Tiger’s Go-To Shot
Day 2 on “I Feel Your Pain" by Mike Malaska
The Missing Game Syndrome.
Some days, you show up at the golf course but part of your game says home. You don’t know why, but suddenly you’re slicing your drives or chunking your pitch shots.
According to Mike Malaska, the “Missing Game Syndrome” happens to everyone. Even the pros.
He says, “Great players have a go-to shot. It may not be the best shot to hit. But they know how to keep the ball in play.”
As proof, he points to Tiger Woods.
“I was hitting a lot of loose shots.”
In 1999, Tiger was unstoppable.
At the World Golf Championship, he beat Phil Mickelson to claim his eighth win of the year. It looked like just another confident performance.
But during an interview on the Golf Channel, Tiger revealed the surprising truth.
He said, “To be honest, I wasn’t feeling comfortable with my swing today. The day before I was feeling great. But that morning, I was hitting a lot of loose shots.”
On Thursday, when Tiger felt great, he took the lead. On Friday, when out of nowhere he started hitting those “loose shots,” he dropped to sixth place.
But Tiger had practiced a dependable go-to shot.
He played the ball back in his stance, took a shorter backswing, shorter follow-through, and punched low shots down the fairway.
He says, “That’s one of the shots I learned to get me in the clubhouse. The less time the ball stays in the air, the less time it has to go offline.”
Maintain, maintain, maintain.
Tiger punched back up the leaderboard. It wasn’t pretty, but it kept the ball in play and won the tournament.
To help us create go-to shots of our own, Mike offers a handy guideline. A go-to shot allows you to do three things:
Maintain your focus
Maintain your tempo
Maintain your swing
Mike says, “The goal here is to intentionally practice a shot for when you get nervous or jumpy or out of sorts.”
Go-to shots fill in the gaps when your game isn’t all there.
For example, if you’re hooking every drive, your go-to shot might be a hybrid. You love your hybrid. You can hit that hybrid straight all day. Yes, you’ll lose 30 yards off the tee, but you’ll keep the ball in play—and as long as the ball is in play, you have a chance to score.
The author Chris Bradford said, “Tomorrow’s victory is today’s practice.”
Today’s lesson sounds too simple to be true. Maybe that’s why so few golfers take it seriously. But when Jack wasn’t playing well, he hit fades all day. When Tiger wasn’t playing well, he punched all day.
If pros need go-to shots, then you and I need them even more. So today, I’m challenging you to define one go-to shot. Start by asking, “Which shot do I feel most comfortable with? Which shot helps me maintain my focus, tempo and swing?” Practice that shot until it’s automatic. Then the next time you show up and part of your game doesn’t, your go-to shot will keep the ball in play—and keep those big numbers off your scorecard.
That’s all for now. Until next time, keep imagining what’s possible.