Golf Flow

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    Mastery golf requires handling both good and poor outcomes a certain way. I told Justin, “The game is testing whether you really mean what you say. It is testing whether you’ve actually learned your lessons and the degree to which you’ve internalized them.”
    And then something remarkable happened. For the first time since he was a teenager, Justin reacted to a poor finish with the mind-set of a mastery golfer rather than an ego golfer. Rather than being embarrassed, angry, or frustrated by a poor result, he approached the following week at the Memorial energized, excited, and eager to play with a mastery mind-set. Justin explained why he was so composed:
I’ve been thinking. The reality is, I just want to know how good I can become at this game. I want an answer to that question: How good can I become? That question isn’t going to be answered in one week, or even two. So I am not going to get flustered over one week. It’s a long process.
    Going into the week, Justin employed some key principles. We took a page right out of Nicklaus’ book of wisdom in emphasizing to him, “You won’t win a golf tournament on Thursdays. But you can lose it on Thursdays. Therefore, the first three holes are not about score. They are about establishing the rhythm of your routine with a conservative strategy.” By employing that strategy for the first two days, Justin was able to put himself into contention going into the weekend, a situation that he hadn’t historically handled very well. In fact, he had a history of building nice leads in tournaments only to lose those leads on the weekend.
    True to form, Justin shot a lackluster (by Tour standards) 70 on Saturday. He dropped several spots on the leaderboard and went into Sunday trailing by 4 shots. Rather than wallow in disappointment, Justin focused on the fact that he was only 4 shots off the lead and that his game was in good shape. He recommitted to his process and adopted the strategies of mastery golf. This commitment to process over performance outcomes, this shift from ego to mastery, is part of what sets up golfers for flow.

Great Expectations
    To understand the sense of urgency Justin felt at the Memorial, you have to understand his past. When Justin Rose came on to the PGA Tour in 2001, massive expectations had already been placed on him. In 1998 at the age of 17, he almost won the British Open, finishing fourth. In the years that followed, he went through a significant slump, missing 21 cuts in a row at one point. He eventually recovered his game but spent the better part of nine years on the PGA Tour as an also-ran, coming close several times but never closing the deal.
    The pressure of extremely high expectations can be suffocating, and the more time that passes without a win, the more pressure that golfers can feel, both chronically and acutely. During competition, these expectations can leap to the forefront of the brain and interrupt the flow of their thinking just as they’re trying to execute a shot. This phenomenon is not unique to tour players, but the bigger the stakes are, the heavier the weight is of the expectations that golfers feel as pressure and nerves.
    In the face of all that pressure, golfers frequently try to force the win or the result that they want. This approach usually fails miserably. If you try to force an outcome, you get the opposite result. If you try to force a low score, you often score higher. If you try to force a win, it is unlikely to happen. Strategic golfers know that you play the percentages by playing the appropriate shot.
    As it happens for many golfers, Justin’s instinct told him to go into Sunday and to be aggressive right from the get-go. The details vary from golfer to golfer, but the philosophy is a cowboy version of golf that goes something like this: “Fire at every flag, go for par fives in two, be aggressive on every putt, and throw all strategy, patience, and ball placement to the wind.”
    I asked Justin to do the opposite and let patience and discipline define the round by using the first few holes to establish the rhythm of his routine. I advised him to play the golf course rather than the leaderboard. “Do not chase the leader,” I urged. “Play your own game relative to what the golf course offers. Once you know how you’re hitting the ball after three holes, you can adjust how aggressive you want to be.” This advice is golf’s version of cyclists’ drafting—hang around