Golf Flow

habit of working toward goals. The habit of excellence that Aristotle referenced is a habit of mind that will enhance both your golf game and your life!
    On the final hole of the 1950 U.S. Open, in one of the most storied shots in golf history, Ben Hogan flushed a 1-iron that led to his eventual victory that year. Hogan later made the following observation:
The view I take of that shot is markedly different from the view most spectators seem to have formed. They are inclined to glamorize the actual shot since it was hit in a pressureful situation. They tend to think of it as something unique in itself, something almost inspired, you might say, since the shot was just what the occasion called for. I don’t see it that way at all. I didn’t hit that shot then—that late afternoon at Merion. I’d been practicing that shot since I was 12 years old. After all, the point of tournament golf is to get command of a swing which, the more pressure you put on it, the better it works.
    In this statement, Hogan brilliantly captured the marriage of mind and body that emerges from effective, careful, deliberate practice. He further illustrates Jack Nicklaus’ belief that golf tournaments are won before they are ever played. You may not be playing for PGA championships, but if you’ve bought this book, then you love the game of golf and you’re trying to improve at it. Take a page out of Hogan’s playbook and practice properly for whatever challenges you face. The more care that you take in developing your habits, the more likely it is that they will be reliable when you need them.

Chapter 6
Mastery Orientation to Keep Ego in Check
    As Jack Nicklaus described, flow is that state of effortless action that we feel when everything is going just right. But as I’ve discussed in this book, flow states rarely just happen out of the blue. More commonly, they are the product of a constellation of psychological and physical factors that come together in an emergent manner, which is why flow is as much something that we have to
let
happen as
make
happen.
    The first step in the process that leads to flow begins with the reasons that golfers choose to play the game. Whenever golfers come to visit me for the first time or pull me aside to ask my advice, I typically first ask them to explain why they play golf. It’s really not a trick question. In fact, it is rather straightforward. Despite the simplicity of the question, however, many golfers have a remarkably difficult time explaining why they play golf.
    Great golfers, on the other hand, never have difficulty answering that question. They are crystal clear about why they play golf. As the legendary Jack Nicklaus remarked, “I had no visions in my head of fans and trophies. Basically I sought three things from the game: to improve at it, to compete at it, and to
win
at it.” Tiger Woods plays the game “to be the best I can be, to challenge myself, and to win every single time I tee it up.” Golf’s pioneering proponent of
kaizen
, the Japanese term for continuous, incremental improvement, Ben Hogan, said, “I don’t like the glamour. I just like the game.” Clearly, each of these gifted golfers was driven to win, but it is the desire to master the game, to be challenged by it, and to improve at it that causes champions to fall in love with it.
    As I often explain to golfers, if you can find clarity regarding your motivation in the game, you’ll be able to unlock a significant portion of the psychological mystery that surrounds golf and overcome many of the psychological obstacles of the game. The nature of a golfer’s achievement goal orientation determines whether she or he will be able to remain calm and focused under pressure or become edgy and nervous. Not to be confused with the more popular outcome goals that answer
what
a person wants to achieve, achievement goals focus on the
why
that drives behavior.
    Because seamless thinking and a quiet mind characterize flow states, achievement goals provide clarity about a person’s motivation. Conflicted motivation results in conflicted thinking, whereas clarity of motivation sets the stage for peak performance and ultimately for flow. Therefore, before reading any further, you should ask yourself that simple question that I pose to all golfers: Why do you play golf?
    Take a moment to write down your answers. If you’ve written, “Because it’s fun,” then push yourself a bit further and ask, “Why is it fun?” If you