Planning to Hit Your Next Golf Shot On the Golf Course

Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA

Introduction

There is shockingly little written about “planning your next golf shot.” Much has been written about “visualization,” and the “pre-shot routine,” and these are key elements in planning your next golf shot. However, there is more. Tiger Woods after playing with Justin Thomas told him “You need more shots.” Thomas took this to heart and learned many more ways and options to hit most every shot he encounters on the PGA Tour.

However, on July 24th, 2021 at 4:30pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time Google Reported:

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Today, as I write the article titled, “Planning to Hit Your Next Golf Shot” the literature of golf will permanently be changed. Golf literature goes back at least to 1457 where we have a writing with the word “golf” in it. It is an edict by King James II of Scotland banning golf. See Brent Kelly’s excellent article titled “When and Where Did Golf Begin” at https://www.thoughtco.com/when-and-where-did-golf-begin-1561081

It is fascinating that is exactly 650 years of writing about golf, no one, absolutely no one I could find on the internet had ever written the phrase “Planning to hit your next golf shot.” You can take all the lessons you want, but if you do not know when and how and why to plan to hit your next golf successfully, you are doomed to be an inconsistent golfer.

Do we need to go back to Jordan Spieth in the 146th British Open on hole number 13 to learn this lesson. In this situation where he hit the ball a mile to the right of the fairway, he took 20 minutes in planning what type of penalty to take and then planning on how to hit is next shot (and the shot after that) to save bogey from a desperately bad situation.

Applying This Article To Your Golf Game

This article applies to every golf shot you hit, every putt, every chip, every pitch, every sand shot, and every drive. The article applies equally whether you have just hit a great shot that puts you right where you want to be or you have hit a truly terrible shot that puts you in a very difficult situation or even leads to penalty strokes, as was the case in Jordon Spieth’s situation at Royal Birkdale.

The Key Steps in Planning Your Next Golf Shot

Here are the steps to planning your next golf shot, in their proper order for the full shot. This list is modified for putting further in the article.

1. Forget about your previous shot except to the extent you need to remember enough about it to find your ball or count your score. The only exception to this step is that if you can quickly figure out what you did wrong or what you did right on the shot, then quickly make a mental note of what you think you learned about the previous golf shot, and then forget about it. The only relevant golf shot after you hit the previous one is the next one.

2. As you walk up to the ball, or as you are looking for it, assess the wind, the distance from the hole, the location of hazards in your way, the safest place to hit your ball if it is not struck perfectly, and if you are in a competitive situation like match play, assess the situation of your opponent, his or her likely score on the hole, so you can figure out how risky or risk-averse to play your next shot.

3. Once you find your ball, analyze your stance (uphill, downhill, sidehill with the ball above or below your feet), your lie (good, bad, or ugly) and how you will adjust to deal with any stance and lie of the ball issues that are presented.

4. Then analyze your distance to your target (the pin or a lay up spot that is safe), whether your target is uphill or downhill, whether the wind is behind you, in your face, or a cross wind.

5. Analyze the severity of the hazards and plan on avoiding the hazards that would cause your score to go up. (The pros do not really avoid “sand traps” because they are so good out of them, but many of us mortals have to “hit away” from sand traps.

6. Decide on what type of golf shot you are going to hit – high or low, draw or fade or straight, where you want the ball to land, and what you expect the ball to do after it lands.

7. Decide on what club you are going to use.

8. Visualize the shot going exactly as you have planned.

9. Using your consistent “pre-shot routine” (which is the subject of another article, address the ball and get ready to hit it.

10. Relax and achieve some reasonable level of confidence over the shot. If you cannot be confident over the shot, go and practice the shot or pick another shot at that moment to hit where you feel more confident. To hit a good shot you should be 80% confident you will hit a good shot that will work out for you.

That’s it. That is how to plan your next golf shot, if it is a full shot.

If it is a putt, there are some minor modifications to planning your putt.

1. When you start planning your putt, forget about the previous shot even if your previous shot was a putt, except to the extent you can learn quickly from that previous putt or chip about the speed of the green and how much it breaks.

2. Assess the wind, the distance from the hole the slope (uphill/downhill and side hill) as the slope determines the amount of the break and any deviations from the average speed on the green.

3. Analyze your stance (uphill, downhill, sidehill with the ball above or below your feet), your lie (good, bad, or ugly) and how you will adjust to deal with any stance and lie of the ball issues that are presented.

4. Then analyze your distance to your hole you.

5. Whether us use AimPoint or not, use your feet walking around the line to assess the grade and severity of the slope.

6. Pick your TARGET. That is the point in distance and in dispersion where you will be putting the ball as if it were a straight, level putt. The hole is your GOAL, not your TARGET on most putts, especially those with a break or uphill or downhill.

7. Your last look after practice swings (if you take them) is at the TARGET and not the hole.

Conclusion

No amount of planning can guarantee a good or successful shot. Be sure to evaluate all of the options you have in your bag and in your golf game to handle the golf shot at hand. Be sure to practice planning a golf on the golf course. I recommend that no one take a lot of divots from the fairway while practicing on the golf course, but you can drop two balls in various places on the course and develop a different plan for the type of shot you want to hit for that situation. You will see that overtime your ability both to plan better and execute your plan better will occur over time.

As you create more options for each type of shot and for each type of situation you encounter on the golf course, you will learn what types of shots are your strength and what types of shots will need more work at the practice range or golf simulator. Feel free to get a short lesson from a qualified golf instructor on one particular type of shot to help you master the shot.