Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

now. If I’d won already this year I’d give you a 90, but that self-doubt is there a little bit because I haven’t quite gotten the job done when I’ve had the opportunity. The difference between 80 and 95 is that, when your confidence is that high, you believe that nothing can happen that will keep you from playing well.
And I mean nothing
. You can run out of gas on the way to the golf course, and it is as if that was part of the plan. Running out of gas doesn’t phase you. Nothing does. When your confidence is that high, even if you hit a bad shot—which I’d be surprised if you did—but no question about it, you would bounce back quickly. You would think of those mistakes differently and tell yourself “Ah, you can expect a couple of those. I better try to make some birdies,” rather than telling yourself, “Here we go again” or “How could you have made that mistake?” When you’re confident, mistakes don’t affect you really. They just don’t linger. Confidence protects you from that, and from making things linger.

    I played with a guy this week and he hit it out of bounds on number 7, and made double. He never recovered from it. He was in a bad mood for the whole round. Even after a birdie, he was still upset. He never recovered. When you’re confident, you recover. Recovery is key out here because while you’re dwelling on your screwup, another guy is thinking how he’s gonna make birdie.
----

    Going back to the chapter on mastery and ego, helping golfers is a function of first getting their minds focused on the task at hand (playing golf shots to specific targets, one at a time) rather than on acting in an effort to live up to or enhance a certain self-image. The next step is often teaching them skills and nurturing their confidence to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of mastering their task.
    If athletes could think any way they wanted and still play their best game, winning would be determined by skill and effort alone. We all know this is not the case as more confident golfers routinely outperform those who are technically and mechanically better. For instance, no one really doubts that generally Ernie Els has a set of swing skills superior to Todd Hamilton’s. But Todd Hamilton won the 2004 British Open playoff. There are plenty of reasons why Hamilton won, but the biggest and arguably the most undeniable might have been that he believed he could. Also, there are countless golfers across America with driving-range skills comparable to those of many Tour players but who are missing the key element required to execute those skills when it counts in competition. Indeed, once sound mechanics are in place, it is the mind that divides golfers into different groups.

----
    words of a champion: jack nicklaus, 1986 masters

    Jack Nicklaus knows a thing or two about the importance of self-efficacy. He may not specifically know it as such, but it’s always been a part of his makeup. Look no further than the 1986 Masters. Nicklaus birdied six of the last nine holes, shot a final round 65, and won his eighteenth major by one stroke because he approached the back nine with a profound belief in his ability to win.

    Winning on golf’s biggest stage at forty-six was as much about confidence and self-efficacy as it was about talent.

    In the final analysis, there is no question that a genuine belief in yourself is the top requirement for winning golf tournaments. There have been many players who have possessed all of the attributes necessary to win with the single exception of sufficient confidence in themselves. An inner certitude about one’s abilities is a golfer’s primary weapon, if only because it is the strongest defense against the enormous pressures the game imposes once a player is in a position to win. Golf’s gentlemanly code requires that you hide self-assuredness very carefully. But hide it or not, you’ll never go very far without it.
    (Nicklaus,
My Story
)
----

    One of the most important ways the mind influences golfing performance is by creating and regulating the beliefs that guide human behavior. Of all the beliefs that golfers can develop, none is more important than their belief in their ability to hit the shots required to shoot the scores they want to shoot when it matters most. These beliefs are referred to as
golf self-efficacy beliefs
.
    Now, of course, it is one thing to talk about Tour-level ability. But what of you and your game? Think about your