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Club selection and pre-shot routine.

Howzat

Howzat

I'd Rather Be At The Hideaway
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Just curious to see how everybody goes about this as I try to develop a more consistent pre-shot routine.

1. What goes through your mind before selecting the club. Distance, lie, wind, where is the best miss?

2. Walk me through what you do after you have selected the club and before you hit the ball.
 
1) distance, wind, slope, best miss
2) pick spot in front of ball where I setup my alignment to, address ball, think "smooth, short, eyes on ball", swing, watch it go into hole
 
Howzat said:
Just curious to see how everybody goes about this as I try to develop a more consistent pre-shot routine.

1. What goes through your mind before selecting the club. Distance, lie, wind, where is the best miss? ALL OF THESE

2. Walk me through what you do after you have selected the club and before you hit the ball.
Click to expand...
I never got into the "pre-shot routine" thing besides taking a couple of practice swings to get a feel of the grass, the lie, etc.


Great picture. #Chad be warned!
 
I mainly think about distance, lie, and where I want to land the ball (safe zone).

Once I'm ready to swing I check and pick a target or a spot (putting). Then I check my alignment, do a waggle or two for comfort and swing away.
 
1) Distance to hole, front and back of green. Do i want to be short or is long better(depends on hole location, green slope/shape,bunkers)wind, lie and where is it better to miss
2) I take my practice swing next to the ball so i have a similar lie and stance. Focus on what i want the swing to feel like and with an iron to brush the grass and adjust so i can try to make contact with the ball and not be fat or thin
 
1. What goes through your mind before selecting the club. Distance, lie, wind, where is the best miss?

Pretty much this. The best miss part is new for me recently. When in doubt I'm aiming for the middle of the green.

2. Walk me through what you do after you have selected the club and before you hit the ball.

Generally try to get a practice swing in a similar lie, make sure I'm comfortable with where I'm bottoming out. Walk behind the ball, pick an aim point, address and go.
 
Distance (adjust for elevation and wind), lie - pull club.

Shot shape and trajectory.

Two practice swings focusing mainly on tempo.

Tempo and ball focus are my main swing thoughts while pulling the club back.
 
I get the distance from GPS, check wind and grab club that will get me to the pin, but not longer (the course I play has sloping greens and you do not want to be above the hole). Address the ball and swing.
 
I always get a few steps behind my ball to pick my line before addressing it. I don't usually take a practice swing for wood and iron shots unless I'm trying to do something out of the ordinary or I have a funky lie. With my wedge shots, I'll often take a few practice swings to try and get a feel for the type of shot and distance I want to hit.
 
1. Usually distance, lie, and wind (shoot the distance with rangefinder, or get a distance with GPS watch)

2. Behind the ball with club to find where I want to align to. Usually no practice swing unless I am making terrible contact that day. Take stance and address the ball. Think 3/4 swing, solid contact. Swing. Cringe. Curse and try to find the ball afterwards.
 
Howzat said:
Just curious to see how everybody goes about this as I try to develop a more consistent pre-shot routine.

1. What goes through your mind before selecting the club. Distance, lie, wind, where is the best miss?

2. Walk me through what you do after you have selected the club and before you hit the ball.
Click to expand...

1) Distance to pin, front and back. What kind of lie do I have and what will the ball most likely do out of it. Is there any wind, if so what way is it blowing and how much. At this point I don't think about misses but I also don't go flag hunting. I aim center of green and if I have a birdie putt I'm happy. Some will fall but I'll take 18 pars.

2) Stand behind the ball take a practice swing. Mentally picture my shot pick a spot 12 inches or so in from of ball line it up and try to not think much after that.
 
1. Check distance, wind, lie, best miss, shot shape, trajectory and select club.

2. Stand behind ball and use shaft to sight my target and select an intermediate target 1-2 feet in front of ball. Take 4 steps into position, align clubface to intermediate target. Set grip and stance to produce desired shot shape, one look at the final target and GO.

EVERY TIME.
 
1) Distance, how is my lie, and where is the trouble.

2) I stand behind the ball and take my grip, pick a target, one practice swing and address the ball. I struggle with my tempo so when I address the ball I take one look at my target and then tell myself...smooth back and smooth through...then proceed to try and kill it!
 
1. distance, wind, downhill/uphill, pin location
2. Lately after I select the club I'm going to hit, I just walk up to the ball and line up to the line I chose and then swing away.
 
1. I stand behind the ball, visualize the shot.
2. 1 practice swing at address, then bombs away.

With my driver, i do my swing behind the ball...not sure why i do it different than with irons...i just do.
 
Total feel for me with a visual of the shot in my head. I can be 165 out but how the shot looks and how the conditions feel dictate wether I'll hit a 5, 6, or 7 iron. I know that sounds strange but as a visual player of the game there are no exacts for me, but I truly enjoy playing the game that way. No practice swings, just step up to the ball and hit the shot I see.
 
For courses I'm real familiar with, this is what I'll do. If I not to familiar with the course I'll put a little more thought into it.

First thing is to get the distance to the hole. Occasionally I'll check front or back so I know how much room there is to play with. 90% of the courses and holes I play won't have the hole tucked back in a corner with no excess room on two sides, so I'm usually just looking for yardage to the pin. Then check wind and any elevation changes and get a 'play as' yardage. Once I get a number I'll decide on the club. Sometimes it's more comfortable with a full club, sometimes it just feels better with a choke down 3/4 swing with a longer club. Just depends. If I'm playing out of the rough it will usually be the longer club. I'm not overly concerned with the trouble for an iron shot. If it's a long iron I'll think about where to play, but with the shorter irons I'll usually just go straight at the pin expecting to hit the shot I want to hit. If I don't hit it how I want, so be it. I'll take my chances trying to hit great shots every time opposed to just trying to hit decent shots. At familiar courses, lie isn't that big of a deal to me. I've played the course from all over so I know what to expect from the fairway or rough just by looking at it.

After deciding on a good distance and game plan with the club I'll stand behind the ball and pick up a good target line. Most of the time I'll do a little half swing behind the ball just to get a feel for the club. Then I take the stance and swing away. My typical shot shape is straight but a miss can be either direction so I just aim straight and hope there is enough room on either side should it not go straight.

Off the tee I tend to aim down the middle and will shift that right or left a bit if there is trouble I want to avoid to give me more room to miss that side if I need it.
 
1. check distance, lie, troubble in front or in back.
2. one or two pratice swings focusing on whatever swing problem I'm working on at the time. Feel it working, pick a intermediate target, step up, take a breath....hit 9" behind the ball, cuss, sigh...continue on.
 
Factor all the information available, (distance,lie,wind,topography) consider where the best miss is, select club, commit to the club and shot.

Pick a target, pick an intermediate from behind the ball, address intermediate target, waggle, and make a confident swing.

repeat after topping my 3 wood...
 
club selection is entirely based on distance. I wish there was more here, but not yet.

Look to see who is in range of the shot 120*.
Look at lie and curse my luck.
Take a stab at it with no solid swing fundamentals to speak of. Usually try to fill my head with a couple recently read swing tips, but completely ignoring my habit of swaying and flipping.
Step back and enjoy the show.
 
1. What goes through your mind before selecting the club. Distance, lie, wind, where is the best miss? Yes

2. Walk me through what you do after you have selected the club and before you hit the ball.
A. Stand behind the ball and pick my target
B. Visualize the shot
C. Approach ball, take grip and take one 3/4 practice swing
D. Address ball
E. Align to target
F. Think, "hit it with the left hand".
G. Smooth backswing
H. Ever so slight pause at the top
I. Accelerate to impact
J. Follow through to finish
 
1. Once I get to my ball I look at my lie first and check the wind. After, I take out my rangefinder to get the distance to the pin. Once I get the distance I will see if the pin is front, middle or back of green and choose my club.

2. Once I get my club it's pretty much Dufner 2.0. I address the ball and wag my club over the ball until I'm ready. No set number of wags. When I'm ready I put the club down behind the ball and immediately start my swing. I do this with all clubs from my driver all the way down to my 60* wedge.
 
huhhh said:
1. check distance, lie, troubble in front or in back.
2. one or two pratice swings focusing on whatever swing problem I'm working on at the time. Feel it working, pick a intermediate target, step up, take a breath....hit 9" behind the ball, cuss, sigh...continue on.
Click to expand...

#2 has me rofling
 
Picking Club: Distance, uphill/downhill, wind, turf condition (hard soft), best miss.

Routine:
Pick target and find an easy to see target on that line.
Visualize the shot.
Check that everything feels right and I am confident with the shot picked.
One deep complete breath.
Practice half swings (in to out, overturn hips)
Put club behind ball and point face at target.
Step in and check stance (distance from ball, weight over the inside of feet etc.)
Swing.

If I change clubs during this process I will not rush to hit the shot from there. It takes time for my brain to figure out what my body needs to do to hit the ball where I want to.
 
Exact same pre shot routine on every shot. Come in from behind ball find spot about a yard out for alignment. Set up one practice swing and go. With putter same basics except 2 strokes and go.
 
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