One of the things that made my recent personal best even sweeter was that it happened in round that took 5 hours to play.
We had waits on almost every tee and at one point, we were the third group to arrive at a par 5 that was particularly reachable that day (downwind).
Until not too long ago, that was a situation *guaranteed* to make me hit a lot of bad shots. I'd get up to my ball, assess the shot, pick a club...
...and then stand there taking too many practice swings and thinking about it over and over; paralysis.
Now, it's different. When play is slow, I get to the tee (or if in the fairway, find my ball), and I turn off golf. I don't start thinking about my shot until I have only a minute or so until my turn to play -- unless I can just assess something simple like whether to go straight ahead or pitch it out sideways.
But I *never* actually as much as picture the shot. I wait until I'm in that one minute zone which I'd take if this were a completely open course and *then* I pull on my glove...
...and that tells me it's time to play again.
Until then, I'll chat with the group or enjoy the day some other way. If I'm waiting a long time at the tee, I'll pull out a wedge and practice chipping. It keeps your chipping sharp, but it also helps you to keep your rhythm. Somehow, hitting the next drive is easier after hitting a dozen nice easy chips.
