As I begin this critically important instructional piece that I call Target Line USA (more on that in a moment), I’d be highly remiss if I didn’t give full credit to the late great Coach Bill Strausbaugh. Bill was a PGA of America National Teacher of the Year, my primary mentor, a father figure to literally thousands of PGA Professionals, and a dear friend I miss every day.
Bill instilled in me a strong belief in Target Line awareness and its importance if you want to play this game at a higher level. Thank you, Bill.
As a golf coach (coach first, teacher second), I feel it is critical during every practice session with my students to establish a strong target line awareness. Bill used to call this “Target Line USA.” It’s important to establish as many visual references as possible to cue the students’ eyes, therefore then their brains (The Control Center) to our final destination, the target. After all, this is a TARGET GAME.
To many of the golfers I work with who have made golf a ball game: Baseball is a ball game. In baseball you get three chances called strikes and three fields to hit toward — left, right, and center. In golf you only get one strike and only one field, center, which is optimal! It’s best our focus stays there.
