[Hennybogan]

This is more powerful than I suspect many give it credit. The more I 'see', the better I play.

EdZ,

I agree that visualization is a very powerful tool. At the highest level, I believe that most players are playing in pictures and feels. I think they spend more effort fitting their games to the course than worrying about their swings.

It is amazing to hear one of them describe a difficult pitch shot in detail. The resistance of the grass. The trajectory. The amount of spin. The exact spot to land. All factors in hitting shots close to the hole.

I believe that the truly great putters see things that the rest of us don't. I'm thinking of guys like Crenshaw that can make it from anywhere.

One of the things that always amazes me is how good most tour players are at very difficult shots. They respond to the numbers and definition of the shot to get completely locked in. Then they miss the fairway laying up on a par five. We try hard to offset this tendency by painting a picture about the lay up.

Some players might not be able to see all the details of every shot, but they still still need to be totally focused on target and feel. When discussing the line for a particular shot, we are always trying to give the smallest target that the player can still see. Not: "At that clump of trees." Yes: "The right edge of the third tree."

HB