Golf Flow

hole today is exactly the same. There’s no change. I think that’s probably one of the biggest keys. That’s what Nicklaus was good at. You could time him. Every routine he had was exactly the same.
    Whether they talk about it publicly or not, every coach and every athlete at the elite level knows the importance of establishing preperformance routines. Zach Johnson puts it this way:
I have little things that I tell myself about my round, about my day. Really, nothing changes from week to week. It could be a Thursday at a random tournament; it could be a Sunday obviously at Augusta. I say the same things to myself, just how to approach each shot, how to approach each hole.

Improving Your Skills
    The development of routines is an extremely effective means of manipulating the environment, and it is entirely within your control. Routines not only lock you into a pattern of behavior that is resilient to all kinds of situational stimuli but also protect you from thinking too much. The more that we can turn over the details of any task to automatism, the freer we are to concentrate on the task itself.
    Golfers tend to get quick and tight when they are under the gun, or they tend to camp out over a shot longer than usual. Either way, the situation tends to get them out of the normal, comfortable rhythm at which they play their best.
    The purpose of a preshot routine is to automate the process and help you achieve your best rhythm. To develop an effective routine, you must do the same thing every single time. Furthermore, you must do the same thing at the same rhythm every time. Automating your actions and rhythm increases your ability to get into flow.
    Routine is the essence of excellence in competitive domains. Great golf routines have three parts:
select shot,
make fearless swings at precise targets, and
accept results.
    It’s just like a wash cycle at home: wash, rinse, repeat.
    A great preshot routine begins with standing behind the ball and seeing the shot that you want to hit. Some golfers like to visualize the shot, whereas others, including Tiger Woods, would rather let their bodies feel the shot that they want to hit. Of utmost importance is to be perfectly clear about the shot that you want to hit. At this stage of the routine, you want to be decisive before going to the next phase of the routine. Going into a shot being indecisive about the shot that you want to hit creates mental clutter and often prevents you from hitting a good shot. If you can’t get that clarity, then exercise the discipline to begin the routine over. You must be decisive about the shot you want to hit!
    When you are clear about the exact shot you want to play, have a trigger that gets you ready to address the ball. Experiment to determine what type of trigger works best for you. Chad Campbell likes to lift his left sleeve. Camilo Villegas lets the club slide down his hands as he approaches the ball.
    After you are aligned, you should be on autopilot from there on out. Give the same number of looks, the same number of waggles, and make a committed, fearless swing to the target. After the shot is over, accept the outcome and prepare for the most important shot in any round of golf, the next one.
    No golfer—professional, amateur, or recreational—can hope to master the game without having worked hard to develop an effective preshot routine. And after you have developed that routine, you must work hard to master and maintain the self-discipline required to implement that routine before every shot.
    Your preperformance routine is important because it buffers you from the fluctuation and randomness of changing situations. More to the aims of this book, however, a good routine also fosters the quiet mind that is essential to generating flow.

Chapter 22
Respond Positively to Negativity
    Playing consistently good golf is difficult, and golfers cannot control some features of the game. You may find this statement obvious, but it becomes more profound and meaningful as you progress through the game of golf and become a better player.
    Rather than brush past that statement, I would like you to take a moment to digest it and let it sink in. And after you’ve done that, consider that even Tiger Woods, who for a time had mastered the game at a level never previously seen, wrote, “Sometimes the game seems so difficult you wonder whether the effort is worth it” (Woods 2001, pp. 8–9). And finally consider that Nicklaus began a book about