For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Life Lessons
Use your natural autopilot to play your best golf
Jan 3rd
“Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course…the space between your ears.”
Bobby Jones
Ah, the mental game of golf. Have you ever noticed that some of your best rounds occur when you can just get out of your own way?
Tiger Humanized
Dec 2nd
It’s always sad when our heroes let us down.
It’s also a reminder that they are human and make mistakes. When someone is so good, so talented at what they do, that everything they touch turns to gold, it becomes difficult to see them as full human beings with flaws and conflicting emotions. I’m sure we can all think of heroes who have let us down. Andre Agassi recently confessed that he was abusing meth while competing on the professionally on the tennis circuit.
There are probably too many examples to name, and the truth is that almost everyone of our heroes would let us down if we dig deep enough. Together, between our heroes and us the fans, we create an image that is impossible to live up to. This does not excuse his behavior nor should it explain it away. It’s just a reality that we have deep connections to our heroes and they will eventually let us down.
Applying Fearless Golf
Nov 13th
How difficult is it to play Fearless Golf?
In ordinary situations, on your favorite course, on your favorite hole, with your favorite club, and with ideal weather it’s probably not that hard. But what happens when you are in a tournament, or there is some money riding on a putt, or you’re on the 16th hole needing pars in that last two holes to beat your best score. Is it easy then to play fearless golf? Probably not.
I think playing fearless golf requires awareness. You must become aware of when the fear mechanism is triggered and act accordingly. Too often we get caught up in the moment and instead of taking a moment to gather ourselves we push through, for whatever reasons we have. Usually we end up with a bad result, a hooked or sliced shot, a shot OB or into the hazard, or a stubbed chip, or a weak or overly strong putt.
I set out this morning to play Fearless Golf in difficult conditions on my home course (temperature in the upper 40s, wind blowing around 30 MPH, with a threat of rain on the way). You would think that in these conditions it would be difficult to play fearless golf. What’s the wind going to do to my shots? How much shorter will the ball fly in the cold? What are the greens going to be like? Will my hands be too cold to get any real feel putting or chipping?
I noticed the fear response came up a number of times. I pictured a drive being taken by a slice wind way right OB. At that point I had a choice. What do I do about it? I didn’t want to just hit then because I had a really ugly picture in my head. I told my self “You’re playing fearless golf, you’ve hit this drive great before lots of times.” I would then picture my ball flight as I wanted, relaxed by body, and especially my hands, and swung with confidence. I hit it down the middle in ideal position.
Fearless Golf
Nov 12th
I got a new book today, by Dr. Gio Valiante and Mike Stachura.
One chapter into I would considering recommending it. When I look at the differences when I am able to pull off great shots and when I’m not there does seem to be an element of fear in it. I think a lot of pressure comes from fear; fear of losing, fear of looking foolish, fear of slicing, fear of hooking, fear of hitting it fat, etc.
Do you ever notice when you are practicing that effortlessly a lot of shots come off great. Your chips are closer to the hole with several going in, your putts are firm, on line and track right in, your drives are long and straight? Then you get on the course and that ease is gone…
I think a big reason is that there are now consequences, penalty shots, lost balls (OB or in hazards), difficult lies etc. All of these things that can go wrong creep into your thoughts unless you are determined to keep a strong mindset. But like Dr. Valiante says, we actually get the fear response before we can even consciously recognize it. If we don’t do anything about it when we do recognize it (hopefully before we swing), then it’s too late.
The next time I go out to play, I’m going to make a point of approaching every shot with confidence and certainty that I can pull it off. Obviously it is unlikely that I’ll pull off every shot, but going into it confident that I can will make a big difference.
Tiger Woods Rulebook to Success
Nov 11th
A great article (here is the orginal article) about becoming successful.
The Tiger Woods Rulebook To Being A Huge Success
Written on 6/25/2008 by Alex Shalman, creator of the Practical Personal Development blog.
If you believe in evolution, you know there wasn’t some superstar golfer caveman from which Tiger Woods evolved centuries later. His talent and subsequent success were not a genetic lottery win — let’s take a look at 12 factors that we can adapt from this legendarygolfer.
