Going Pro Golf Blog

Earlier this week I wrote about wanting to develop a good pre-shot routine.  Sean over at Deep Rough left me a very long but informative comment on his routine and how it has helped his game.  After leaving the comment he thought he would further expand upon it and made a great post on his site as well.

He ended his post with a great link to the Titleist web site where they have awesome videos of their golfers demonstrating their pre-shot routines.  Make sure you have some time in your day because once you watch one of them, you will be hooked and stuck watching all of them.  Thanks for the heads up Sean!

I am posting this is the Illogical Golf Blog as well as the Going Pro Golf Blog because I feel it is relevant to both subjects.  What would you rather have when at the range?  All you can hit golf balls for 30 minutes or a bucket of balls?  The answer is simple, all you can hit right?  That is what I thought too.  I figure I could hit 3 times as many golf balls in that time but is that a good thing? 2 weeks ago during my lesson with Jon Roy, I shanked 3 balls in a row.  Not just bad shots, horrible shots.  I quickly set up a fourth ball to hit when Jon stopped me.  Those 3 shots had all taken place in a span of about 90 seconds.  Beside me was one of the kids in Jon’s junior program, one of the top juniors in Canada.  Jon asked me to stop and watch him for a while.  I do no exaggerate when I say this; the kid took 5 minutes to hit a single shot.  He would hit a shot, walk away, look at his club, get a drink of water, stare at the ground, stare at the sky and whistle to himself.  “The kid has never hit a shot which didn’t matter to him” Jon remarked.  That is easily the most profound thing I had heard since starting my golf training.  There are no wasted shots!  Every shot matters and is a learning experience.  While 5 minutes is a long time the lesson is simple, take your time and learn from each shot.  Jon says we should break down the driving range into 2 areas.  The think box and the play box and the two should never blur.  The think box is off the mat.  This is where you think about what went well/wrong during the last shot, what you will do the next shot, etc.  The play box is where you just hit the ball.  Clear your head of the work box thoughts and hit a solid golf shot.  Two days after this lesson I was at a golf dome where there is a 30 minute all you can hit special.  Two guys were on the mat beside me hitting balls at a furious pace when one commented to the other; “Hurry up dude, we only have 5 minutes before our time is up and we will start getting charged for the next 30”.  Those next 5 minutes they must have gone through 20 balls, all of them horrible shots.  Unfortunately it seems like more and more practice facilities are going the route of all-you-can-hit balls which may be damaging to players who need to relax and work on their game.  All I know is once I am able to get outdoors and work on my game, I will be at a range where I can grab a bucket or two and just relax and hit shots that matter to me.