Golf Flow

professional athletes’ career paths yields interesting findings regarding skill, ability, and motivation. Perhaps most remarkable is the frequency with which professional athletes run into, and must deal with, unplanned, unpredictable, unforeseen circumstances. Injuries, slumps, marriage and relationship issues, personal crises, family chaos, and illnesses often disrupt pro athletes’ lives and impede their improvement.
    Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the life path of people from birth to death and has the aim of detecting patterns and changes that happen throughout the course of life. Developmental psychologists investigate such things as the unique features of adolescent behavior, the shaping of individual identity, the factors at work in the midlife crisis, the ways in which happiness and depression change over the life course, and even changes in memory and cognition with age. Developmental psychology clearly has applications for the world of sport. Athletes face the same challenges that the general population faces, and then some. For instance, after playing for many years, every athlete invariably faces the question, “How long do I want to play? Is the sacrifice worth it? What would I do next in life?” Fortunately, empirical and historical evidence have yielded techniques and strategies that can assist athletes at all levels in dealing with the challenges that they face.
    By the time he’d turned 39 years old in May 2010, Stuart Appleby had tasted tragedy and experienced deeper levels of unforeseen adversity than most people will have to experience in their lifetime. The crushing force of blindsiding experiences like the sudden death of a loved one can inflict deep wounds and impair the ability to function, but they can also be transformational events that strengthen people and propel them forward. In Stuart’s case, the latter happened.
    For the better part of a decade, from 1997 to 2007, Stuart Appleby was one of the most consistent, competitive golfers on the planet. During that stretch he qualified for all 40 majors that were played. He won eight times on the PGA Tour, including three consecutive wins at the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii. He played on five consecutive Presidents Cup teams, and was a staple inside the world rankings top 20. By any objective standard, Stuart Appleby had a great decade. Given the challenges that he faced before and during that period, his performance was outstanding.
    Developmental psychology would say that, when attempting to make sense of a slumping or skyrocketing golfer, putting the performance into context against the backdrop of previous patterns of behavior is always important. Thus, we need to look not only at what is happening with a golfer at any given moment but also at his or her recent experiences within the larger scope of an entire career. Being familiar with the person’s history is important because when something changes in a golfer, a causal element, a reason, is always present. Doctors use the same problem-solving process when they explore a patient’s medical history.

A Golfer’s Two Best Friends
    The game of golf tends to test two fundamental psychological properties of a golfer: confidence and motivation. I can say that every golfer I have ever spoken with has faced the danger of losing his or her confidence or motivation, and commonly both at the same time because confidence and motivation travel hand in hand. As the game beats golfers down, they are typically less motivated to practice and invest time in getting better. This lack of practice results in worse play, which chips away at their confidence. The lower confidence negatively affects performance, which in turn reduces their motivation to practice, and the cycle continues until something eventually gives way or breaks the cycle. An important thing to know is this: On the eternal timeline, every golfer goes through this process.
    For whatever reason, by the time 2008 rolled around, Stuart Appleby couldn’t quite see the game as clearly as he had when he was younger. Although he had a good year, internally he was feeling uninspired. What followed from this motivational lull was the worst season in his professional career in 2009.
    You may have noticed that two strong themes are inherent in this book. The first theme is that golf is a mirror in that it gives golfers a clear reflection of their strengths and weaknesses. The second theme is