Golf Flow

and be comfortable that you know what to do in a given situation. Preparation, practice, and learning are the prerequisites for playing fearless golf.
    Having worked through the process, you are ready to tackle fear head on and set an explicit goal to ingrain the habit of fearlessness. The first step is to understand that the fear response is an automated thing and that your goal is to handle this response better over time. So, while being fully prepared for the difficulty of your task, your assignment is this: Immerse yourself in a type of situation that typically makes you feel inhibited or fearful on a golf course. If tournaments cause you to feel afraid, sign up for a tournament with the sole intention of learning how your body and mind react under pressure. If you’ve choked while playing with your boss, invite him or her to play again. If you’ve dunked four balls into the water on the 11th hole during your regular weekend tournament, sign up again and eagerly anticipate that hole. The best way to play fearless golf is to immerse yourself regularly in situations that trigger fear, learn how your body responds, and learn how to take control of your rhythm, tension, and ability to react with humor and acceptance.
    You should also revisit a recurring theme in this book—practicing how to control your focus. If you’re afraid to play with your boss, after you’ve set up a tee time, try your best to play the golf course rather than your boss. Practice the habit of concentrating on the golf course rather than your boss’s approval. If you feel yourself being evaluated by him or her, restructure your self-talk to ask yourself mastery questions. Shift from asking, “How am I appearing to my boss?” to asking, “What’s the best way to play this hole? What’s my target?” Keep defaulting to your fearless golf routine. Remember that the routine I’ve outlined in this book has been designed for precisely this situation. The opening breath will help lower your tension levels, the questions about your strategy and target will focus your attention on the golf course rather than your fear triggers, acceptance of the outcome of the shot will minimize the fear-enhancing pain being driven into your psyche, and the closing breath will counter the lights and music that quicken rhythm and increase tension levels.
    After the experience is over, record the feelings that you had. Did you focus on grip pressure and rhythm? How did it turn out? Were you disciplined in your routine? If not, make that your goal the next time. In other words, the most important thing about this experience is not necessarily how you felt during it as much as what you are able to learn afterward. If you react like a mastery golfer and focus on the learning experience that you just had, you will have taken an important first step toward learning how to play fearless golf.
    Having traveled with golfers as long as I have, I can tell you that there is no substitute for the type of direct experience that comes when you are scared on a golf course. Most people have the instinct to want to run away from or flee these types of unpleasant situations. But as every experienced winner in the game of golf will tell you, they are the most valuable teachers. You should immerse yourself in as many of them as you can, from the learning perspective of a mastery golfer, and have the goal of executing your routine in rhythm.

References
    Quotations included in the text that are not listed here are from http://www.asapsports.com or personal correspondence.
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