Better Decision Maker 

The game of golf has many challenges, but which one is the most difficult? I see many people obsess
over the technical part of their swings, or how they just cannot drive the ball well; but rarely do they
address the real reason for the mistakes they make.
Some find the technical parts to be the most difficult:

 how to properly grip the club

 whether they have the correct impact position 
 what is the correct takeaway position
 learning the short game

  Some find the strategic part the most difficult:

 how to position their ball

 how to play on fast greens
 how to make an aggressive play
 what kind of shots to play against the wind

   Some golf players find the mental game the most difficult:  

 how to overcome the fear of losing

 how to deal with gamesmanship
 how to stop making the same mistakes 
 how to deal with anxiety and pressure

So with any given shot if you want to hit the most effective result you must consider all of the above
points and make a decision very quickly, so that your brain will have enough time to send the
appropriate signals to your muscles and your body will have enough time to perform the appropriate
actions.

The ability to decide correctly in a very short time is the most important, and yet often the most
overlooked, skill needed to hit an effective shot and play good golf.

It's also one of the reasons that learning to play tactically good golf takes a long time.

A golf player has to make thousands of incorrect and correct decisions to store in his memory the
successful patterns played in each specific situation.

This stored memory allows the player to quickly compare his current situation to the stored
information of thousands of similar situations, and the shots that were successful in the past.
So how can you learn to make better decisions quickly?
1. Practice specific situations. Isolate one situation and work on it in order to store the decisions
you make in this particular situation.
2. Gradually add more options. Example: play different types of chip shots from different
situations.

3. Watch a lot of golf. This is the BEST way to learn smart tactics observing the patterns of play the
professional's use understanding and remembering the type of shot they played in a certain situation.

When you play golf and DECIDE on a specific type of shot, in your mind's eye you SEE the ball's flight
(direction, speed, spin, depth and height).

There are no words in the decision made in your mind, just an image of how you want the ball to fly.
That's why it's best to store the information in the same way - visually.

4. Play lots and lots of golf with different people. This will help you to create a massive database
of correct decisions by learning from your mistakes and from your successful shots.

So the next time you make a mistake in golf, check with yourself what your decision was before you
start blaming your technique regarding the shot.

What kind of shot did you want to play?

Imagining the ball's trajectory takes only a second, and that's what is needed to overcome and master
the most difficult thing in golf.