Tip: Golf is a target game, so learn to visualize shots

By Bob Byman,
Special Contributor

Golf is a target game. Everything you do must be related to how you desire to propel the golf ball to your target. In order to play golf well, you must be able to control the trajectory, curvature, distance, spin characteristics and starting line of a golf ball so it will go consistently to your target in the desired manner.

To do this, you must know where the target is, how far it is away, and all the environmental and course conditions that can affect the flight and bounces of the ball. Based on your skill level in general and, specifically, what you feel like you must accomplish and how you feel at that moment, you then search you memory banks for how you played a similar shot in a similar situation in the past. Extrapolation may be needed here because you may be facing a shot that you have never hit before.

Once this decision is made, your task gets much easier. Create an image of the actual in-flight motion and on the ground bounces and roll the ball will take after coming off of the clubface.

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Next, match this with a feeling of the swing that is necessary to produce that desired image. Pick the club that will do the job and then move into the ball in your customary way to form your starting position and routine. Then, while in the moment, let it go and watch the result.

Evaluate your performance; make any necessary adjustments and move on to the next shot. Repeat this process again and again, always on a best efforts basis, until the round is over. The next shot in golf is the most important shot!

May 15, 2008

Bob Byman has won 12 times worldwide, including Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Classic, and has been ranked in the top 25 players in the world three separate years. Starting in 1987, he has worked to become a world-class teacher of the golf swing and playing the game. Bob has taught all levels of golfers from beginners and juniors to PGA Tour winners.