Golf Flow

have been trained to pay attention to detail, and they’ve learned that carelessness in golf can mean the difference between a positive and negative outcome. To some extent, the compulsion to control is a big part of a striving athlete’s makeup and success. This attribute makes it all the more difficult for accomplished golfers to relinquish the control that they rely on.
    But as Sun Tzu teaches, all strengths can also be weaknesses, and this is nowhere more evident than in the metric of control. The urge to control every aspect of the game can often lead to a type of overcontrol that sets the stage for performance paralysis. Golfers who come to me in this state often describe their game as if they are living in a self-created psychological straightjacket.
    Can people like this give up control and surrender themselves to the experience? Yes. And just as striving for total control over everything in their lives leads athletes down the path to excellence, when they learn to let go, they get into flow and are able to have greater control over their golf shots.

Golf Like a NASCAR Driver
    Many professional golfers talk with familiarity and reverence about NASCAR drivers. Because they understand that mistakes in racing end up in dangerous and race-ending crashes rather than mere bogeys, they admire the way that NASCAR drivers performing at the highest speeds must trust their unconscious minds to react rather than vainly try to keep up with conscious thinking. Roberto Castro, who in 2007 won the Byron Nelson Award for being the nation’s top golfer while a senior at Georgia Tech, alluded to that metaphor when he was playing well.
    Roberto visualizes a racecar going around the curve with two wheels up, just barely. Two wheels are on the inside curve, and two wheels are off the ground. To win the race, you’ve got to be willing to risk pushing it to the edge. The thrill, as Tom Watson said, is that you don’t know whether you can hold it. But that’s the thrill! The fine line in golf is that you’re going all in on your shots, trying to be fearless without being reckless, and maintaining confidence in the face of a humbling game. It is in this zone of proximity where the flow state hides, waiting to be gently, discerningly beckoned.
    Other golfers also use the racing metaphor when they describe golf. When they overcontrol the game, the disastrous metaphors are telling: “I was steering the ball around,” “I was squeezing the wheel too tight,” “I was holding on too tight,” and “I couldn’t let it go” are phrases that I often hear from professionals and amateurs alike. Obviously, this counterproductive kind of control is precisely the type of mind-set that golfers need to learn how to prevent.
    I talk more about how to prevent this obsessive focus on control in later chapters, but for now it may be helpful to listen to the voices of those who have made it a lifelong vocation to explore the finest details of the game. Here are some examples of how top golfers describe the flow experience when they are finally able to relinquish control.
It tells you what to do. You don’t have to think about it. You certainly can’t control it so you go along for the ride.
    David Toms, 13-time PGA Tour winner, 2001 PGA champion
You go back to the basic fundamentals you’ve been working on. You just focus on those and go ahead and trust it and make a good swing. I guess in a way it happens so fast you have to give that control away a little bit and go ahead and trust it.
    Jim Furyk, 16-time PGA Tour winner, 2003 U.S. Open champion
One of my keys is to give up control to gain control. When I’m swinging, just go ahead and get it up and swing and hit it. More often than not, it’s going to go where I am looking. If I try to control a shot too much, to keep it in the fairway or keep it in bounds, my body gets tense, my muscles tense, and I don’t make a flowing swing.
    Scott McCarron, 3-time PGA Tour winner
You have to give up, free yourself up a lot. Say to yourself, “I have worked hard, I know what I have to do, and I am good at it, now I am going to let myself go do it.” It is hard to let yourself play golf, especially when your confidence is low. For me, I have to sometimes give myself permission to relax and go play.
    Davis Love III, 20-time PGA Tour winner
When we get it in golf, I am out here 200 yards from the green, but I know where my ball is going to go and I know how it is going to get there. And there