Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game

watched him compete. I played with him and modeled good thinking and listened to what he thought as he played golf. One day I visited his teaching pro, who informed me that Dave was hitting the ball inconsistently because he was getting “stuck” during his downswing.
    “He swings fine when I watch him,” his instructor said, “but when he goes out to practice, he goes right back to the old way.”
    In essence, Dave was spending his practice sessions reinforcing bad habits. The more he practiced, the more he got comfortable in a bad position. Knowing that it would take time to retread bad habits and acquire new, good habits, I suggested he rearrange his practice schedule to spend more time on his short game in order to alleviate the pressure to score with his longer clubs.
    The process of improvement began with hours of hitting balls in sessions of deliberate practice, attending to the mechanics and angles of the swing, and following William James’s maxims for habit development. After two months of intelligent and diligent practice, Dave finally put together a complete round of competitive golf and won his first tournament in a long time. He was thrilled, and when he came to see me he was extremely excited. He told me of all the fairways he’d hit, the putts he’d made, and the feeling of confidence that had finally returned.
    As I always do when my golfers are coming out of slumps, I revisited our initial question, “Why do you think you are playing the way you are playing? What is the cause of your good play these days?” I expected him to tell me that he was now hitting the ball better because he’d spent the past two months hitting balls constantly, even when it wasn’t fun to hit balls. I expected him to say that all the work and all the effort he’d put into his short game had paid off. I expected him to say that our sessions discussing habit formation, confidence, and peak performance had allowed him to make his practice time more effective. I expected to hear that he had gained an understanding of golf like never before. I was expecting internal, controllable attributions.
    But as has often been the case in my life of golf, I did not get what I expected.
    “I found,” he began “a little waggle that I do before I hit the ball. Instead of doing this.” He bounced the head of his club up and down twice vertically. “I do this,” he swayed his hips back and forth horizontally. “I waggle instead of wiggle.”
    “And that’s why you think you’re playing better?” I asked in disbelief. “Because of a new waggle!”
    “Yeah,” he said smiling.
    This instant was what we teachers call “teachable moments,” and I had to capitalize. If I had let him attribute his success to a waggle, he would go looking for future waggles to fix his play. He would continue to rely on random acts of luck chancing across his golf game.
    “Dave,” I began, “the reason why you are playing better is because you practiced intelligently five days a week. You are playing better because your short game is better. You are playing better because you hit balls in the rain. And I tell you this Dave, because at some point in the future, you will struggle again with your golf swing. All golfers do. And when that time comes, hard work and smart practice will bail you out. You can’t waggle your way through college golf and you certainly won’t waggle your way onto the PGA Tour. There is no magic bullet. Improvement is the function of a strong mind, careful practice, total dedication, and fearless play. All things at which you have improved. When neither your wiggle nor your waggle are working, these are the factors you have control over. These are what will determine your ultimate success in golf.”
    And with that, I patted him on the shoulder and told him I was proud of his progress. “And now,” I said, “go waggle your way to the practice green. Your chipping still has a ways to go.”

    the right attributions

    What then, are the “right” attributions that golfers should make? In short, the answer is “the correct attributions.” In other words, the best explanation for our successes and our failures at any endeavor are the “right” explanations for our successes and failures. The problem, however, as Sigmund Freud discussed long ago, is that failure engenders anxiety and success often breeds pride. Consequently, human beings have a tendency to provide highly inaccurate explanations for their