Have you ever stood over the ball and told yourself “Don’t hook it in the water” only to proceed to do just that? Instead, stand behind the ball during your pre-shot routine and look at all that beautiful fairway right of the lake. Visualize the flight of the ball and it landing exactly where you want it to. Then tell yourself “Hit it right down the middle” and execute. Put yourself in a positive frame of mind that allows you to better control the outcome. Avoid using words like “don’t” and instead tell yourself to “do.” This will set you up for success rather than put you into conflict with your brain.

This is the worst advice in golf yet it’s a tip I hear players say the most. You’ll never hear a good instructor tell any of their players to keep their head down. This thought restricts your mobility, rotation, and you’ll look dumb doing it. The mistaken thought here is that the player is looking up and at their target before impact thus topping the ball or hitting it fat. What is really happening is the player is either coming up and out of their spine angle or leaving weight on their back foot. Maintain your spine angle or a “tilt” through impact and you could hit the ball with your eyes closed. Nobody ever told Annika Sorenstam or David Duval to keep their head down. They are two players who notoriously had their head turning towards the target at impact.

On a good shot, not blading it, how many times have you overshot the green with an iron in the last year. I bet you can count the times on one hand. Now, how many times have you come up short? I bet the number is exceptionally larger. Because you hit your 7 iron 172 yards one time at the member-guest back in 2014 does not mean that is your stock yardage with that club. A range finder has helped me, and should help a lot of us, in this regard. I was right next to the 150 yard marker the other day. If I wouldn’t have shot my laser or didn’t really think about it, I would have grabbed my 8 iron and swung away. And I would have come up significantly short and swore at myself all the way to the green. I pulled out my laser and shot the pin at 168. Even though I was 6 feet from the 150 yard marker I actually had 18 more yards. That marker, which has probably been there for years, is measured to the center…and the pin was in the back of a relatively large green. I then took into consideration that the shot played uphill. I quickly settled on the shot playing about 175 yards and I hit a 6 iron pin-high. An 8 iron wouldn’t have sniffed the flag. Take this tip one step further When you are between clubs, hit the longer one, especially if there is trouble short of the green.