I’ve definetely noticed that when I verbally express exactly what my shot is going to do it happens more often than not. I think most of us kinda look in the general direction we want our shot to go and once we’ve addressed the ball it becomes swing thoughts more than anything else.
By verbally expressing what we want the shot to do I think we tend to be more specific than just saying “I’m going to hit it towards the middle of the fairway”. It’s more likely we say something like “I’m going to start the ball towards that tall tree on the horizon and draw it slightly back towards the darker shaded area on the centre left side of the fairway”.
I think the main benefit of doing this is that it prevents us having swing thoughts and encourages us to be more reactive in the way we swing it. Certainly the case for me anyway.