Golf Flow

have taken the test. Use this tool regularly, and keep tracking your progress. Your ultimate goal is to beat the scores shown in figure 18.1 !
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    Driving Range Versus Golf Course
    I have saved an important topic for the end of this section—practicing on the driving range versus practicing on the golf course. Ultimately, the honing of the precise skills that are required for excellent golf requires a balance of both. The reality is that there is no determining factor that is best for you! Golfers like Matt Kuchar, Chris DiMarco, and Phil Mickelson love to work on their game as they are playing matches with friends. Phil Mickelson always plays in a tournament the week before a major championship because it helps sharpen his competitive focus. Other golfers like Tiger Woods and Justin Rose also like to habituate their skills on the golf course, but they value intense, focused sessions on the range with their instructor Sean Foley to help myelinate the moves in their golf swings.
    Time is an issue for many people, and having enough time for both the range and the course is not always easy. When golfers can choose between spending time on the range or on the golf course, I always encourage them to default to the golf course. Being on the golf course habituates the skills that lead to flow. They are practicing concentration, preshot routines, and shaping shots to targets. Additionally, all facets of the game are being touched: driving, irons, pitches, short game, and putting.
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Chapter 19
Achieve a Mastery Mind-Set
    What are the first two questions you are typically asked after you complete a round of golf? Think about it for a moment. You are walking off a golf course or perhaps standing near the clubhouse when someone engages you in friendly conversation. I do this exercise with people who come through my golf academies, and I always get a chuckle when, moments after they’ve guessed the two questions, they appear on the screen in front of them. So what are they? What two questions are you typically asked after you play golf?
    Almost certainly, the first question is “How did you play?” And, more than likely, the second is “What did you shoot?”
    Do you see the potential problem here? Both questions are clearly ego oriented. They equate playing well with scoring well. Having read this far into the book you know that a good round of golf cannot be evaluated on score alone. In a game of endless growth many barometers of improvement are available. Also, as other athletes have observed, golfers experience scoring periods and growing periods. As such, golf requires an approach that is both creative and accurately reflective of the nature of the game itself.
    Perhaps even more troubling, the prevalence of these questions and the mind-set that spawns them can rub off on a player. Players routinely hear these questions not only from golfers who are nearby as they finish but also from friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances. So it’s not surprising that the longer people play golf, the less they tend to focus on learning and enjoyment and the more they tend to focus on the social or ego-building aspect of the game.
    Let’s say, for instance, that you begin playing for love of the game (as most of us do) at age 10. You get wrapped up in the sheer joy of continual challenge, discovery, growth, and improvement. You find golf inherently and intrinsically fun. But those around you can’t resist inquiring, “What did you shoot?” So, if you average 75 rounds of golf a year up to the age of 40, you will have had to answer that question 2,250 times, and that’s if only one person asks about your score or performance after each round.
    In a sense, the entire social network surrounding the game encourages, if not conditions, us to be ego golfers. And in doing so, it undermines our ability to immerse ourselves in the process of playing and improving.
    Conversely, imagine how good you could become if you were encouraged and conditioned to be a mastery golfer? This approach is precisely what I take with many of my clients. We see dramatic improvement when they free their minds from the paralyzing pressures that accompany playing to impress others with their short-term performance and shift to a mind-set of playing as a means of learning and improving.

Improving Your Skills
    Although I might not be there to coach you personally, you can create your own buffer zone against ego-oriented thinking after each round.