Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

the biggest circle, and he’s gonna take out his bag of golf tricks and show you how he can use ’em. This kid ain’t afraid of excelling.”

    From his words at his press conference that day, he was ready to persevere. He was aware of the moment, but he wasn’t about to be overwhelmed by it.

    You know, I told my folks last night that I’d come back from way back before.

    I never thought there was too much golf course. The guys who were hitting it solid were going to do well, and the guys with the strongest mental outlook were the ones that were going to do well. You have to hit the shots. You have to stay patient, realize you’re going to make some bogeys.

    I had a good warm-up session today, and it is so great to walk off the range feeling good, without really any swing thoughts. I was just going out trying to hit golf shots.

    I think the difference has been my belief in myself, the confidence that I carry. If I’m playing well, it keeps building and there’s more belief in myself and believing that I can come through in a really tough and clutch situation.
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    For the psychologically weak golfer, even slight mistakes often trigger a downward spiral. Focusing on a mistake leads to thinking about hitting a bad shot. A mind occupied with thinking about hitting a bad shot invariably leads the body to actually hit a bad shot. Bad shots often lead to anger and frustration, which lead to obsession with the bad shot, which prevents focus on the subsequent shot. The cycle is endless as one calamity simply leads to another. Like a nuclear reaction, the downward spiral feeds on itself. Prophecy fulfilled. And the instigator for all this mayhem can easily be one wrong reaction to a single poor shot. As Ernie Els admitted,
“When you’re out there and on the verge, it doesn’t take much to undo you if you’re mentally weak. It really doesn’t.”
    Two things are evident in the way that PGA Tour golfers describe their self-efficacy. First, they indicate that strong confidence serves as a buffer against the pressure and fear that tend to overwhelm less confident golfers in the face of intimidating conditions. Second, champion golfers define self-efficacy by what it
is not
as much as by what it
is
. Confident golfers are able to see shots and hit shots automatically without thinking; those who lack confidence sense danger from the start, and even the most remote hazard can be enough to trigger apprehension and fear. A mastery approach to golf reduces the number of situations that golfers perceive as threatening and, therefore, as fearful.
    Recreational golfers are not faced with the prospects of competing against world-class competitors in front of thousands of fans and a national television audience. Even so, they commit the critically unnecessary error of dwelling on their errors to a much greater degree than do professional golfers on the PGA Tour, who obviously have a whole lot more at stake. And, as we’ve discussed, the more focused you remain on the bad shot you’ve already hit (“How could I have made that mistake?”), the less focused you are on the upcoming shot you need to hit (“What’s my target?”).

    Confidence Drill: Green Freedom

    Anyone who has played basketball is familiar with the round-the-horn drill, where a player keeps shooting jump shots while working his way around the outside of the key with another player grabbing the rebounds and immediately feeding him a pass. What’s impressive to me about this drill is how the player simply reacts to the target (the basket) and shoots, and how easy it is for him to find a rhythm and make shot after shot.
    This same mentality can be brought to the practice putting green. I often have players I work with move around the green making putts from different locations at a rapid pace. What they need to be feeling is that same sensation basketball players learn of seeing the target and hitting the putt. By moving from putt to putt, a golfer learns to abandon all conscious thought, to simply rely on instinct and timing. The challenge is to build that sensation into your regular putting routine. It’s what we see in the putting routine of a Davis Love III or an Aaron Baddeley. Each takes a final look at the target, then returns his eyes to the ball and without hesitating makes the stroke.
    Automatic, thoughtless, efficient reaction to the target should be your goal. Practicing that feeling can help instill it in your mind for game