Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

relative to other golfers lies in the fact that you have no control over how other golfers will play on a given day. Imagine shooting a 71 and losing your confidence because your playing partner on that given day shot the round of his life with a 68! When we root our control in the performances of other golfers, what we are in a sense doing is giving them control of our confidence. If our opponent hits a good shot, our confidence may suffer a blow. If he hits a bad shot, we may feel more confident because we are closer to beating him. But as time passes, a scale of our confidence begins to look like a NASDAQ stock ticker, very high at some times and low at others, all based on factors over which we have no control. All in all, there is no quicker way to undermine a sense of personal efficacy than to frame golf as a game between yourself and another player. Golf is a game that has to be thought of as a competition between a golfer and himself, and a golfer and the golf course on which he is playing. While it is often useful to use other golfers as referential comparisons to understand how easy or difficult a course is playing, or to gauge one’s own progress, one should always guard against relying too heavily on other people’s performances to inform their own sense of confidence. Rather, golf progress should always be measured against self-set goals and self-set expectations. At the end of the day a golfer’s confidence should be rooted in his ability to pick targets and make fearless swings at those targets regardless of who he is playing with, and how well they may (or may not) be playing.
    To understand the importance of rooting your confidence in your own play relative to the golf course rather than in relation to other golfers, recall the 1998 Masters in which David Duval shot a final round 67. After the round, all the media could focus on was how he came up a stroke short of the win. All the media could focus on was the loss. David Duval responded, “I just shot 67 on a very difficult golf course on Sunday at the Masters. It would have been great to win but I am not at all disappointed in myself. I played great today.”
    Hopefully you are able to see in this passage not only great framing but also the import of viewing golf as a game between a golfer and the golf course, and using self-referential standards as a measure of success. Had David viewed his performance as poor and had he interpreted the experience simply as a “loss,” then his sense of efficacy may have suffered a blow. Instead he left confident in his ability to go low on Sunday at a major, a thought which bolstered his confidence and no doubt was instrumental in his 2001 victory at the British Open three years later.
    Because golf is a social sport that is not played in isolation, it is often difficult to focus exclusively on oneself and the course. The best remedy for this remains a golfer’s ability to get lost in playing a golf course. Toward that end Hogan used his practice sessions to “cultivate the habit of concentration.” Consequently, his concentration on the course became so intense that he was often completely oblivious to many of the things around him. One time during the British Open he was asked whether a passing train bothered him as he stood over a putt. He replied, “What train?”
    While the habit of concentrating on the course remains the best remedy for limiting the influence of vicarious factors, the best method of doing so is different for every golfer. Much of the success I’ve had helping golfers of all levels has boiled down to teaching them to teach themselves to ask the right questions as they play. Asking “What is the best strategy for this hole?” and “What is my target?” focuses golfers’ attention on the course and on the shot which, in turn, means that they do not focus on other golfers and their performance.
    One of the most fundamental and common mistakes that golfers make is to let the situation frame who their competition is. Situations vary constantly and golfers who let the situation frame their mindset find themselves often more involved in other players, their score, the gallery, playing partners, perceived impression they are making on someone, prestige, or what they don’t want to do with the ball (rather than what they do want to do). They take their minds off of hitting shots at targets, and take their minds off playing the golf course and instead they think about other golfers