Plan, Prepare and Execute

On Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Po-Am, Beau Hossler and Jordan Spieth moved up to the top of the leaderboard with a 65, and 63 respectively. One of the things that stuck out most to me with their play in the 3^rd round was the extreme planning, and preparation that went into each and every shot, followed by extreme trust and execution.

Jordan and caddy Michael Greller are the PGA Tour equivalent of Batman and Robin. They work together, and very vocally I might add, to assess each shot, and most of the time, execute them beautifully. Beau, along with David Pelekoudas, who is on his bag this week, also worked great together today going around the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links.

While most of you don’t have the luxury of having world class caddies on your bag, there is still a great deal that you can learn from how both Jordan and Beau chartered their way around the course.

What can you learn from Jordan and Beau?

• Both look at all outside factors that could affect each shot…wind being the most notable.
• Both plan tee shots by being aware of the terrain of the fairways and how they will affect roll out.
• Both are very aware on tee shots of where all trouble is.
• Both plan each approach shot by knowing the exact yardage to key points such as the front, middle and back of the green, and the carry yardage over possible trouble around the green…its not just the yardage to the pin that matters.
• Both look at all sides of the hole as they assess the putts on the green…looking at all sides, and not just your target line from behind, can give you extremely valuable information.
• Both stick to a pre-shot routine, which in my mind, is one of the most important aspects in playing good golf.
• Both, once the shot to hit has been decided, trust that decision and execute.

In reality, all playing professionals do all of these things, or at the very least, try to do all of them. That is what makes them PGA and LPGA Tour professionals. The professionals that play the best week over week, are the ones to stay the most patient and stick to the extreme amount of planning, preparation, trust and execution we saw today from Jordan Spieth and Beau Hossler.

Regardless of your current level of play, you too can gain a great deal of success in copying what Jordan and Beau did exceptionally well today. Once you are on the golf course, playing a round, you should not be thinking about anything mechanical, but rather, the focus should be on playing. The bullet points above are the ingredients required to “playing” better golf. “Playing Golf” rather than falling into the trap of “Playing Golf Swing” should always be the objective while on the course.