"Everybody can get better on 15 minutes per day."
"You can even get better on 5 minutes per day."
Tom Tucker, Unrenowned Golf Coach 😄
Tom's Featured Tip: Mental Tip - Decision Making
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Mental Tip - Decision Making
The Best Training Aid For Indoor or Outdoor Practice
The Divot Board
This is the most useful ball striking development training aid that I own.
Mental Tip - Decision Making
For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.
I recently read a great article by David MacKenzie on elite decision making in golf, here are the highlights.
Golf presents countless moments where you get to decide how to proceed.
Here's a look at some of these moments: before, during, and after the round and how you can improve your decision-making so you finish each round with informed choices and no regrets.
Before the Round: Decide How You Want to Be
Before each round, and every day, you get to decide how you will show up.
What mindset do you want to bring today? Curious? Competitive? Grateful? How do you want to feel?
What type of player will you be today?
- The type who handles every challenge calmly?
- The type who thinks clearly through every shot?
- The type who's a fun partner to play with?
- The type who loves pressure moments?
Before the Round: Decide How You'll Play Each Hole
Know what clubs you plan to hit off each tee, your strategy on par 5s and where the good miss is around the green. In your yardage book, on each hole add which direction the wind is blowing. The more work you do here, the easier and quicker your on-course decisions will be. Top players rehearse decisions in advance so they can trust themselves fully during play.
Before the Shot: Decision-Making in the Pre-Shot Routine
- See the Whole Picture
Pull up the aerial view of each hole. You'll notice there's usually much more room than it looks like from ground level. Good golf courses are designed to visually narrow your options, to make you feel like you're hitting into tight spaces and invoke fear. The aerial view reminds you of the width, depth, and safe zones that will reduce fear, help you swing freely and decrease the chance of big numbers.
- Separate the Flag, Target, and Aim
Elite players separate these three elements:- Flag: the hole location.
- Target: the area you want the ball to finish, often the center of the green.
- Aim: your alignment to account for wind, lie, and natural shot bias.
Most golfers merge all three and end up aiming directly at flags that allow no margin for error. Elite players pick a sensible target with room for dispersion, then adjust their aim for tendencies and conditions. When you know you've given yourself space for a miss, you can swing with freedom and trust.
- Know How Your Lie Will Affect the Shot
Check your lie and stance, uphill, downhill, or sidehill, and understand how that will affect launch angle, trajectory and spin.- Ball above your feet? Ball below? How do you adjust?
- How is the ball sitting? If you can't get to the back of the ball cleanly, you won't compress it as much, so it will carry shorter, but with less spin, it will roll farther on landing.
Elite players factor all this in quickly and confidently.
- Choose Your State Before You Walk In
Before you walk into the shot, decide your state. What feeling will your body language and self talk create? One of excitement and belief, or doubt and fear? Elite players decide this before walking into the ball. Confidence isn't found on the course, it's chosen.
During the round, you'll experience a mix of outcomes, some satisfying, some frustrating. How will you think and respond to each one?
You can't always control circumstances, but you can control how you think about them and hence how you will feel. Become more aware and ask yourself: Am I thinking like the player I want to be? Awareness lets you step outside your own thoughts and respond intentionally, not emotionally.
After the Round: Reflect and Refine
Choose to have a structured debrief.
Focus first on positives and learning points, then reconcile with the round. What emotions did you experience and what does that say about you? This will tell you how you need to improve your thinking.
Elite-level decision making blends strategy, awareness, and emotional mastery. It's not just how you choose the right shot, it's how you choose to think.
The best players make calm, deliberate decisions about their attitude, focus, and responses on every single shot. The more you go through this process, before, during, and after every round, the quicker, sharper, and more efficient your decision making becomes.
Over time, what feels deliberate now will become instinctive, allowing you to play freely, trust yourself completely, and make elite-level decisions automatically under pressure.
Try it, you'll really like it!
Email Comments: to TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer, The Stack and Tilt Swing
Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, and remember that golf is a game of discovery. Don't be afraid to experiment when you practice, it's good for your golfing brain.
Tom
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All the best,
Tom Tucker
Teaching Professional, Batavia Country Club
WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher"
USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional
IGPA Certified Golf Psychology Coach
Cell: (716) 474-3005
Email: TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com
"There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection1"
~ Ben Hogan