CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Consistency is king in golf, and Adam Scott is as consistent as they come.
Since entering the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2001, he’s never left. Along the way, he’s won 31 times worldwide (including at Augusta National) and become the face of Australian professional golf. This week at Quail Hollow, he’s teeing it up for the International squad for the 10th time.
That consistency is thanks in large part to his silky smooth swing and elite ball-striking skills. But those skills didn’t come easy — they require practice.
One of the keys to productive practice is, you guessed it, consistency. But thinking you’re being consistent and actually being consistent are two different things. Feel vs. real can make it difficult to know if you really are getting into the same positions every time. To combat this, it’s important to have external cues to focus on.
That brings us back to our man Adam Scott. When he practices on the range, he doesn’t just sit there beating balls until his hands bleed. Instead, he uses two alignment sticks that ensure his practice is consistent.
He places the first stick down his aiming line. As he works his way through the bag, this stick doesn’t move away from his intended target and gives him assurance that he’s aiming right where he thinks he is.
Additionally, Scott can use the alignment stick to gauge his divot pattern. If the pattern is slightly out to the right, he knows his swing path is out-to-in, or vice versa. But it’s all relative to his alignment stick.
Scott places a second alignment stick perpendicular to his target line, which helps him monitor ball position. For each club in the bag, Scott lines up the ball even with the stick, and he uses the same position for every shot with any given club.
With the second alignment stick perpendicular to the target line, Scott can hit every club knowing he’s using the same ball position for every swing. In other words, it keeps things consistent.
