Rick Shiels – PGA Teaching Pro

So you’re on the golf course and you’ve got a shot to play and you are a bit unsure about what club you need. You are a bit unsure about what the conditions are going to do and you don’t know when to take your practice swings and do you do take practice swings, do you not take practice swings? Pre-shot routine is so important. What I’ve got set up here are three stations indicated by the three different, the different boxes of the clubs. In this side this is where I make all my decisions. This is my thinking station, let’s call it. This is where I’ve figured out how far it is away from the flag, what the wind conditions are, how the ball is going to react on the green, what club I’m going to need by using the distance chart that I know I’m going to need. This way I can take my selection of club according to this, to the actual facts rather than just a bit of guess work. Once you’ve done your thinking that’s it, you’re in your feel box. So in this middle box here this is where you do all your practice and your preparation for the shot.

So now the club is decided, that’s it. Now when I’m in this box – I’m never going back to that box because I’m not changing club. In here I’m going to do a few practice swings, make sure we can feel the shot and visualize the shot. I mean this is going in; this is absolutely going in the hole. You take one more step and you are in the play box. So you need to breath, focused and prepared and confident. Once you get into this play box you are off, that’s it. No turning back. You’ve done all your thinking. You’ve done all you feel. You are now ready to shoot and fire. So you look at your target, you make sure you line it up. You are ultra confident that you are going to hit the best golf shot of your round. You set up and you pull the trigger and you hit an absolute pearler. Do that every single time. Practice like that, think, feel, play.