There are many parts to the golf swing. From your setup to ball position to rotating your hips and squaring your clubface, if just one of those elements goes awry, you risk hitting your ball to places that could lead to trouble.
While most of us focus only on the execution of the shot itself, Open Championship winner Stewart Cink thinks differently, positing what a player does to lock in before swinging the club is “the most crucial part of executing a shot.”
Speaking from this week’s PGA Tour Champions event, the Kaulig Companies Championship, Cink elaborated on this idea, explaining how a pre-shot routine allows him to understand what he can and can’t control.
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“I try to separate everything into two piles: One pile of things I can control and one pile of things I can’t control,” Cink said. “The ‘can’t control’ pile seems to get bigger and bigger, and the ‘can control’ stays finite. So process and the routine are one of those things that I can control.”
Cink says having a pre-shot routine helps you commit to a shot. That’s why he says it’s “very conscious, focused, intentional behavior before each shot that you can focus your attention on.”
Some players will tip the bill of their cap, others pull the strap on their glove as the trigger, while others simply take a deep breath in and out.
Regardless of what that process looks like, Cink says that using the same steps before hitting helps you focus. It also allows you to block out negative thoughts.
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“The idea is to flood your mind with that so that you don’t get flooded with the outcomes, because in golf, most of the outcomes aren’t great,” he said. “There’s some that are really great, and the rest of them really aren’t that great, and your mind naturally wants to go to those outcomes.”
The idea isn’t quite tricking yourself into a distractio; Cink says it’s more so about believing in your preparation and accepting the outcome, given that’s all you can control.
“If you can keep your conscious mind focused on something like the process…then it helps you stay focused on the pile that you can control until the golf ball’s gone. Then you can just watch,” Cink said.
“Sometimes that’s excruciating, but that’s the whole purpose of the pre-shot routine right there.”