Golf, Spiritually

"The whole secret to mastering the game of golf -- and this applies to the beginner as well as the pro -- is to cultivate a mental approach to the game that will enable you to shrug off the bad days, keep patient and know in your heart that sooner or later you will be back on top."- Arnold Palmer

In today’s blog entry, we will be discussing the importance to the mental side of golf as a component to the physical side.

Everyone has a friend or playing mate that takes the game too seriously. Like c’mon Rick, we’re at the Links at Victoria not Torrey Pines, let’s take it easy out here. But no, for Rick and many people like him, he’s a mental midget—one bad shot is all it takes to derail a great round.

At one point, I was also a mental midget and to some extent I still am, but I’ve come to realize that I have my best rounds when I’m not keeping score. Maybe I don’t shoot the lowest or even hit very many good shots, but I don’t let my score dictate the way I feel about a round. I worked with many Division one golfers over the summer and one of the things they said was that “good coaches are the ones that ask how a shot felt, rather than how a shot ended up.”

That really stuck with me because it’s crazy how much we get in our own heads about our golf game. We need to take a step back and figure out what parts of golf are the things that matter for us.

How can we improve our mental game?

One of the recurring tips from my research, is to develop a pre-shot routine. This routine helps us develop a sense of normalcy in our golf game that helps us remain calm when things go wrong.

My pre-shot routine is only one practice swing. However, it changes for me if I’m feeling tired or if I know I have a lot of holes left to play. Especially during the hot summers, I find myself conserving energy by giving a half swing to get the motion down, and then proceeding to hit my shot.

Does this hurt my form? Probably, but when it’s 95 degrees and humid, I’m sure you can understand my need to shorten up the round as much as possible.

Another common tip for improving the mental side of your golf game was to use positive self-talk and mindfulness.

Speaking something into existence works positively and negatively.

“I always mess this shot up” is never a good mind set to stand over the ball with. For my friend Rick, he has a severe problem with over-water carries. Anytime there is water in the nearby vicinity, you can bet your bottom dollar that he’s hitting it.

It might be a simple problem, however it’s a mountain for Rick to climb.

Another common theme I found was the idea of setting realistic goals. These goals are going to be different for every golfer.

These can focus on all aspects of your game. For me, I kept track of my putts while I was struggling with putting. It’d be my goal to average 36 putts per round (2-putt every hole). This helped me immensely when trying to figure out my strokes gained in certain aspects of my game.

A broader goal that someone could set is to break 90. An easy way to look at breaking 90, is to average a bogey on every hole. Something you can do is add 1 stroke to par for every hole on the course.

Therefore:

Par 3s Par 4

Par 4s Par 5

Par 5s Par 6

This really helped me because I realized I had an extra shot to get on the green in a lot of situations (in my case it also really highlighted that I needed to work on putting).

Golf is a challenging game. I mean, what other sport are you purely competing against yourself. Can you imagine basketball, but everyone is just playing on their own with no defense? Every NBA player would put up Wilt Chamberlin type numbers and we’d be having a new GOAT debate every year.

“The game of golf is 90% mental and 10% physical”- Jack Nicklaus

And that’s coming from the most winningest golf competitor ever who has 18 major golf championships.

Next week, we’ll be talking about Jack’s dominance and what makes a major, a major.

-GBS-