Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

running down the left fairway of the par 5, Davis ripped a 315-yard drive down the middle and then hit a 4-iron onto the green for a two-putt birdie. How was he able to hit such great shots in such a demanding situation? The answer is that he wasn’t playing the situation. He was playing the shot, and thinking about a target.

    I saw what Tom [Lehman] was doing, sure. And I was nervous. But when I was on the 18th tee I was focused on the point on the skylight on the tent on the right side of the fairway. That was my target. I was trying my hardest to focus on the target, not the situation. And after that, once I had my target, just trying to make a fearless swing.

    Standing on the tee box, the situation tried to force Davis’s mind into bad, ego-oriented questions about the situation such as, Why am I nervous? What if I hit into the water? What if I lose the tournament? However, his discipline, training, and experience allowed him to shrug off those negative thoughts and focus on a target. He decided instead to focus his mind on a target that, at that point, was the top of a sponsor’s tent in the distance. Asking himself, What is my target?, Davis then made a fearless golf swing at his target resulting in a perfect drive that he followed up with a perfect second shot into the par 5 for a two-putt birdie, and his first professional win in three years.
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    Everyone has heard about the “back of the mind.” Golfers often say things like, “I was trying to concentrate on making the putt, but in the back of my mind I was thinking ‘Don’t push it.’” The achievement orientations that I discuss in this chapter often constitute those things that creep into the back of a golfer’s mind. So, if you are one of those golfers who has distracting thoughts that lead to hesitation or apprehension, read closely. Identify your own achievement orientations and you can unravel a significant part of the psychological mystery that plagues many golfers who come undone on the course.
    Let’s have a close look at this psychological process that psychologists consider critical to human motivation. Achievement goal orientations—the underlying reasons why golfers play golf—can be separated into two main categories: mastery orientation and ego orientation. Only one of these approaches will work regardless of the circumstances, only one will work for any golfer regardless of ability, only one will make it possible to play fearless golf.

    mastery golf

    Golf to me is a livelihood in doing the thing that I love to do. I don’t like the glamour. I just like the game.
    —B EN H OGAN

    People who have a mastery orientation toward an activity engage in that activity because they want to continually learn, refine, and master it regardless of their level of expertise. Guided by the constant striving to improve their skills and do things better each time, mastery-oriented people are driven to elevate their abilities to new levels. In the world of golf, this means that golfers approach the game as a challenge that allows for the sustained refinement of skills.

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    words of a champion: tiger woods,
2000 u.s. open

    Tiger Woods’s career of incredible accomplishments may be forever unmatched by his 15-stroke victory in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Woods finished at an unheard of score of 12 under par at a championship where a score of even par is usually the goal of the championship committee. Woods began the final day with the trophy well in hand, leading by ten shots. He could have played the final round with a lack of focus or intensity, but that is not how Tiger Woods plays the game. He played the final round without making a bogey, including a gritty fifteen-footer for par at the sixteenth hole that on the surface was relatively meaningless. But that’s the focus of a man playing fearless golf. His comments to the media reveal the focus of a champion:

    I told Stevie [Williams, Tiger’s caddie] walking up 18, there comes a point in time when you feel tranquil, when you feel calm. You feel at ease with yourself. For some reason, things just flowed. And no matter what you do, good or bad, it really doesn’t get to you. Even the days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, for some reason, it doesn’t feel too bad; it’s just all right.

    That feeling comes with confidence, of course, a true sense of self-efficacy that is unwavering and consistent, whether you’re on the practice range or eighteenth