How To Use Your Eyes Before A Golf Tee Shot (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
How To Use Your Eyes Before A Golf Tee Shot (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So, if we now continue the theme of using our eyes correctly to prejudge where we're going to actually hit this golf ball, we've got to do a lot of working out how we're going to hit this ball, aim this ball in the right direction. We've got to assess what's in front of us and our eyes are the vital point of feeding all that information, and therefore we can calculate the right decisions.

So, the first thing is when we stand behind the golf ball, we want to take a really good look down the fairway. A lot of golfers will stand behind, that's where I'm aiming and away we go. And my question is, did you really see what you're aiming for on that did you really take onboard all of that information because there's lots of information when you look down a standard golf fairway. Might be things like how wide is the fairway, where the danger is, is the danger a penalty, is it out of bounce, is it a bunker, is it a pond, because all those three things have different grades of penalties. How far away is the hazard, how far away is the danger. You know, if there's three bunkers out there, but they're only a hundred yards away, hopefully that's not a concern. If there's three bunkers there 350 yards away, not a concern. But if there's three bunkers, 200 yards away and you've got your driver in hand, maybe those bunkers become more of a concern. So, we've got to use our eyes correctly to assess exactly what's out there, and therefore pick our correct club and our correct target line. The next consideration might be using your eyes to identify wind strength and wind direction. Now, you might be able to feel the wind blowing on you and that's a kind of a guideline I guess, you could say, well, I can feel the winds blowing this way or whatever. But then actually you need to look up sometimes, because if you're on a tree line golf course, there might not be much wind affecting where you're standing, but actually when you hit the gold ball, it's going to climb above the top of the trees, the wind is certainly going to have quite a big factor. Now, you can’t throw grass that high to the top of the tree to see what the wind is doing, so you need to look up with your eyes, you can see the tops of the trees blowing, you can see the clouds blowing. So, utilizing your eyes to see what's happening out there in terms of the wind direction, then again you can judge how and where you want to hit your shot. One last thing we can do with the eyes just at setup, is go ahead and take our normal routine in the setup position and then here, just make one last little look down the fairway, and really cement a good, exact aiming point, that's exactly where I'm aiming. Now I'm set up in the right position, now I can go ahead and pull the trigger and execute the shot I want to hit. So, it's aiming in the right direction, judging the wind correctly, last little chance to look up and just check that you are aiming in the right direction before you pull the trigger and that's how important using your eyes are in your pre-shot routine. 2016-04-22

So, if we now continue the theme of using our eyes correctly to prejudge where we're going to actually hit this golf ball, we've got to do a lot of working out how we're going to hit this ball, aim this ball in the right direction. We've got to assess what's in front of us and our eyes are the vital point of feeding all that information, and therefore we can calculate the right decisions.

So, the first thing is when we stand behind the golf ball, we want to take a really good look down the fairway. A lot of golfers will stand behind, that's where I'm aiming and away we go. And my question is, did you really see what you're aiming for on that did you really take onboard all of that information because there's lots of information when you look down a standard golf fairway. Might be things like how wide is the fairway, where the danger is, is the danger a penalty, is it out of bounce, is it a bunker, is it a pond, because all those three things have different grades of penalties. How far away is the hazard, how far away is the danger. You know, if there's three bunkers out there, but they're only a hundred yards away, hopefully that's not a concern. If there's three bunkers there 350 yards away, not a concern. But if there's three bunkers, 200 yards away and you've got your driver in hand, maybe those bunkers become more of a concern. So, we've got to use our eyes correctly to assess exactly what's out there, and therefore pick our correct club and our correct target line.

The next consideration might be using your eyes to identify wind strength and wind direction. Now, you might be able to feel the wind blowing on you and that's a kind of a guideline I guess, you could say, well, I can feel the winds blowing this way or whatever. But then actually you need to look up sometimes, because if you're on a tree line golf course, there might not be much wind affecting where you're standing, but actually when you hit the gold ball, it's going to climb above the top of the trees, the wind is certainly going to have quite a big factor. Now, you can’t throw grass that high to the top of the tree to see what the wind is doing, so you need to look up with your eyes, you can see the tops of the trees blowing, you can see the clouds blowing. So, utilizing your eyes to see what's happening out there in terms of the wind direction, then again you can judge how and where you want to hit your shot. One last thing we can do with the eyes just at setup, is go ahead and take our normal routine in the setup position and then here, just make one last little look down the fairway, and really cement a good, exact aiming point, that's exactly where I'm aiming. Now I'm set up in the right position, now I can go ahead and pull the trigger and execute the shot I want to hit. So, it's aiming in the right direction, judging the wind correctly, last little chance to look up and just check that you are aiming in the right direction before you pull the trigger and that's how important using your eyes are in your pre-shot routine.