Consistent golfers have good routines in many areas of their golf games.  You have probably heard of a pre-shot routine so that one is easy to grasp. However their are other routines good golfers have.

These would include:

• Night before routine
• Morning routine (before arriving to course)
• Warm-up routine before your round
• Pre-shot routine before every shot
• Post round routine of warm down
• Evening routine and review of the days golf

The above examples are basic good routines that consistent dedicated golfers take on and do each day they play.  In today's world of busy, busy, busy life, work, family, shopping, etc it may be hard to do all the above possible routines.  But it is good to see that they are there, and perhaps you could implement some if not all of them.  Let's take a look at them.

Night Before Routine
As a kid I remember going to my basement to our wash basin where laundry was done so I could scrub my clubs and clean them for my next days round.  I can remember the excitement of doing it since playing golf was a big deal.  My home town did not have a public course so for me to play my Mother had to drive me 20 miles to the nearest course.  

Your night before routine could include that but another good routine is to sit quietly and review in your mind what your practice session before your round will consist of?  It can also be a mapping of the course in your mind with strategy of how you will approach each hole.  With students I coach the Mental Game specifically I really encourage them to visualize the shots they will see.  Adding emotion to those good shots will also help to stimulate your subconscious mind and lead you away from too many technical swing thoughts.

Morning Routine
A good morning routine is starting right off from where you night routine ended. Waking up in bed I would encourage any player to avoid their phone for 30 min and visualize the course you will play.  Again you are getting your subconscious mind involved and this is the key to all good golf.

A good morning routine would include proper breakfast  with protein and not be rushed.  Also in the morning make your food for the course and get your hydration bottles ready.  You will need energy during your round and if you do not prepare this part in the morning then you really are just giving lip service to the idea that you want to play more consistent golf.

Warm-Up Routine Before the Round
This is an obvious one but I can honestly say of the 75-95 players I coach consistently very few of them ( maybe 25%) actually have a good warm up routine.  In any event, what might that good warm up look like?

At the US Open completed yesterday at LACC the last 6 players hit balls on the range for an average of 29 min.  On average they hit 45-54 shots from wedges thru driver.  Some of these players started on the putting green before the range and some went to putt after.  All of them also included pitch shots  and bunker shots.  Generally these players were out before the round 55-60 min.  All of these players arrived well before those times.  They generally will go to the tour trailer for stretching etc and some have their personal trainers with them and they may have done that at their house they rent for the week or hotel suites.

Another major item each player does in the pre-round warm up is to simulate shots they will have on the course that they know will be a challenge.  Some players on Thursday and Friday of the tournament will play each shot they will face on the range for the first 1-5 holes.  Of course this is all individual but you can see, there is a good deal of preparation here before any round of golf.

Pre-shot Routine
I dedicate mental coaching to a select group of players where all we work on is the mental side of golf.  Here in the pre-shot routine is where you are preparing yourself for each shot.  I have a free PDF you can download on Pre-shot routine
from my media page.  The pre-shot routine is paramount to playing good golf.  

I could write for hours about this but there are resources on my website here where you can learn more about the pre-shot routine.  The basic concept is to come up with a plan of action for every shot, commit to it and then engage your subconscious mind to create each shot.  If you do not have a good pre-shot routine or do not use it efficiently then again you are giving lip-service to your statements of "I want to be a consistent golfer'.

Post Round Warm Down
After a round of 18 holes in general most golfers want to go to the grill to get food and a beverage of their choice.  I understand that.  However if you found short comings in your game on the course such as the driver was off, or putting or you did not get up and down from 20 yards off the green at least 75% of the time then after the round you should go work on that.

These short comings (especially the short game) are fresh in your mind, so go put yourself in the situations where you failed on the course and practice them.
You do not have to do it for a long period, but you should train your mind to make this a routine after golf.  Routines are habits and if you create the habit is will become the norm.  If it becomes the norm you increase your chances of being more consistent!

Evening Routine and Review of the Day of Golf
In the hectic world we live in this is hard to do at times and finding the time to do it is touchy.  But in a perfect situation you would review the days golf when you are in a quiet space, no TV, no cell phone.  

Some players will journal their experiences here and I think that is great idea.  A golf journal near your bed or in your place of study is really good to have.  As your write out your experiences you also help yourself create a plan of action for your next practice, or the next days round or you are gathering information that you can then bring to your instructor for your next lesson.

If you make the post round evening routine part of your golf game it certainly help you review what occurred on the course or range and it is giving your mind information so you can make informed good decisions on what to work on.

Routines in your golf game are part of the road to you becoming a consistent golfer.  As I have stated hundreds of not thousands of times, players come to me for lessons and assistance and well over 90% state they want to be more consistent.

If that is you, then they above areas are something to start to do.  Habits are hard to create and break so by creating these new ones you are breaking old habits of ignoring golf when you thought it was only about the course.  Ok then take these ideas one step at a time.

But if you really want to be a more consistent golfer......start creating consistent routines!

If you want to play your most consistent golf, you are going to have to clear your mind when you play.

That seems like a simple idea, but I coach dozens of players on the course each month and one of the things I see that hinders their performance is their lack of ability to stay focused when they play.

Of course if you are an avid golfer you have heard all top players say they are taking golf 'one shot at a time' or 'being in the present moment'.  Really nifty phrases and if you are an avid golfer you may even try to do that.

You may try to visualize the shot.  Great!
You may have a good pre-shot routine.  Awesome!
You may work at trying to stay focused totally while over the ball.  Good.

Those three topics and others are needed for you to find true new potentials in your play.  However new potential outcomes arrive because you are not attached to the past or future too much and you can control your emotions well when you play.

Finding the new potentials in your game is an art and science proves how that art works,  This is what I love to coach players.  If you want to know how, contact me and we can begin the process.  

But for now one of the biggest obstacles I see almost every player do while on the course is check their phone constantly!  Your smart phone my be giving you yardage or you may be using an app to track your score......not recommended but allowed IF you do not look further into that little device.

So many of my students run businesses, or are account managers and have a constant stream of emails coming in, or they simply cannot get off their need to check Social media.  

Every time you go to the phone to do one of those things (or others) you are disconnecting yourself to your golf game and connecting yourself to what I would call past/future thoughts (those company emails)and emotional reactions from the emails or Social Media posts you see.

Every time you REACT to an email or social media post you are charging your mind to go to that place, which of course is not in the NOW like you see a tour player tries to do.

Being in the present moment is an art and it can be fast tracked at an enormously accelerated rate to get you to reach your new goals.  Any thing that creates cluttered thoughts in your mind in your game generally will not help your performance.  Emails, texts, Tic Tok app....you get the idea.

I have players that are reaching their new potentials because yes their swing is improving but also because now they are discovering the power of their mind to help reach their goals.

The surest way to delay your desired outcomes on the course is to get wrapped up on the phone and get tangled up in all the thoughts and emotions you have as you see emails, or social posts.  

Do yourself a favor, turn the phone off or put it in your bag and commit to not check it until after the round. If this was 1984 you would laugh and say 'what are you talking about...check my phone on the course'?  Naturally back then the phone was connected to your wall in your home or office.

Today it is in your back pocket, so move it and do not open it on the course.  Keep your mind clear and open and then try to become more consistent.  If you cannot, you are just delaying your dreams of lower scores.  ​

2021 comes to a close and so does your past golf year.
How did you do?  Did you reach your goals? Hit any new milestones you posted on Instagram or Facebook?  Did your dreams come close to meeting what actually occurred?

Setting goals is never easy, and if you may recall, one year you probably set a loss of weight goal and gym program goal and it fell apart between February and April.  Goals are nice to set but hard to keep up with in today's world we live in so you may need to be cautious about setting them.

Let's assume you will set some goals.....so before you do we should assess 5 areas of your golf game to consider before you set to paper and pen or notebook on your computer or Ipad.

Through coaching over 30 years in golf and coaching over 2000 lessons a year I can tell you without a doubt that there are many aspects to golf that need looked at to see if you can be successful and expect to reach any of your goals you may set.

Let us dig into these 5 areas:

• When reflecting on 2021 can you dig deep inside you to see if you were stagnant during parts of your golf season?  Did Stagnation show up for you in 2021?   Stagnation shows itself in many ways such as if you were taking swing lessons did things progress.  Did the lessons have the backup of proper practice to support each one you took? Stagnation occurs when you give lip service to things you try ( such as taking a golf lesson) but do not really go after it.  If you found stagnation then you must consider that when setting a goal.  If the heart and passion are not really in someone then the results will show for themselves.
• Good golfers expect to be winner and thus are very optimistic about their game, swing and their potential.  That is not always easy to do however successful golfers are Optimistic!   As your 2021 season evolved were to optimistic usually?  Being optimistic is a very high emotion if you do not always feel it like a winning putt or great drive down the 18th fairway. Identify where you could be more optimistic for 2022 before you set those goals.
• The opposite of optimism is pessimism and most golfers are pessimists and probably more than they realize?  So acknowledging where you are Pessimistic about parts of your game is also needed.  Are you pessimistic about some clubs you have to hit ( like driver) and not others?  Do you find more pessimism when playing certain courses or playing in certain playing conditions?  Just because a course has a lot of doglegs left does not mean you could not play it well.  I think it REALLY helps someone to dig deep to where they are a pessimist in their golf game?
• Where is your confidence in your golf game now?  Where is Confidence showing up for you on the golf course?  You probably have parts of your game that you are confident in such as your driver, favorite iron, certain types of putts, or certain holes on your favorite course.  Understanding where you are confident is a great place to start to set your goals for the 2022 season.  Start with what parts of your game are you not confident in? Are they clubs, types of shots or maybe mental pitfalls you always seem to find yourself in?  Can any of these be put on a goal list for 2022?
• Golf is a game of habit just like you have a habit of waking up the same way most days and driving the same route to work and eat the same foods. Habits are routines.  Do you have good Productive Routines in your golf game?  These routines include a good Pre-shot Routine before each shot you hit.  A good practice routine is paramount to improving you golf game. If you are not 100% convinced your routine is stellar, then it needs work on the range.  A good Pre-round Routine is just as vital.  Before any round you need to warm up, stretch out, hit the ball solid and hit it on an intended target line.  Before a round if golf is not the time to practice.

I just watched the Matrix Resurrections movie and it flashed back to a scene where Neo asked about a sign over a door that said Temet Nosce....translated from Latin it says "know thyself".   That always seemed like an easy answer to blurt to someone about ones self right?  We all know ourselves and our faults.

However when you go to create the faults to fixes list; Goals for your 2022 season you really need to Know Thyself.

The above 5 areas suggested are a good way to take simple check-in time to assess more about who you are as a golfer.  Give it some time to reflect on what you find, write it out also since that always helps ingrain and understand things.

When you have reflected on these 5 areas then cautiously go about making the goal list for 2022.  Take your time on it, consider past attempts at goals and see where you may have asked too much.

Do not be afraid of the goal list, just be sure what you set out to do.  Tiger Woods stated in the PNC Father Son Challenge that he does not really coach his son Charlie.  He leaves it up to Charlie to decide just how successful he wants to be.

You only have to answer to yourself  about what you expect of yourself in 2022?Before you start, look hard in the mirror determine what you really want.  Commit to a path to a better 2022 golf season!

Al Owens now has a podcast....check out his winter series HERE

Recently in several on-course lessons I have been giving I am noticing far less focus on the shot at hand or target and much more focus on the swing.  This is a recipe for disaster if you really want to play better golf.

When I am on the course with a player I am taking video of not only their swing but also what they do prior to each shot.  One thing that is noticeable to see when I am with a student is there lack of consistency in what they do prior to each shot.  I mention this because 95% of players that I coach all state at my first lesson with them is that they want to be more consistent when they play.

Golfers have a tendency to generally think that if the swing is better then their scores will be better.  This is simply NEVER true.  Even if you have a good swing, if you lack focus before a shot then your next shot will suffer.   Ben Hogan is very known for his quote; "The most important shot is your NEXT shot".

That sounds pretty simple but if you are an avid golfer I doubt you really are focused well on the shot in front of you.  Even if you are, chances are you are probably focused on too much swing mechanic and not enough on the shot at hand.

This is a never ending merry-go-round with golfers of all levels that I see.  And this is why creating a successful and efficient pre-shot routine is extremely important.  Why do you think this may be so important?

The reason is simple and your mind has so much to do with your golf game when you play. The subconscious mind is the key here.  The subconscious mind is where you are running all your mental programs that you do not have to think about.  These programs have been running for years in you.  When you learned to drive you had to learn how to put the key in, turn it and step on the peddle to get it running. You had to learn how to place the car in gear to back up.  You had to learn the art of getting out of your driveway or the difficult art of parallel parking.  Today you do all those things naturally.  This makes room in your mind to plot your course to drive and move to your destination safely through traffic.  Much of what you do every do of course are subconscious routines that you have been doing for years.

When your subconscious mind is running routines on auto pilot it frees the mind to then create what is next to be created.  In golf, the next thing to be created is the next shot in front of you.

However if you do not have a specific routine that you follow over and over and over, then you will be victim to your mind moving you to mental items that will hurt your golf game.  These mental items would be fear of a poor shot about to happen.  The lack of belief in your ability to hit a shot to distance or direction that is challenging for you. Or the worst is your mind moving you to a mechanical thought before and during your swing.  The practice range is where you work on those thoughts, feelings and athletic motions. Not the golf course.

The pre-shot routine you may think is a golfer going through some set of steps to help them create a consistent way to go through each swing.  This is correct, but WHY is this correct.

In golf as I tell all the young coaches I see, you must understand the swing and why certain motions are happening in the swing in players they coach.  Good swing coaches find the root cause of the swing mechanic that is off and they move forward to fix that.

Why a pre-shot routine is important is because if you have one, it frees the conscious mind to focus on the shot at hand.  Too many players that have no routine fall victim to the conscious mind having to wade through fear of the swing, or shot or both.  Your conscious mind should be focused on the shot at hand and only the shot at hand.  Sadly I would say that 90% of players do not efficiently work into the next shot that faces them.

When you have a pre-shot routine it allows you to successfully chose the right club for the next shot. Determine the direction or specific point you wish to hit your next shot to.  It allows you to relax the mind as you calm yourself before you step forward into the shot.

The list is endless really in why this pre-shot routine is so important,

Every shot you face needs your focus on the shot at hand.  That focus should be on the shot that faces you. For this to happen you must utilize the pre-shot routine and commit to use it every time you hit a shot.'

Your subconscious mind needs to be busy with the routine of what you are doing before the shot.  This is WHY it is so important.  If you do not have the auto pilot doing something (the subconscious mind)  then it will look for something to focus on.  That focus would be swing mechanic, fear of the shot, last shot poor memory , etc.

With a pre-shot routine effectively  in place, you can then more freely work on the shot at hand.  How to do this is another story.  But for now create a pre-shot routine so you are able to have better focus for the most important which is the next shot in front of you.

Learn how to create a pre-shot routine here.