[Hennybogan]

You hear a lot of dudes talk about TARGET TARGET TARGET when they are hitting the ball. Then you hear a lot of dudes talk about PROCESS.

Some dudes say don't think about outcome and the target is outcome . . .

So what's the deal from y'all's perspective . . .

Is target a part of process or is it the process or should it be in the process?

Thanks!

B

Bucket,

Outcomes and targets. Targets are where we want the ball to go. Process is what we do to make the ball go to the target. Outcomes are all the noise. What this shot means. What my opponent thinks about it. How it affects my score. Whether or not I can make my birdie or par from there. What Johnny Miller is going to say. How the crowd will react. You don't really contol the outcome. You only control what you do (or not) and let the ball go. That's all you can do. I've read that Hogan used to wonder why people clapped: "How would they know what I was trying to do with the shot?" Hogan said he seldom hit more than a few shots in a given round just as he saw them, but it did not stop him from trying to hit exactly the shot he saw.

Might it be in the intention. The target is the target. 4.5 inches round. Some of us measure our worth as golfers (not people) by our ability to make the 1.68 ball go into the 4.5 hole. Outcomes are the finished product. It's what comes out of the paint booth. Shiny and clean, maybe with a little pearl mixed in to make it shine. But Bucket, we don't work in the paint booth. We're down there with the hammers and wrenches.

Where it gets done is on the assembly line. The target directs our process. Our process is what we do to make the ball go to the target. There is a distinction in here someplace. We have to do our work as though it has no outcome but still do our best.

Sing like no one is listening. Dance like nobody is watching. Love like you've never been hurt. Play like we're not keeping score.

So..... You absorb the target. Let it speak to you. Open your senses. There's a perfect shot in there (in you), and a perfect shot for every situation. You know that feeling you get far to seldom when you stand over a putt that there is no way you could miss. You see the line and you just let it go. That's the way the game is meant to be played.

So what do you do all those other times when the target does not speak to you (or you don't listen)? You act like you would if it did. That is your process. Act like you do when you know exactly the shot you want to play and how to do it. I'm sure Yoda has specific thoughts about a structured pre-shot routine (think I've watched a video about it). It begins before that. You analyze the shot (more to come on that), pick your target, pull your club, walk into the shot (Yoda takes over). Let it go. I've said this before. It's what you do over and over. The process is what you do to make the ball go to the target from the time you arrive at the ball to the time you let the shot go. The reason to develop your swing is to be able paint pictures on the course instead of chasing your ball around.

It might help to understand the difference between target and outcome by watching "The Open Championship" at Carnoustie. Instead of the normal medium soft green and the dart throwing contest that follows, we will see the course work its will on the shots. More often then not the ball will take the hop that sends it away from the hole. It could bounce favorably, but it usually does not. Watson says he won all those Opens because he likes bad bounces. Most players don't. So he kept doing his thing while every one else fretted about where their balls ended up. Watson gave up control. He knew he could respond to the challenge.

You keep doing your process until you have to pick the ball out of the hole. The you do it 71 more times. The one with the fewest processes "wins." Regardless of the outcome if you adhere to your process you win. You have done the best you could. That's all you can ever do. Sometimes they give you the trophy.

But... We like outcomes. We have goals. We practice hard, so we can win. We don't play in a vacuum. We know what this shot means. We want to look at the scoreboard. We want to come through in the clutch. We want to make the big putt to win the Open.

We have to be so grounded in our process that we can let all of our wants wash off of us and handle the shot before us. (The ball does not know how important this shot is to us. It will respond to the geometry).

HB