Alright, so that is a bit of a click-bait topic, but I have a point. Shot visualization is incredibly important and all players should do it. The problem is that many many players are doing it in a very unhelpful way. They are visualizing THE shot instead of visualizing THEIR shot. Here’s an example:
The 12th at my home course is a nice Par 5 dogleg right. I can close my eyes right now and visualize a perfect 300yd baby-fade and having a real chance at getting home in two…
Problem is, I can’t hit a fade (much less a 300yd one), so not only is visualizing such unhelpful, it could be downright harmful as I might start setting up for a shot that is not mine. I hit a draw off the tee the vast majority of the time, so that’s what I need to picture. Even on holes set up horribly for a draw, I need to visualize where I can safely hit it.
So what do you think? Are you visualizing the shot or your shot?
Wow, this is perfectly said @CoryO I think I fall into the “visualizing the shot” definitely will work on visualizing my shot. Never even looked at it from this perspective.
I try to envision the best shot I can hit under the circumstances, taking into account the smart play and where to miss, but then I don’t focus on those misses, only on what the perfect shot that I’m capable of hitting looks like. I don’t think I would ever envision a shot I knew I couldn’t hit. I think I have the opposite problem: failing to truly believe in the vision of the perfect shot (again, that I know I can hit because I’ve hit before) and committing to it and instead letting my miss tendencies (like losing it to the right) or trouble (right ob up the left) nag at me and cloud my vision of the perfect shot I know I am capable of hitting.
There is a great thread on two plus two golf forum that was started by Scott fawcett back in the day about hitting your stock shot
One thing that I find helpful is to visualize a distance off the tee box… I usually get it out there 260 - 275 so I need to visualize that landing are and commit to a swing tempo
To your point, if my brain short circuits and I try and cut a corner or hit it an extra 25 yards really bad things happen
I’m sure either myself or someone else around here is going to start a thread on committing to a shot and accepting the results being essential to better scores soon! It’s another important concept.
I tend to visualize it in terms of what I can do or hope to do lol. I was having trouble from say 50 yards and in and realized that I wasn’t visualizing what I really wanted to do with the shot. I had a basic idea, but then I would focus on the flag instead of the landing spot and carry the ball too far. I started doing a lot better once I started focusing on where I wanted the ball to land.
I usually visualize a shot I can hit, but I also get sucked into the dream shot scenario sometimes. If I don’t pull off a realistic shot, it’s because I’m having second thoughts/thinking too much or the dreaded ball strike error 
Something useful, but really hard in practice, is accepting the result of the shot before you hit it. There really shouldn’t be anything “dreaded” if you approach each shot knowing that what will happen in the end will happen and can’t happen any other way.
I meant dreaded as in I do everything right up to the swing, but then top it, etc. The idea of the shot isn’t unsettling, it’s a poor execution of the swing that just happens sometimes. However, I will agree that if I maintain my focus all the way through the shot, then the likelihood of poor contact goes way down.
I like this concept of a landing area for driver, as without it the target is always subliminally the pin, causing a lot of us to over swing. Treat the drive like a tee shot on a par 3 to an imaginary flag in the fairway at your normal distance with good rhythm and timing. Of course, the bomb and gouge boys might be proving such an under control approach to be a thing of the past!
I know I need to get better at visualizing period. I know it is a huge reason why pros are pros. They know exactly what the intend to do 100% and dont sway from that at all. So I’m still trying to start the process of visualizing and committing to every shot.
MY shot. There is a short par 3, you hit off a hill onto another hill 30 ft below, green is small and sloping. Fondest wish is for a hole in one, but in many years the course has posted only ONE of them! So I focus on a safe spot on the green, hit the 3 (forward tee, it’s 105 yards) and try not to top it. Made par once, but again, beginner here.
I have never been able to consistently visualize my shot. I quit trying.
Understandable. Do you have some sort of “predictive action” built into your routine? Non-visual people may not benefit from and have difficulty visualizing the shot, but there might be something like rehearsing the impact path or even what you want the shot to sound like might work better with your thinking style.
I don’t but it sounds like a good idea.
I’m pretty much the same way. I have a good idea what my usual shot is for each club and play for that.
Such a great point, thank you for the reminder!
I don’t visualize my full shots but I know what my shape will be before I hit. With all my full shots I aim well right aiming at the trees and and draw/overdraw back to the middle. Chipping I picture where I need to land according to how much roll I will get and then focus on landing on that spot. 275 rounds this year. 51 chip in’s.
As silly as it might seem… Both.
I “see” the shot I’d like to hit … like maybe in the distant future when I’m a much better golfer … but then like in a movie dream sequence that vision gets abruptly shattered … and I reset myself and visualize the high percentage shot that I can hit
(…but I can still dream, can’t I? 
)
If you can’t dream, what’s the point? 