Golf Flow

beyond. The ability to generate flow states is invariably tied to the overall quality of a person’s life, and this ability can be cultivated.
    I have found that people often think about flow in the same way that they think about love or luck—as something that happens to them rather than something they do. But just as with love and luck, psychologists have found that people can control many of the factors that improve the opportunity to find flow. Because the factors that determine flow states are things over which people have a measure of control, flow need not be an experience that merely happens, something to wait and hope for. People can learn to identify its characteristics so that they can go with it effectively, nurture it, and get the best out of it when it begins to appear. They can help generate flow!
    Aristotle once observed, “We are what we do every day. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” Flow is a habit that emerges from a way of thinking about experiences and the meaning that we assign to those experiences. And people who habitually generate flow in other areas of their lives are more likely to generate flow on the golf course.
    Now we need to explain in more detail this state of optimal functioning called flow. Flow has been a buzzword for decades, yet it is either poorly understood or, more frequently, misunderstood—even by athletes who know what a struggle it can be to generate flow! But everyone knows it when they’re in it. You often hear phrases such as “in the zone,” “in the moment,” and “dialed in” to describe the experience. These descriptions are accurate, but they don’t tell the whole story.
    I’ve spent more than a decade trying to uncover and elucidate the mysteries of flow in golf. This quest took me down unpredictable paths, led me to ask unanticipated questions, and ultimately revealed insights that delighted me and that I hope will also delight you as you learn about them by reading this book.
    One fascinating but powerful finding that I uncovered was that golfers usually describe their flow states using seemingly contradictory, or paradoxical, expressions. They report experiencing time moving slowly but the actual event seeming to end rather quickly, gaining control by giving up control, making an effortless effort, and being aware of everything around them while being completely focused on their task!
    These paradoxes both define and explain the flow experience in golf, and understanding them is essential to engaging the frame of mind needed to energize flow. Because the main purpose of this book is to improve your golf game by teaching you how to get into flow more frequently, I’ll take you through each of the paradoxes. Understanding what flow is and how it works will prepare you to attain it more easily and frequently.

Chapter 1
Time
    You are alone on the golf course late in the day. The sun is beginning to duck behind tall trees, the shadows are growing long across the fairways and greens, the air is becoming more still and a little cooler, and you are walking from one shot to the next with the easygoing, casual air of a person without a care in the world. There is calmness in your mind and vagueness about your awareness. You are paying attention to your game but giving it no more thought than the attention that you’re paying to a breeze, a bird that flies by, or a squirrel that trots across your path. Without much thought, you gaze down the fairway and hit the shot that you were picturing. For the next shot, without a yardage book or any technical thoughts, you aim and hit the shot toward your target. It comes off with perfection, leaving you with a feeling of mild satisfaction as you put the club back in the bag and continue your shuffle down the fairway, toward the green and the forthcoming 8-footer you have for birdie. You hit the putt, and off the putter face it feels different in your hands. Pure. Soft. Happy. Without looking, you immediately know that the putt was good, that it will be going in the hole.
    As the round goes on, you hit one good shot after another, and you react with softness as if you are buffered from anything bad happening to you. You move with smooth, rhythmic movements. If the ball doesn’t go where you expect it to, you don’t complain or get angry. You simply put your club back in your bag, walk down the fairway taking in the totality of the experience, and hit your next shot. Your chipping is crisp.