Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

not to the teacher, but to what he or she is teaching you.

    MOOD: “I play well when I feel good.” . . . “I can’t seem to find my game when I’m in a lousy mood.”
    This is an
internal
,
unstable
,
uncontrollable
attribution. If you let your mood determine how you will play, you have forfeited control for your round. I’m not denying mood can clearly affect us. But in terms of executing positive swings at precise targets, your concentration, confidence, and self-efficacy have to exist independent of your mood. When you “can’t find your game,” you have to think about what your game should be. It should be focusing on the target, regardless of the circumstances. It’s what successful players have learned to build into their games so that whatever their mood, they can overcome it.

    how pga tour golfers
talk about attributions

    In the chapter on self-efficacy I explained how confidence is often rooted in the exercise of personal control. The more we believe we have control over events, the more confidence we have in our ability to achieve our goals. Indeed, whether it is to make it to the PGA Tour or to enjoy their recreational golf, golfers have developed coping habits that allow them to protect their confidence from the constant barrage of negativity, self-doubt, difficulty, and adversity built into golf. Certainly, most of that has to do with the way golfers frame their challenges, how they interpret praise and criticism, and how they deal with physiological arousal. Another reason that successful golfers are able to maintain their confidence in the face of failure and setbacks has to do with the attributions they make, specifically with the way they think of controllable versus uncontrollable attributions.

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    fatal attribution: mike weir

    In 2003, Mike Weir turned his golfing career around. After a dismal 2002 season, he came out in 2003 and had won three times before the end of April, including his first major championship, the 2003 Masters. To what did he attribute his newfound success? Although he could have attributed it to hard work, to new equipment, to luck, or to destiny, Mike simply attributed his new success to a new attitude. He said,

    Getting ready for this year, I got away from the game for a couple of months and just needed to reassess my passion for the game and why I was playing. I was beating myself up out there, and I am not doing that anymore. I am having more fun with my golf, which allows me to relax and freewheel it a little more. The results have been terrific.
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    Golf is a game where the line between the controllable and noncontrollable factors is not always clear. You can make the perfect mechanical stroke, and still miss a putt. You can make a great swing, and the wind can suddenly gust and blow your ball off-line. You can be thinking well and swinging well, and still not score well. Conversely, you can hit the ball poorly, get favorable bounces, and score well. These idiosyncrasies and fluctuations are built into the game, but, of course, they are built into all sports, aren’t they? As a consequence, it isn’t always easy to accurately determine when we are responsible for the scores we produce.
    Everyone interprets their view of the game from their own foundation. Golfers on the PGA Tour are no different. Because of their years of success at the highest level, they tend to overestimate the degree of control they can exercise. While on the one hand they tend to blame themselves for things they can’t control, they are also able to retain the control necessary for high confidence. Curtis Strange symbolizes a common bias of top golfers: “I always blame myself when I play badly, and credit myself when I play well. I was always the one who said it was my fault. I always kind of liked it that when I put my head on my pillow, I did it myself. You rely on yourself.”
    Once again, Jack Nicklaus serves as the model. I asked, “Jack, when competing in a tournament, against whom are you competing: yourself, a score, the field?”

    Mostly only me. I am the only one I can control. They will ask me, “Jack, you have a great field this week with Palmer, Player . . .” I say, “Oh, they are here playing this week? I didn’t know that.” Because, as a competitor trying to win the damn tournament, I couldn’t care less.
I am the only one I can control. I can’t control what they do
. I am here to prepare myself for this golf course to be ready to play on