Think of one of those times a loved one has sent you to the supermarket to pick something up, let’s say a bunch of bananas. You go to the supermarket you see the bananas in the fruit and veg aisle and you walk straight towards them. You’re whole mind is focused on the bananas. You’re not thinking about the oranges, broccoli or spinach. You are simply focused on the bananas.
Take that level of single-minded focus into your golf game when you pick your targets.
Staying with your target means that you are focused only on that, almost like you can see the toptracer line going straight to it.
No thoughts of penalty areas or Out of Bounds Creep in, just sending the ball to the target.
Depending on your level of skill and technique, will your ball go the specific target every time? Of course not. But this single-minded focus on a specific target increases the likelihood that you will send the ball to your intended destination more regularly. This comes back to your “subconscious mind”. Just like when you’re driving down a highway and your mind takes over; you will be amazed by what you can do if you let it happen automatically with a specific intention.
Often golf is described as “a game of misses” and when you have this laser focus on your specific target you are more likely to, at least, strike it well and you will “miss it in all the right spots” as Tiger would say.
Why do I keep saying “Specific target” and not just “target”?
It’s about directing your mind so it can direct your body towards exactly what you actually want with the smallest margin of error.
If you’re aiming for “the green” and you miss by only 10% then you’re off the green facing a potentially tricky up and down. If you miss your target line of, “the tree trunk of the tree directly in-line with the middle of the green” by 10% then you’re still on the green. For putting and chipping it could be a discoloured blade of grass that’s on the line that would allow it to turn into the hole.
It’s not for me to tell you what the specific target should be but to encourage you to pick a specific target of some kind on every. Single. Shot.
In your routine, once you have your specific target make sure that you intentionally and freely send it to the target as if you would do if all you needed to do to be successful was hit planet earth.
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