Golf Flow

themselves relative to others, be they a tournament field, their business colleagues, or even their friends and family.
    The greatest players in the game have all been mastery golfers. Bobby Jones spoke of Old Man par. And it would be hard to improve on Jack Nicklaus’ ideas on the subject:
I developed an ever sharpening awareness that one’s true opponent in every golf contest is never another player, or even the entire field, but always the course itself—a realization, I am now sure, that has been common to all great champions and, I believe, a major contributor to their success.
    A mastery outlook is often what allows promising young golfers to separate themselves from their peers. Consider Zach Johnson’s reflections on winning the 2007 Masters:
I didn’t look at the boards. I really didn’t know what was going on, which was a good thing. I was able to maintain my focus and maintain an even keel and, you know, I stuck to my guns. I played my own game. I knew if I just kept doing what I was doing, staying in the present and putting well, I had a chance. . . . I really felt like I just tried to maintain my focus, and maintain my game plan.

Mastery golfers like Zach Johnson commit to the internal, process-oriented goal of achieving their best possible level of play.

    © PA Photos
    By contrast, because ego-oriented golfers tend to experience a round of golf as a chance to show off, their confidence is held prisoner to the success that they experience doing so. For ego golfers who wish to—who
need
to—impress, any misstep is a potential embarrassment in front of the people whose approval they crave. Ego golfers are confident to the degree that they feel themselves successful in achieving their goal, whether that goal is shooting a certain score, beating a certain player, or impressing a certain client, coach, or observer.
    Imagine, however, the anxiety, stress, and tension that invariably chaperone the need to earn the approval or admiration of others. Imagine the discomfort and dread that must accompany the fear of failing to impress. Imagine the irritation that follows a missed shot or an exercise in poor judgment. Playing a round of golf with an ego mind-set requires handing other people the keys to our feelings and emotions. For an ego golfer, satisfaction and growth can never come from within. Instead, it must be purchased with the accolades of others.
    When their confidence begins to waver, ego golfers go into what’s called an ego-avoid mind-set. When they are in ego-avoid mode, ego golfers play to avoid failing or to avoid making mistakes. Rather than playing to achieve personal excellence, they become motivated not to make mistakes, not to get worse, not to be embarrassed. The inner self-talk that ego-avoid golfers use typically takes the form of desperate phrases such as “Don’t slice,” “Don’t choke,” “Don’t miss,” and “Don’t hit it into the water.” This mind-set of trying to avoid the negative is based on fear, which is the source of the physical tension that often produces the very results that it aims to prevent.
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    Working Toward Mastery Golf
    Here is an e-mail that I sent to my golfers to illustrate how mastery golf is actualized:
Just a reminder about the purpose of our Mondays:
    The longer we stay in this game, the more chance we have that the bad stuff can accumulate in our minds and either deflate our motivation or clutter our minds with unnecessary information. Thus, on Mondays we want to accomplish the following:
Dump any bad experiences, bad emotions, or memories that do us no good from the week before. This process is called clearing.
Learn one or two simple lessons that can help us improve and grow. These lessons can be technical, personal, or anything that goes into the overall mix that makes us healthy, energetic, mentally free golfers.
Summon a sense of gratitude for the process. We all function better (and freer) when we are grateful and appreciative of (rather than feeling entitled and presumptuous about) what we’re doing and those who assist us in that effort.
It is [calendar date], and I’d like you to reflect on the year so far. If you are carrying any negative emotional baggage, root it out and discard it. If you have learned any great, simple lessons so far, identify them, record them in your file, and be prepared to use them constructively.
    A lot of great golf courses lie in front of you. Each site and round of competition represents a ripe