Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

the greatest player of all time recognizes that ongoing work is required just to keep his place in the game and to overcome the fear born out of inconsistency, isn’t there something to be said for the importance of silencing our own fears through meaningful practice? You can’t hope to play your best if you don’t do the work. Even the most talented player ever admits as much.
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    While golfers may not have much control over how well they are striking the ball on any given day, they have reasonable control over how they prepare for a tournament. A key pattern among great professionals is that they allow their confidence to be grounded in things over which they have control (themselves, preparation, effort) rather than things over which they have no control (other players, course conditions, weather conditions, slow play). Similarly, top players are careful to attribute their success on the back end to these same controllable things.

    the psychology of attributions

    In 2003, Davis Love III had won three tournaments by the end of April. After winning the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass with a closing round 64, he attributed his success to a number of things. Davis explained, “I am now chasing my own potential. Rather than chasing Greg Norman or Tiger, I am chasing my own potential.” In addition to attributing his success to better mental preparation, he also explained how a visit with Scotty Cameron had resulted in a new putter. Davis attributed his success to mechanical and psychological improvements.
    Over the years, tour players have attributed their wins and losses to a variety of things, but in the majority of cases of golfers at the highest level, the way they evaluate and examine past performances directly—and positively—impacts their future performances. Whether it’s recognizing that an equipment change was an important missing piece of the puzzle, or a need to refocus on lag putting or a recognition that they did not have enough experience to deal with the emotions, what’s consistent in these attributions is a commitment to moving forward while being educated by the past.
    The question thus becomes, What are good attributions? Since attributions are based on beliefs, they won’t always be accurate. People fall into definite attributional patterns, so what do I look for as a psychologist? I look for those things that psychologists have identified as patterns of adaptive attributions that are characteristic of successful people.
    When listening to the attributions that golfers make, psychologists first look for the
accuracy
of the attribution. When a golfer says he played badly because he had no confidence, it is essential to discover whether that is the actual reason why he played badly. It is usually difficult to narrow down a single cause of golfing performance. Just as important as accurate attributions are the patterns that golfers tend to fall into when talking about golf.
    In general, attributions for success and failure have three characteristics:

    1. Stability. The causes of outcomes are stable (fixed over time) or unstable (variable over time).

    2. Locus. The causes of outcomes are internal (due to the individual) or external (due to factors outside the individual).

    3. Controllability. The causes of outcomes are controllable or uncontrollable.

    These attributional characteristics are important to golfers. Research suggests that athletes who have a tendency to attribute their performance to
controllable
factors (effort, preparation, mental and physical skills, etc.) rather than to
uncontrollable
factors (luck, weather, etc.) typically perform better in the long run. In the example at the start of this chapter, recall John Ottrell’s attributions for a poor round. “Maybe I don’t have the ability to play at this level,” John ultimately suggested. He was telling me that his poor play resulted from internal (“
I
can’t do it”) and stable (unlike effort, ability is permanent) factors that he could not control (ability is inborn). He found this most unsettling. I was able to help him see that a better and more accurate attribution was the likely cause of his problem: his preparation. Note that preparation is also internal (
I
prepare), but it can vary over time and is indeed controllable. The more that golfers can accurately attribute their performances to factors over which they have control, the better chance they have of maintaining their confidence, and