There is good news. You all are doing exactly what you are trying to do. My experience of watching miles of video tape has convinced me that we are thinking about the ball. And I've never seen anyone, in my short 10,000-lesson career, look up.
After several sessions (from 10 to 10,000) at the driving range trying to focus on the ball, you decide to take a golf lesson. You come out of the golf lesson with some new ideas, and hopefully a new perspective. But when you try the new approach the next day, you hit several awful shots, worse than ever. Your next move is what will put my kids through college. You abandon the idea of feeling something new, because you need the instant gratification of seeing that the new approach is working. So you go back to thinking about the ball. You come back to the next lesson, and nothing has changed. Of course nothing has changed, you decided to think about the ball again.
You need something to think about. Would you rather make solid contact, or have your ball go to the target? I'll give you a hint: pros don't always hit it solid. Think about the goal. The goal is the target.
