One of the things drilled into us in a series of swing classes I took over the past year is having a consistent pre-shot routine. Whether it be a cartwheel, two claps, address the ball and swing or stand behind the ball, hike up your pants, take your stance, waggle 40 times then swing, it should be the same every time. After a while, you stop worrying about things like standing too far away from the ball, position of the ball in your stance, etc. Those things will come naturally with a good pre-shot routine. Need a good example? Watch Mike Weir. That little pre-swing swing isn’t for his health.
A Consistent Pre-shot Routine
A consistent pre-shot routine helps to establish a rhythm and keeps your mind from worrying about the small stuff.
Great advice, but advice that people sometimes take to extremes. If you’re playing with or in front of me and you take three practice swings, adjust your grip, plant your feet, flex your knees, loosen your arms, square your shoulders, take a waggle or two and then finally to decide to hit the damn thing, you better make sure you find the fairway or get somewhere near the green. Three practise strokes for 6-inch putts are also unnecessary.
I heartily disagree. If someone is in that much of a hurry that they can’t let the person in front of them go through their routine, then kindly ask to play through on the next tee. We’re not all professionals out there. There’s going to be stray shots, duffed drives, putts that zoom past the hole. I say whatever it takes for there to be less of any of that, even if it’s three practice strokes for 6-inch putts, then it’s *quite* necessary.
Exactly Todd, we are not all professionals out there. Why would we need such a long or detailed pre-shot routine, walk off putts, look at putts from 3 different angles, find exact yardages, etc?
A preshot routine does not have to long. Slow play plagues the Tour and it pushes golfers away from the game.