For many golfers, the headline catches our attention immediately. We have had experienced one form of disaster on the golf course and that event raced to the forefront of our thoughts. Limiting the scope of this article, I removed any uncontrollable medical or physical injuries to focus on a few aspects of our game that can cause a disaster to the final outcome of our round. Nonetheless, these events are real and seem to appear out of normal. I hope by pointing a few out (you can add your own thoughts and I will add to the list) I can help prevent future mishaps to your score.

This list is not exhaustive. It can be lengthy, but I decided to focus on my top three things that cause my round to tank. After years of experience, one would think that my challenges would be solved. However, this is not the case so here we go:

Pre-shot routine. Or should I say a ‘lack of’ or ‘the stopping of’ my pre-shot routine. I realize your are gobsmacked at this point, but yes I sometimes forget my pre-shot and as a result, my round sucks. I can be having a great round and suddenly my game heads south. This is usually a result of a mental lapse where I just stop using my pre-shot routine. When I realize my faux-pas, I start again and things seem to correct themselves. Generally, it is too late, but at least I understand my mistake. Pre-shot routine is critical to my success on the course. If you need more reinforcement, look at an article I wrote about putting by Anna Sorestam – now this is a pre-shot routine.

Poor Alignment. This particular, yet important, aspect of my game has always given my troubles. In my early years, I would line up right and push the ball even farther right. Now, if my alignment is off, I have a tendency to aim left and pull left. Many how things have change. For some reason, my visual cues do not work and I feel like I am aimed properly, but in fact I am way left. I know this because my friends identify my issue early and I am able to correct it. What I forget to do is pick a target line just in front of my all and focus on a very small target at my expected distance. I need to focus on these two points of ensure my alignment is correct on every shot.

Ball Position. Yup, this fundamental tenant of golf is still challenging my game. Poor ball position (sometimes my an inch) causes me to hit many a wayward shot. For some reason, I loose focus and start playing with my ball position because I do not feel comfortable. Instead of trusting my swing, the ball moves forward and backward in my stance like a yo-yo. It drives me crazy and I have to catch myself to have a little internal chat to stop being dopey. My ball position works when I use it, so why do I stop? Well, the short answer is, I am not sure!

There you have it, the three primary reasons that can cause disaster to my game. They are annoying and are preventable. Of course, these challenges do not happen all the time because I do shoot many good scores. However, when they do arise it generally costs as many as 10 strokes in a round and that is just unacceptable.

Do you have a particular phenomena that shows up from time to time that causes disaster to your game? What is your fix?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!