Having now worked with thousands of golfers, their universal desire is to be in control of their golf ball. They want the ball to go exactly where they want it to go. The single reason these golfers attend our school is to learn what to do with the golf club to make the ball go exactly where they want.
While they will have game-improving instruction and lots of time for skill acquisition, there is another dimension to playing well. It’s sometimes referred to as the mental side of golf and has to do with the thoughts swirling in our heads as we approach a shot. Here are three aspects of the mental side that I know will improve your game immediately.
- Self Talk. Consider your response to a caddy that would criticize your shot, remind you that you are not good out of the sand, or draw your attention to all the places you don’t want to hit your ball. While that’s obviously objectionable, what’s not obvious is how we say many of these same things to ourselves during the round. Here is improvement No. 1—No Complaining about a shot you made or the recovery shot you have to make. Those thoughts and words are more injurious than a downhill braking putt or a buried lie in the bunker.
- Competing. Unlike in almost any other sport, your competitor cannot physically affect your performance. They cannot put your ball in a divot or deep rough nor can they interfere with your golf swing. Here is improvement No. 2—Your competitor is the golf course. The winner, the champion is the player who competes the best against par.
- Process. Know the difference between “process” and “product”. Your ball fight is the product. Your setup and swing is the process. We can’t control the ball flight. We can control the process. A highly defined process (grip, alignment, posture, and swing) is the single common denominator of every consistent golfer. Here is improvement No. 3—Establish a process. Make your goal to religiously perform the process for each shot—especially the difficult ones.
Bottom Line: With no change in your swing or your equipment, your game will improve with these three initiatives: No Complaining, Compete Against the Course, and Establish a Process.