I was diving into some stats on my own game recently when I noticed something interesting—a problem that was kind of bogging down my scores.
And it's something that might be hurting yours, too.
I use Arccos to track my stats, and feeling an early-season stall out in my game, I noticed an interesting trend emerge.
Here's one example.
I gained 0.1 Strokes Gained: Driving on the day during this round compared to scratch handicap. Fine in itself, but when I looked at each individual drive which made up that number, that's when things got interesting. On most holes I was right around zero: I'd hit a good one, gain two-tenths of a stroke; hit a bad one, lose a touch. But on the 14th, I hit one low, ugly snap hook. And on that one drive I lost 0.6 strokes compared to a scratch, on a day when I gained -0.1 strokes.
You can see the same thing happen here.
During this round I lost -0.2 strokes off the tee overall—but one low-left snap that went 215 yards cost me -0.4 strokes on its own. If I'd just hit a normal drive there, my driving would have been positive for the day. That one bad swing tipped the whole thing negative.
Here's one more. In another nine-hole round, I gained on four of my first five holes, then hit a big block OB on the sixth and lost 1.3 strokes on that single drive.
That's three rounds where one drive tipped the overall balance to zero or negative.
When I really thought about it, I realized these shots came when I'd lose focus—specifically, when I was paying attention to something else. An uncomfortable hole where I'm not sure where to hit it, or what the wind's doing. An approach where I'm between clubs: is this a 7 or an 8, what's the lie? Where do I land it? Too many thoughts, none of them getting my full attention, and the end result was one really bad shot.
So I dug up a book I think is fantastic: The Practice Manual by Adam Young, a fantastic coach (who you can follow on Instagram here) that works very analytically on a bunch of important things in golf. In it, he's got a whole section on the different types of attention.
Internal attention
Example: "Make a 9 o'clock backswing"
When it might be good: Half wedge shots
Internal attention is keeping your attention focused on something you want to do with your body during your swing. Keeping your left arm straight, for example, or keeping your backswing short. It's especially good when the shot you're trying to hit requires a specific technique, like a half-backswing distance wedge shot.
External process
Example: "Hit the ball before the ground"
When it might be good: Tricky lies from the rough, where margins for error are thin
Here you're focused on something outside your body, but it's a process, not a result. Think of this like a goal you want to accomplish that stops short of the ball flight. You're not worried about the outcome—you're worried about doing the thing that produces it.
External result
Example: "Hit a draw to that target"
When it might be good: Go-ahead stock shots
Here you're not thinking about the ball or your body—you're focused on what you want to happen. I want this ball to start right of the flag and curve back left. That's it. All you're doing is thinking, start it right, curve it left. No thoughts about your swing or the ball, just reacting to what you want to happen.
Neutral attention
Example: "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10"
When it might be good: When you're nervous
Adam says this one is the most interesting—but also surprisingly effective.
This is when you find it hard to focus on any one thing, perhaps because you're nervous. But the intrusive thoughts themselves usually aren't great, so the goal of this is to do something to occupy your mind. Instead of standing over the ball and worrying about hitting it out of bounds, now you're standing over the ball and counting to 10 in your head, or singing a song you heard in the car. You give your racing mind something to chew on so it stops racing.
How you can use this
In essence, Adam's advice is to pick one before each shot based on the situation, and focus only on that.
Your specific focus can change shot to shot, but the idea is to pick one that is the best fit for the shot at hand. Over a wedge I want to hit halfway, I might go internal—make a 9 o'clock backswing. On the next tee, I might go external result—start it left of that tree, fade it back. You can even grade yourself after the shot to ask yourself how well you paid attention. Forget whether you hit it good or bad, just ask how well you focused on that one thing.
I've noticed some benefits in my own game. You can see in a recent round below.
The bad shots still come, but because I'm not fully losing my attention, they're less bad than they were before. No blow up drives, so no big hits to the scorecard. But the solution was surprisingly simple: Just get a little better at paying attention.
You can listen to the full Golf IQ episode below, and subscribe to the podcast right here.