Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

tradition, but for me I really just wanted to play the course, learn about it, and test it out.

    Jack was not interested in the rumor mill, predictions about who would win, or the personal affairs of other golfers. He was not really caught up in the people, prestige, or history of tournaments called The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Amateur. His mind was squarely focused on the grass fairways, greens, and conditions of golf courses called Augusta National and Pebble Beach. That is mastery golf epitomized. Mastery golf, as you will find below, is the beginning of the path to fearless golf.

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    jonathan byrd on a lifelong focus

    Second-year PGA Tour player and 2002 Rookie of the Year Jonathan Byrd highlights the upcoming class of “young guns” with his mastery approach to the game. Despite struggling with injury and recovering from surgery in 2003 and early 2004, Byrd put himself in contention in the middle of 2004. His solid focus led to consistent shot-making down the stretch of the B.C. Open and a one-stroke victory. An excerpt from one of our recent conversations shows that Jonathan—much like his hero Ben Hogan—is the classic profile of a mastery golfer in the making.

    BYRD: I think in middle school and high school I liked a lot of different sports but golf was something I latched on to. I liked practicing by myself. I didn’t mind after school just going until dark and practicing. It was just something I liked to do and that is the biggest reason . . . it is cliché I guess . . . but love of the game. I love to practice. I love to get better. And ever since second grade the process of learning new shots, or learning how to hit flop shots, or just learning how to do something technically better is the biggest reason I like to play golf. Just getting better in all aspects of the game is so fun.

    DR. VALIANTE: Hogan said tournaments were anticlimactic to practice.

    BYRD: I agree. I like the work better. I think the work is the most satisfying. Like last year, winning that golf tournament was like icing on the cake. But I didn’t need it. I didn’t need to win to know that I was getting better. I could see it and feel it in my practice.

    VALIANTE: What is it about that process you like so much?

    BYRD: You’re just perfecting something. You are never going to perfect it but you are getting closer to it. You are learning. You are getting better. You’re learning new shots. Your swing is getting technically better and just getting really good at something is really satisfying regardless of who I beat or where I finish.
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    Becoming better at anything, whether it’s golf or business or teaching or rocket science, always begins with asking the right questions. Let me then ask you a simple question: Why do you play golf? Take a moment to write down what you believe are the primary reasons why you play golf. Be sure to list them in order of importance. Believe it or not, understanding the implications behind the answer to this simple question can help you improve your golf game more than additional lessons or new clubs.
    Looking at your list, the reasons you came up with are probably similar to the reasons provided by most golfers. If you are a professional or aim to be one, you love the game and enjoy the competition, and you enjoy the feeling of knowing you’re so good at something, perhaps even better than most others. You love to win. If you’re a professional golfer, chances are that your underlying motives for playing with members of your own family are not the same as those for competing against your friends or competing in an important tournament.

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    the search for
kaizen

    In business, there is a fascination these days with the Japanese word “
kaizen
.” It is used in business terms to apply to the idea of an intense effort to improve a process or system by eliminating all nonessential elements as waste. Directly translated from the Japanese,
kaizen
is a simpler concept but more vital to the development of the fearless golfer. Specifically,
kaizen
is the idea of continual, measured improvement, regardless of performance. That last phrase is essential. This is what defines a mastery golfer. The mastery golfer is not discouraged by an initial lack of success, rather he is excited at the prospect of the challenge. Mastery golfers who demonstrate
kaizen
get lost in the details, puzzles, and mysteries of the game, and they see their task as mastering those details and