Golf Flow

16-time PGA Tour winner
It goes by so fast. Looking back on it, it feels like I teed it up on Thursday and played 72 straight holes. I signed my scorecard on 18 but just went to the next tee. While I am playing, it is more slow. Rhythmic. There is a lot of rhythm when you’re in the zone. My energy is even keel.
    Zach Johnson, 2007 Masters Champion, 9-time PGA Tour winner
It is when you are content with yourself and the way you are doing things. When I am in the zone, everything slows down. When I am not there, everything seems to be fast. It’s just . . . your thoughts seem fast and fleeting. They seem, a lot of things, when you are in the zone, you feel like everything is under control, everything is moving slow around you. To me, I seem to get that way more when I am content with what I am doing.
    Hal Sutton, 14-time PGA Tour winner
When I am in flow—in that sweet spot in time—everything kind of slows down. I feel very relaxed, very calm, very confident. I also see and feel shots come to me very quickly. No real swing thoughts, just kind of rhythm and timing. And again, everything just kind of seems to slow down a bit. I can’t believe when it’s over. I want to keep playing. Time goes by quickly even though you’re doing everything slow.
    Scott McCarron, 3-time PGA Tour winner
It feels slow. Slow, but not lethargic. The states themselves feel slow but not in a panicky type way. In a calm, relaxed way if you know what I mean.
    Charles Howell III, 3-time PGA Tour winner
    Despite attempts by golfers to explain it and theries put forth by scientists from various disciplines, there remains some variability in the scientific understanding of the transformation of time. Is there another dimension out there? Possibly. For now, it seems reasonable to say that the transformation of time is both a product and a producer of flow. Being in flow transforms how we experience time. Increasing our awareness of how we experience time increases the probability of getting into flow.
    When golfers are in flow, time seems to slow down—to get heavy, leisurely, gentle, and soft as if they have all the time in the world, or at least all the time they think they need. Laced throughout their descriptions is that this transformation of time is also related to the rhythm that they feel, as when Adam Scott observed his state of flow by saying, “I just sort of slide into it, and before I know it I have this great rhythm and focus.” These insights have the potential to provide great help for golfers, which we examine more closely in due course.

Chapter 2
Control
    Eight-time PGA Tour winner Adam Scott generated flow on Friday afternoon of the 2007 Memorial Tournament in beautiful Dublin, Ohio. During that round of golf he effortlessly birdied 9 of his first 12 holes. His 62 was 5 shots better than the next best golfer’s 67 and an astounding 11 shots better than the average of the field that day.
    To put this performance into perspective, the Memorial is one of four invitational tournaments on the PGA Tour to which only the best of the best are invited to play. That year the field included Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Chad Campbell, Heath Slocum, Camilo Villegas, Sean O’Hair, Justin Rose, Steve Stricker, and other dominant names. In short, 120 of the world’s best golfers played the same course that day, and Adam was 11 shots better than their collective scoring average of 73.
    Adam’s flow state allowed him to stand on the 16th tee at 10 under par, staring down the real possibility of shooting golf’s magical number of 59 on a challenging golf course. When he was later asked about what it felt like to play those 15 holes, Adam replied,
You have this rhythm in your body and you do everything right. I stood on the 12th tee and just swung an 8-iron and it finishes 10 feet. That’s not that easy of a shot. But that’s kind of how I do it when I’m going well. I have that much control it seems. Basically, I was just looking at my target and swinging the club and the ball goes there. I just try not to think too much about things and just hit it because the rhythm is just there.
    You see again that Adam alludes to the rhythm that we previously talked about. In addition he mentions the amount of control that he has over his shots when he’s going well. This notion is not uncommon. Golfers in flow often talk about feeling in total control of their game, able to stroke long downhill putts with perfect