One of the most challenging aspects of golf is taking your swing from the driving range onto the course.  Many of us struggle with this every single time we play.  Here is a practice strategy designed to help you with this: 

1-     Lay a club on the ground 6 feet behind the golf ball (on line with the target).  The area behind this club is called the “on-deck” circle.  It is only in this area that you take practice swings isolating, or focusing on, ONE swing thought or feeling you want to create while over the ball.

2-     Once you cross this line and approach the ball and step in the “batters box”, your only goal is to re-create the feeling you just established.  Great players “FEEL” their swing on the golf course.  Get into your shot and pull the trigger.  No extra practice swings or hesitating.  Trust your swing.

3-     After making contact, follow the ball until it stops.  The 5 seconds after the shot are the most important for gathering feedback.  Ask yourself if you felt what you intended to feel during the shot.  Soak in the great shots, and discard the bad ones.  Only carry forward the positive feedback. 

Use the “on-deck circle/batters box” approach on the range at first, and then see if you can integrate this process into your regular routine on the course.  Give this a shot, because the best players in the world rehearse, visualize, sense and feel their swings.  Most amateurs think, force, analyze and try to perfect their swing “positions” on the course.  Great players do NOT do that.  That is what the range is for. 

© Golf In The Now, Jim Williams. All rights reserved.