Are You AWARE Of Your Golf "Scatter" Pattern?

If You've been working on your golfing technique, your tactical and mental game and are physically well prepared and yet, for some reason, you still make too many errors.

The reason for your mistakes may lie in the "scatter". What is the golf "scatter pattern"? The "scatter" is an area around your imagined target, where your shots spread. It's almost impossible to hit an exact spot on the green, or fairway so most of your balls will land somewhere around that spot - they will spread around.

Did You Know: Moe Norman and Ben Hogan used to play a game they called flags. The winner of the game was the player whom could hit the flag the most times during a round. It is claimed in one game Moe Norman hit the flag six times!

The main reason for making too many errors can therefore lie in the fact that your imagined target is too close to places where you shouldn't miss, like hazards including bunkers or that you are short siding yourself.

If you experiment with trying to hit an exact target on the course, you'll realize that it's easier to control direction than depth. This means that you'll miss less in the sideways direction and miss more in length / depth.

That will make the "spread" area elliptical and not a symmetrical circle!  

Having been around instructors whom work with world class players on the P.G.A Tour and the Champions Tour I became aware of the importance the top players place on distance control. These players position their imagined target slightly closer to the side of greens yet farther away from the back.

This is also why hitting a pull hook almost ruined Ben Hogan's career because this type of ball flight almost always see the ball fly further resulting in the green being missed long and left which in golfing terms is Dead!

The width and length of the scatter pattern is determined by:

• your skill level - professionals have a much smaller scatter pattern than club players ( In his prime Ben Hogan would practice hitting balls at a bed sheet)
• your position - the longer the distance to your imagined target, the more you will miss it
• There is, of course, a scatter area around your desired trajectory too. Obviously, it's almost impossible to hit the exact height you're aiming for.

In fact your really only as good as your worst shot in golf and hence the main objective of improving technique is to narrow down the scatter pattern. When it comes to the professional's, players practice every day for 4 to 5 hours and most of this time is spent working on hitting it closer to the desired target in various difficulty conditions:

Note: This is why golf tournaments are played over 4 rounds because the law of averages will show up the players true scatter pattern. We all know sometimes we can have a great round, yet a true champion has a lot more consistant pattern.

Professional golfers are well aware of the pattern and they play most of the shots very safely - away from the trouble and sometimes away from the pin. 

And how exactly does one reduce the scatter?

Simple: try to hit the target and notice where the ball lands. Then adjust and continue to work on improving your technique.

Your goal, then, is to take into account this scatter pattern (including the area around your desired height of the shots) and choose targets in a such a way that, even when you miss them (which is almost every time), your shots will still land in play.

If, of course, you choose to aim in the middle of the green, then you won't miss much; but you also won't put yourself in spots to make a lot of birdies so it's about balancing when to be aggressive.

If you start watching more carefully where the shots from professional players actually land you'll quickly be able to determine where their target was on the green. Use that knowledge to take your game one level higher in a very short amount of time...