Going through a bad streak in my own golf the past few weeks has been frustrating. How can you play like you completely “own it” for months, then find yourself hitting some of the most gosh-awful shots sporadically through each and every round? Where did all that confidence and those good swings go?

It’s a crazy difficult game we play, in that every shot is a bit different from the ones before . . . a two-foot putt is followed in a few minutes by a drive . . . then an iron approach . . . maybe a chip or approach putt. Then the cycle starts all over. And these fleeting moments of athletic endeavor are separated by three to five minutes or more over the course of 18 holes and four hours, give or take.

No wonder so few people really find a way to achieve a handicap in the single digits, or even break 90 regularly. But we keep coming back to the siren song of improvement . . . making our next round one of our best ever.

Ain’t it great!

I often see where we can find pearls of wisdom from the PGA Tour . . . not in the way these athletes hit the ball prodigious distances, or their remarkably tuned short games. I find the best lessons are very often tucked away in some post-round interview and thank Memorial champion Billy Horschel for inspiration for today’s post.

In his interview, Billy talked about getting back to “the process”, referring to his pre-shot routine. He admitted that the past few weeks he had become to impatient and hurried in these ever-critical few seconds before each shot, not taking the time to really see the shot in front of him and feel the swing that would produce the results he envisioned. And this is something any golfer can work to improve.

In the wonderful book and movie, “Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days in Utopia”, the main character, Luke Chisum, is coached by Johnny, his new-found mentor. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you know that “SFT” guides you to “see it, feel it, trust it”. And that process has been going on for as long as top-level golf has been played.

In order for your body to allow your best swing to happen, you first have to get a clear picture of the shot at hand in your mind. You need to see the ball flight in a crystal clear “movie in your mind”. You then need to feel the swing that will produce that shot, the same swing you’ve executed time and again through your past. And finally, you need to trust that you can do it again and get your mind out of the way of your skills that you’ve spent hours learning.

That’s exactly what Billy Horschel was talking about . . . the process of giving his athleticism and training the time required to “see it, feel it and trust it”. There’s not a shot he faced that he hadn’t faced and excelled at time and again over his career.

The same goes for all of us, regardless of our skill level. There are not too many shots we haven’t seen and we’ve all hit plenty of solid drives, sharp approaches, chips and pitches that get close, and putts that have gone in. So, why don’t we execute at that level more consistently?

My observation is that very few recreational golfers have a true pre-shot routine, a series of thoughts and actions they employ before every shot. And that prevents consistency in pre-shot thinking, visualizing and getting your mind and body in sync to execute the shot at hand to the best of your ability.

Rather than suggest what your routine should be – it’s going to be different for every golfer – I would simply say to get one. Find a sequence of thoughts and actions that you can replicate for every shot, beginning from the moment you reach your ball and start thinking about the shot at hand. Be precise and repeat the process to give yourself the best chances to put your best swing on the ball each and every time.

Billy Horschel said it only took about 10-15 seconds to do. And he played his best golf of the season for four days!