Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

even on their own score. While watching his pursuers falter on Sunday as Tiger won the 2002 Masters, Jack Nicklaus insightfully observed,

    They [other golfers] were playing Tiger when they should have played the golf course. I think it was quite obvious that they were trying to do things that they shouldn’t be trying to do. And they found themselves all of a sudden trying to do things, instead of playing the course and playing their game, they’re looking at a leaderboard trying to play somebody else. Tiger played his own game. And that’s the way you play this game. You play the golf course. You play the game.

    Ben Hogan’s name has become synonymous with excellence, dedication, and concentration. The man they called “the Hawk” relentlessly focused on the task of zeroing in on a completely flawlessly reliable swing. Among the more memorable quips attributed to him over the years was his assessment that “there are not enough hours in the day to practice all the shots you need to be great,” and “any day spent not practicing . . .” His mind was constantly occupied with the variables that might influence the golf shot. In other words, his battles were always personal, always between himself and the course or himself and the swing.
    Why is a mastery approach so critical to ultimately being able to play fearless golf? Well, in a large way, that’s what this book is about. But to understand it simply, think of the task of playing your best golf as you would having to make a 500-mile car trip. If you were to focus on the monotony or the ten hours of traffic jams or the simple inconvenience of driving 500 miles, the enormity of it might prevent you from getting in the car in the first place. But if you focused instead on the act of driving one mile 500 times, the task doesn’t seem so overwhelming, or seems at least a little more doable. The key is to let your mind get lost in the process. To reverse an old parable, to play fearless golf you have to focus on the trees and lose sight of the forest. The mastery golfer gets consumed with the task of executing shots, not with the prospect of breaking 90 or shooting 65. The score is merely an aftereffect of an attention to the details of playing the golf course.

----
    mickelson and mastery vs. ego

    Phil Mickelson is widely acknowledged as one of the most talented golfers in golf. But prior to his Masters victory in 2004, he had routinely been characterized as a player who could not rally at the truly big moments. Phil’s remarks from his performance at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black suggest that he sometimes falls into the category of a golfer who plays with an eye to beating other players, shooting scores, and where he stands in relation to the field. Because he is so talented, this mindset works well enough to have won him twenty tournaments, and a lifetime exemption on Tour. Nonetheless, is it ideal?

    Before the 2001 Masters, Phil said he would like to win the Masters in order to “become part of the history of the game.” This is a mindset that is ego-oriented and outcome focused rather than mastery and process focused. However, once he abandons that thinking and focuses on himself and the course, things sometimes change. At the 2002 U.S. Open he shot scores of 70, 73, 67, 70. His best round of 67 came only after he thought he’d shot himself out of the tournament, at which point here’s what he said (the emphasis is mine, but the intent of his words is clear):

    The last thing on my mind was trying to get in contention to win this tournament because even if I get it back, if Tiger goes out and shoots three or four under par, it wouldn’t make any difference. But I was able to not worry about what the leaders were doing, and try to get my round back to even par. Just play the golf course.
----

    ego golf

    In contrast to mastery golfers, ego golfers are primarily guided by their desire either to appear competent in front of other people or to avoid looking incompetent. The defining features of golfers who possess an ego orientation include a concern with appearing capable, demonstrating superior ability relative to others, and being motivated to play well to show off for others. But there is another, more insidious, side to an ego orientation. The driving force of many ego golfers is not simply to demonstrate their ability and receive the approval of others, but to avoid at all costs being embarrassed by a poor performance. Such golfers