For Your Swing by Dave Ramsay - November 2011

'Out There Somewhere'

So when was the last time that you were within reachable distance of a green and you caught yourself not choosing a target?  You know, when you were about 100 yards away, and you made your shot, and the ball went somewhere on or around the green, and you thought “Not bad, I was just kind of aiming out there somewhere around that general area, I guess.”  Probably never.  When we play golf, everything is about the target.  I don’t know anyone that doesn’t aim at a fairly specific place as they get close to the hole.  They might aim right at the flag, or they might aim to a slightly larger area around it or somewhere near it, but the point is that there is a target in mind during our pre-shot routine.  We judge the success of the shot by its accuracy to the intended target. 

Strangely, many of us tend to either forget or disregard this on the range.  I commonly ask “where are you aiming?” when giving lessons or chatting with people as they practice.  So often, the answer is “oh, I don’t know – straight out there somewhere.”  It’s not unusual to see that person inadvertently lining up left and right 20 degrees or more from one swing to the next.  Of course, they will hit the ball to a wider range of locations as well, and not normally to where they are lined up.  However, since they are hitting it “out there somewhere” to no particular target, they have nothing tangible in their results to learn from. 

Will this practice translate to the course when they care about a target?  No, because; 1) the very act of aiming and aligning is a skill that must be developed; and 2) the act of making a swing relative to that alignment is also a skill that must be developed.  Results on the course are almost always worse than on the range because now it actually matters, and we haven’t really developed those skills that we rely on in which you actually aim with any meaning.  When we replicate playing situations during practice, we become more comfortable in the real situation because toward the target gives confidence the same will occur on the course.  Your practice actually becomes game situation practice, as opposed to just banging balls “out there somewhere”. 

On the course, the target (along with the lie) will determine so much of every shot – your club selection, your alignment, how you set up.  As a player increases their skill level, more determinations are added based on the selected target – your trajectory, the shape of the ball flight, and the spin rate.  It is simple a waste of time and energy on the range to practice without a particular target in mind for each swing. Shots on the range should be judged by the same criteria as they are on the course, by factual accuracy, not a general impression. Over time, you learn to make those adjustments easier when it counts – on the course – because it’s been practiced on the range. 

I realize that many people just want to warm up and get a few cuts in up before a round.  That is important – but it is also important to see where and how you are swinging by being able to judge distance and direction relative to a chosen target, take a few extra seconds to practice your alignment and your ability to hit shots to where you are actually aiming.  Then you are not just warming up, but actually practicing golf.  The time spent practicing this on the range - where it doesn’t count - will produce better results on the course - where it actually does count.