begin to use and create a mental picture of the trajectory and visualize how the ball will curve in the air and how it behaves on the ground when it lands. With a routine shot there appears to be no need to envision the flight of the ball, where to land it, and where it should stop. In short, you took the shot for granted. That's why trouble shots are sometimes easier to pull off than the simple ones- you are forced to see your best option. With a routine shot we also get hung up on internal cues like positions. Where is my right arm at the top, maintaining the correct amount of spine tilt, or dynamic weight distribution. With a trouble shot the game turns back into a stick and ball sport. Like the caveman, "we see ball, we hit with stick. Ugh".

According to Stockton the message here applies to putting even more because you never have obvious hurdles on a putting green. Here's good drill: Walk onto any putting green, preferably one with lot's of movement and drop down 6 to 10 balls as far from the hole and in the most difficult positions you can imagine. Don't spend a lot of time reading the putts. But do spend some time creating a mental picture of how the ball will roll to the hole. Try to be as detailed as possible in your visualization process. Just get a general idea of how the putts break before making the stroke. Don't take a practice stroke, just concentrate on a good solid stroke and strike.  See how many of these putts you can get within a 3 foot circle around the hole. Here is the key: TRY TO MAKE EVERY PUTT. Sure you are going to blast a couple of them off of the planet. But make sure every putt gets to the hole. This is a very good drill for just letting your instincts control how you approach the putt. How many times have you scraped it all over the lot from tee to green only to make a 30 footer over hill and dale for your double bogey because by the time you got on the green you didn't care?

Don't you just hate this game?