STEPPING ON THE FIRST TEE BLOCK
ACCEPTANCE
Bad shot, hum?! Really, what difference does it make on the whole scheme of things? Are you a different person because of it? Are you not ever playing the game again because of a bad shot? If the answers to these questions are obvious, then why would you let that bad shot ruin your day? Well, basically we as human beings don’t like failures. We were born with this amount of huge responsibilities in our hands of being successful in all aspects of our lives, being great professionals, great husbands (or wives), great students and therefore we have a hard time to accept failure of any kind. It seems that we forget when playing golf is that a bad shot is in fact not a failure but just part of the process to get a good score.
So many times we’ve seem players turn a bad shot around and get a great shot on the next attempt and make the bad one disappear as if it had never taken place at all. By questioning your skills on a bad shot before you finish the hole is not a good idea, this shacks your confidence on the next shot and most likely on the next ones until the last one of that hole.
The best way to accept whatever results your shots can bring and do the best you can on the next ones is always staying in the moment, the bad shot is gone and now it’s time to hit a good one that fits your strategy and puts you in a good standing to approach the green. That’s it, that’s all you should have in your mind, the next shot and not the last one! It’s important to remember that accepting the results of your shots is not neglecting the deficiency of your skills but indeed using the tools you now have to control the other part of the game, the mental approach. It’s important to remain calm all the time during a round and let the “to do” analysis of the game for after the game.
This will keep your mind focused on the job it needs to do and your performance will improve as you go along the field, if don’t let the bad shots bother you, you will not create more than you can handle to deal with and the game will become a lot more enjoyable and simple.