Golf Tip: Get Focused And Hit Better Golf Shots Every Time

Maintaining focus for an entire round of golf is extremely difficult and seemingly impossible for some golfers. Even the pros playing in million dollar tournaments cannot do it. An 18-hole round of golf can last from four to five hours. Instead of making golf shots, most of that time is going to be spent chatting with the guy sitting next to you in the golf cart about almost everything else other than the next golf shot you have to make. Add in the time you spend flirting with the drink girl and who pays for the next round and that pesky ranger telling your foursome to speed it up and it is no wonder why the round that started off so promising gets trashed by a couple disaster holes.

The good news is that you do not have to stay laser focused on golf for the entire round. And the even better news is that you do not want to even try. A good deal of the enjoyment of a round of golf comes from being outdoors in pleasant weather with people that you enjoy being with. Here's how you can have it both ways. Good conversation and a golf score below that whole number that means so much to you.

The Swedish biathlon team always does well in Olympic competition because their athletes are trained in a special way. The biathlon is a very difficult sport because it involves arduous cross-country skiing with sudden interruptions to shoot a rifle at tiny targets. The reason that the Swedish athletes do well is that they are taught a pre-shot routine (literally) that transitions them from the heart pounding cross-country skiing segment to the perfectly still, small muscle control shooting segment.

If you want to drive your Ping G10 farther you should learn something from the Swedish athletes.

You have to do the same thing playing golf - immediately transition from one physical and mental state to another. And the way you do that is with your own pre-shot routine that never varies from golf shot to golf shot. Here is one successful pre-shot routine that you start after you have gotten out of the cart and selected the club for the yardage you have remaining on the next shot:

1. Walk to your ball from the rear surveying the hole ahead for hazards, obstacles, and safe zones and pick a precise landing target.

2. While standing behind your ball exhale consciously and flush all prior thoughts from your memory.

3. Visualize the exact ball flight (trajectory and distance) to your landing target while swinging the club in the long or short swing you will use for the next shot. This is to alert a specific group of muscles that they are going to have to perform soon

4. Walk up to the ball. Lay down your club face square to the target line. Align your body to the club face and the target line. Take the proper golf stance.

5. Look once at the target. Perform your swing "trigger", start the swing and let it rip.

The swing trigger can be anything, a motion or a word, that signals your body that it is beginning the golf swing. Jack Nicklaus always cocked his head a little to the right. My favorite is to press my big toes into the bottom of my shoes.

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