The New Pre-Shot Routine

I've never really had a consistent pre-shot routine before. It's been something that I've wanted to incorporate for a while, but any time I attempt to work it into my game, I usually forget about it after a few holes. But lately I've worked in a bit of a routine that is a little bit odd, but has seemed to be working for me lately.

It's no secret that this season has been a struggle. In fact, it's been a bit of a running joke that whenever I'd come back from the range, my fiancé would ask how it went. I'd pretty much always say "Terrible. But I think I figured something out right at the end".

And one day, after getting frustrated with my frustrations, she had a bit of an odd suggestion. She basically said to stop thinking about what I was doing so much and just kind of whack the crap out of some balls. "You seem to figure something out by the end, so why not just rush to the end?"

That's probably not a word-for-word quote, but it's close enough.

I was more than a bit skeptical - most podcasts and instructors that I follow usually say that block practice isn't really the way to go. But the next time I went to the range, I was off to another rough start. So, I said "fuck it" and just started blasting balls. And I'll be honest, I was beyond frustrated at this point. If I were the type to break clubs, I'd probably have gone through a couple of sets by this point this season. So, there were a lot of hard swings in there to blow off some steam. And while I was doing that, I kind of found something....

Getting Out of My Own Way

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm pretty sure that my struggles this year can be traced back to fiddling with a more neutral grip and set-up at the beginning of the season. And now I seem to be stuck thinking too much about everything, trying to find that swing that got me down to a 10.8 handicap last season.

When I grip the club, it feels wrong.

When I line up to hit a shot, it feels wrong.

At this point, I know I'm thinking way too much about everything and that never turns out well when playing golf.

So while I was rapid-firing balls on the range the other day, I noticed something. I was taking hard, back-and-forth, almost pendulum-style warm-up swings - kind of like a batter warming up in the on-deck circle - and then walking up and smacking the ball. And it was working really well.

I realized that while I may not be able to remember what a good grip or a good set-up feels like right now, I can still recognize the feeling of a good swing. Usually, the first 1 or 2 swings of my back-and-forth swing felt bad. I'd notice that my trail elbow was popping out or that I was getting a cut-off follow-through. But by the third or fourth swing, things felt like they were slotting in well, and I was able to step up to the ball and hit a good shot.

After that, I hit two "bad shots," and those were when I fiddled with my setup a bit after those swings. Even then, those shots were a lot better (read as "straighter") than the shots that I had been hitting like 50% of the time over the past couple of months.

I think doing this allowed me to take my mind out of the way, stop trying to guide the swing, and just swing free. We'll see if it keeps working, but the 9 holes I played after the range were the most fun I've had golfing in months.

Follow-Up Rounds

The next day was my weekly skins game, and I was excited to run out my new pre-shot routine for a full 18. And it went okay, but not spectacular. The driver was hot early, but I was hooking all of my iron and wedge shots. But, you know what? Only one shank!

I finished off with a 90 with a chip in for a birdie on the 18th to win a bit of money on the day. It wasn't an amazing round, but it was a lot less frustrating.

A couple of days later was the last day of my men's league. I had the day off, so I was able to get a full 18 holes in. Despite starting with a double bogey on the starting hole, I managed to wrap up the opening 9 with a score of 39. There were a lot fewer hooked iron shots as well. I was feeling pretty good and managed to keep the solid golf going to start the league 9. But, on the 16th hole of the day, I made a big mental error that got things off the rails.

On a long par 3, I pulled my tee shot into the waste bunker to the right of the green. One of my playing partners managed to find my ball and on any other night, I would have definitely taken the drop and tried to walk away with a bogey to avoid blowing up a good round.

But this wasn't just any round. It was the last league round of the year - and my last chance to try and get in on our progressive Deuce Pot, which had climbed to over $850.

Obviously, holing out from a bad lie in some deep fescue was highly unlikely. But taking a drop would remove any possibility of walking away with a 2 on the card.

You can probably guess that I didn't pull off the chip in. You also probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that it took me two shots just to get out of that bunker. At the end of it, I ended up walking away with a 6 on the par 3.

I walked away from the hole a little disappointed in my decision-making, but I just told myself that from now on, I was going to play smart, safe golf. And that lasted about one whole shot.

After hitting my drive right into the tree line, I decided that I should be able to hit a low draw around the tree in front of me instead of playing the smart, safe shot. Naturally, I shanked it off the hosel. I still managed to walk away with a bogey, but I was pretty upset with myself for doing that immediately after telling myself I wouldn't. I finished off the final hole, a par 5, with a bogey and wrapped up with an 85 - my best score in a month. But the end of that round left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Stats for the final league round of the year

The following Sunday was the league wind up and I started off very strong. Four good holes with plenty of great shots had me feeling pretty confident. The following par 5 started off with a massive drive, leaving me with just a 6 iron into the green. But then, a shank straight into the deep rough unraveled the whole day. With just one shot, all that confidence I had been building completely evaporated. I quickly went from 2 over par through the first 4 holes to 14 over through the first 9 holes before I finally got another par.

After that first hosel rocket, I quickly fell back into thinking too much and strayed from the step-up and hit process that had worked well for the past few rounds.

I don't know how the final few rounds of the year will go, but we'll have to do something about that whole "thinking" thing getting in the way.