you are unaware that your attention has shifted, as most people are, “worrying about your backswing”
then becomes your new target, and you become blind to your original target (the tree in the distance) in
the same way you were unable to see the person in the gorilla suit. It should be no surprise then that if
you focus your attention on “worrying about your backswing”, without consciously reconnecting to your
original target, the odds of you hitting that original target decrease significantly simply because you’re
no longer paying attention to it.
The inability to control one’s attention is a common problem that plagues golfers at every level
from professional to amateurs. We think we are focused on one thing when in fact our attention is fixed
on something else and unless we know that that’s happening, that “something else” will become our new
target. Let me give you a classic example - You’re standing on the tee box ready to tee off, when out of
the corner of your eye you see a pond that hugs the right side of the fairway. Immediately, your attention
shifts from “stripe it down the middle of the fairway” to “don’t go right”. You take the club back, swing,
and sure enough the ball goes right, splashing into the middle of the pond. At the root of this problem is
the simple lack of awareness as to what our target is at the moment when we chose to execute a shot. If
you’re worrying about a pond, the pond will become your target. If you’re thinking about your grip, your
grip will become your target. If you’re anxious about being embarrassed, embarrassment will become
your target.
The bottom line is that whatever your attention is focused on will become your target, and as such,
you will physically react accordingly. In other words, you will swing to the target that is in the sights of
your attention. Focus on the pond and, more likely than not, you will create a swing that finds the pond.
As noted earlier, the more successful target focused golfers are not distracted by external or internal
interference. They stay fully committed to their original targets throughout their golf swing, and when
they do get distracted, they are able to refocus undeterred. Target focus is one of the many psychological
skills I teach the players I work with, but it is one of the most important. My experience tells me that
if you hold a golfer’s technical ability to swing a club as a constant, working only on improving target
focus can dramatically improve scoring ability. I fully understand that being aware of how your attention
“toggles” back and forth from one thing to another is difficult and takes time, but with work it can be the
key component to taking your game to the next level.
Ways to practice target focused golf:
Track your target focus
Like greens in regulation, fairways hit, driving distance, and scoring average, target focus can be tracked
as well. Before your next competitive tournament, commit to keeping track of your target focus. Either
during or after your round (preferably during), make note, with a “y” for yes and an “n” for no, of whether
or not you stayed fully committed to each shot and if you weren’t what took your attention away. This
can be done on your scorecard or a separate piece of paper. Like all other golf stats, you should start to
see themes or patterns emerging that you can then more concretely address.
Staying with the after image
Take a golf ball and place it on a putting green. Soften your gaze and simply stare at the ball for about
15 seconds or so. Then, while continuing to stare, move the ball out of the way fixing your gaze on the
spot where the ball was. You should see an afterimage of the ball; a dark spot where the ball used to be.
See how long you can stay with the afterimage before it disappears. You will notice that if you blink or
get distracted the image will fade quickly, but if you are able to stay focused, the after image will linger.
This is a great exercise to practice staying connected to a target.
14 | CSGA Links // September, 2016
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