Most amateur golfers have a pre-shot routine in name only. They take a casual practice swing, maybe two. They look at the flag briefly, step in and then hit. On longer holes, that might be enough. On a par 3, especially one with something at stake, it’s often where the shot is lost before it begins.
A proper pre-shot routine for a par 3 isn’t complicated. But it’s different from what most golfers do. Here’s what we think works best, and why the order matters more than most people realise.
Start Behind the Ball, Not Beside It
The first mistake golfers make is approaching the shot from beside the ball, already committed to a line they haven’t fully thought through. Instead, start your routine from directly behind the ball, looking down the shot line toward the target.
From this position you can see where the flag is sitting relative to the middle of the green, whether the trouble is left or right, where you want the ball to land, and what shape the shot needs to be. Standing beside the ball collapses your view. Standing behind it opens it up. This one adjustment changes the quality of every decision that follows.
Choose a Landing Spot, Not a Target
Most golfers aim directly at the flagstick. The good golfers? They aim at a landing spot, with the two very rarely being the same thing. The flagstick tells you where the hole is, while the landing spot tells you where the ball needs to land so that it finishes close to the hole, given the slope, the firmness, and the likely release.
On a par 3 with a front pin, your landing spot might be three metres onto the green, short of the flag. Once you know your landing spot, aim at that, not the stick.
Pick an Intermediate Target
This technique is what elite players use and it works at every level. Once you know your landing spot, find a mark on the ground between the ball and that target, about half a metre in front of you. A leaf. A discoloured patch of grass. A tuft. Anything visible and specific.
Now align your clubface to that intermediate target, not to something 150 metres away. It’s dramatically easier to aim precisely at something you can see clearly. Your body alignment follows the clubface. Suddenly, setup becomes simple and repeatable.
One Rehearsal, One Purpose
If you take a practice swing before hitting, that swing needs a job. Not a general loosening up. A specific job. Either you’re rehearsing the feeling of a controlled, three-quarter swing to avoid going long, or you’re confirming the weight of the club to calibrate distance, or you’re feeling a specific tempo.
One focused practice swing is worth three aimless ones. If you don’t know what the practice swing is for, skip it. Purposeless rehearsal trains nothing.
Lock In and Go
Once you step into the address position, give yourself a hard deadline: no more decisions, it’s time to clear your head of clutter. Club and target choice is done and your line is set. Everything after this point is execution. The golfers who make the best swings under pressure are the ones who have committed fully before they set up to the ball.
Lingering doubt in the setup is the number one cause of deceleration in iron shots. Doubt makes you slow down through impact. Commitment makes you accelerate through it. And acceleration is what produces clean contact and consistent carry distance.
What This Looks Like on a Prize Hole
When a Local Party Hole is involved, the temptation is to rush because the nerves want to get it over with, or to freeze because the stakes feel too high. A locked-in pre-shot routine is the antidote to both. It gives your brain something specific to do instead of fantasising (or catastrophising) about outcomes.
Stand behind the ball. Find the landing spot. Pick the intermediate target. One purposeful rehearsal swing. Step in. Commit. Go.
That sequence is the same on a casual Saturday as it is when $10,000 is sitting on the hole. That’s the point. A good routine works regardless of the stakes, because it removes the stakes from the equation.
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