THE AMATEUR GOLF AND THE MENTAL APPROACH
As any other thing in golf, the mental approach is a regiment. A different way of seeing situations and solutions when playing a round, furthermore, the mental approach of the game is one of the most important aspects to be mastered. A few years ago when I was playing in a Pro-Am tournament, I had the opportunity to watch a professional hitting the ball and scoring low. Eventually though, during the round I asked him what is the difference between the best players in the world and the regular professionals since he was hitting the ball in regulation in almost every green and scoring lots of birdies and pars on the course.
Specifically, I asked about Tiger Woods, “all the players can hit the ball as far and/or sink as many puts, so what does he have that makes him the number one among the best in the world?” The answer is kind of obvious after hearing but up to that point I didn’t understand the game enough to see how profound and simple was that truth, the answer was: “the mental game”. The pro told me: “yes, many golfers can hit as far as Tiger Woods and some of them even farther, but when it comes to the mental game, he is out of this world”. One may think, yes, Tiger Woods is almost not human when it comes to the mental game but let me tell you a secret: He is! He definitely feels the same fear as we do, the same uncertainty as we do, the same anger, but he knows how to control his inner feelings and use that fire in his favour. Not a lot have been published regarding golf and the mental approach to the game and this book is an attempt of overcoming the problem of finding material to study and get your game to next level.
Most golfers nowadays find themselves on the verge of not knowing what to do when their game starts going down and most of the times they get lost in the golf course just because of loosing control of the nerves and hence, their game suffers. It’s not a secret that the mental approach to this game is one of the most important aspects to be learned and also one of the most difficult to be applied. Once one looses control over themselves during a round, it’s very difficult to regain the balance over any aspect of the game even having practiced the mechanical aspect of the game many hours on the driving range. I’ve seen many good golfers escalating more and more to the “dark side” of a round when things start going wrong and their games going from a bad start to a disaster. In reality, one should be conscious that in golf, one should be aware that mistakes are going to happen and bad shots will be part of the round as per it’s not possible to play a perfect game.
For instance, this is a good opportunity to approach the word “perfect” so, what’s a perfect game? Basically, the perfect game would be having a bird in every par 4, eagles in all par 5s and since we are talking about perfect why not having aces in all par 3s?! Normally if one consider that most of the 18 holes golf courses will have 4 par 3 holes, 4 par 5 holes and 10 par 4 holes, a par 72 golf course would add up to a score of 50 (considering 4 aces, 4 eagles and 10 birdies), in other words; yet to be done ! The lowest score ever recorded in a golf game is 54 and hence this would be a more realist approach to what the perfect game means, because it has been achieved before, not by many golfers but it has been done.
It’s important to remember that golf is a very demanding game, for times it can be very frustrating and you may have more disappointments then anything else when playing a round but, most of us forget that the intention of the game is having fun with friends and enjoy the day. Some golfers tend to become serious about the game as their skills improve over the years and the more one can get a good score the more difficult it becomes to notice other things. For instance, a player who is in between a scratch golfer and a high handicapper, normally a player who scores between 80 and 85, has an increasing tendency of loosing control of their cool when hitting a bad shot. This is because the game starts becoming more intense and the room for mistakes gets smaller every time. Mainly because a player who shots in this range, still doesn’t have his game as solid as it can be and he knows that he can do better.
“Perhaps, today is the day that I will break 80”, this should cross the mind of this type of golfer every time he steps on the first tee. If this is your situation, believe me, you are not the only one! So, this book is written for the golfer who is trying to get the best of his game and shoot better scores, for the one who wants to break 80, 90 and it may even be helpful to the player who has a nearly professional game shooting in the mid or low 70’s.
The golfer needs to remind himself that what the pros do on the PGA tour games is a result of years of preparation and effort and even them will make mistakes and hit bad shots. Does that mean that we “mortals” should give up improving and just go to the game and accept whatever happens as normal because we don’t put in the same effort in time and money? Of course not! This is what makes this game so wonderful, everyone has a chance to have that great round that we will remember forever and be proud of it.
I decided to write this book based upon the difficulties we find as amateurs every day on the golf course and trying to describe what works and what doesn’t work to find a good solution to getting better scores and enjoy the game. The difference about this book and many others is that this is a book written by an Amateur Golfer to another amateur having in mind that we know what difficulties may arise during a round and that we as amateurs endure to find solutions that most of the time has to have a different approach as the ones done by professionals. What I mean is that, mainly, these are suggestions that can be more effective if one has time to spend on the driving range to work in their mechanics but if not, it doesn’t make much difference because the mental approach is basically about the confidence you have to execute the best shots you could, bringing them from the driving range to the course.
Solid mechanics is very important for the development of the game, on the other hand, most of the time, players forget that the mental approach has to be dealt with as well and you don’t need to be at the driving range for that, it’s a matter of understanding how your thinking process work and make the corrections needed to achieve what you want. I’m not saying here that you need to be a psychologist to do that, if you are bonus, but this is not what is needed to actually play a good game. Yes, I know... It’s easier said than done but, if you pay attention to certain things more than others and disregard some vicious self destruction processes, you will see that maybe this is not a so difficult thing to do.
Definitely, it will require practice but the more you apply the concepts and ideas presented in this book the more you will see that they will come easier every time, until the point where people will start noticing something different about your game: you have more focus, you are more calm and having more fun than usual and the result: Better scores. Attention is needed though, constant attention to your own process of thinking and some analytical way of changing any harmful behavior that might be getting on the way of your game.
Obviously, not all the suggestions in this book may apply to you but certainly you will identify yourself with a few of them and as you implement some of the work suggested here, you may find yourself playing a better game and enjoying more the challenge of always doing better when it comes to scoring and appreciating the opportunities of being in contact with the wonders of nature in the company of your friends. That’s what this game is all about; the chance to have fun, enjoy the day and push ourselves to the best we can be but, always keeping in mind one thing:
IT’S JUST A GAME!
Specifically, I asked about Tiger Woods, “all the players can hit the ball as far and/or sink as many puts, so what does he have that makes him the number one among the best in the world?” The answer is kind of obvious after hearing but up to that point I didn’t understand the game enough to see how profound and simple was that truth, the answer was: “the mental game”. The pro told me: “yes, many golfers can hit as far as Tiger Woods and some of them even farther, but when it comes to the mental game, he is out of this world”. One may think, yes, Tiger Woods is almost not human when it comes to the mental game but let me tell you a secret: He is! He definitely feels the same fear as we do, the same uncertainty as we do, the same anger, but he knows how to control his inner feelings and use that fire in his favour. Not a lot have been published regarding golf and the mental approach to the game and this book is an attempt of overcoming the problem of finding material to study and get your game to next level.
Most golfers nowadays find themselves on the verge of not knowing what to do when their game starts going down and most of the times they get lost in the golf course just because of loosing control of the nerves and hence, their game suffers. It’s not a secret that the mental approach to this game is one of the most important aspects to be learned and also one of the most difficult to be applied. Once one looses control over themselves during a round, it’s very difficult to regain the balance over any aspect of the game even having practiced the mechanical aspect of the game many hours on the driving range. I’ve seen many good golfers escalating more and more to the “dark side” of a round when things start going wrong and their games going from a bad start to a disaster. In reality, one should be conscious that in golf, one should be aware that mistakes are going to happen and bad shots will be part of the round as per it’s not possible to play a perfect game.
For instance, this is a good opportunity to approach the word “perfect” so, what’s a perfect game? Basically, the perfect game would be having a bird in every par 4, eagles in all par 5s and since we are talking about perfect why not having aces in all par 3s?! Normally if one consider that most of the 18 holes golf courses will have 4 par 3 holes, 4 par 5 holes and 10 par 4 holes, a par 72 golf course would add up to a score of 50 (considering 4 aces, 4 eagles and 10 birdies), in other words; yet to be done ! The lowest score ever recorded in a golf game is 54 and hence this would be a more realist approach to what the perfect game means, because it has been achieved before, not by many golfers but it has been done.
It’s important to remember that golf is a very demanding game, for times it can be very frustrating and you may have more disappointments then anything else when playing a round but, most of us forget that the intention of the game is having fun with friends and enjoy the day. Some golfers tend to become serious about the game as their skills improve over the years and the more one can get a good score the more difficult it becomes to notice other things. For instance, a player who is in between a scratch golfer and a high handicapper, normally a player who scores between 80 and 85, has an increasing tendency of loosing control of their cool when hitting a bad shot. This is because the game starts becoming more intense and the room for mistakes gets smaller every time. Mainly because a player who shots in this range, still doesn’t have his game as solid as it can be and he knows that he can do better.
“Perhaps, today is the day that I will break 80”, this should cross the mind of this type of golfer every time he steps on the first tee. If this is your situation, believe me, you are not the only one! So, this book is written for the golfer who is trying to get the best of his game and shoot better scores, for the one who wants to break 80, 90 and it may even be helpful to the player who has a nearly professional game shooting in the mid or low 70’s.
The golfer needs to remind himself that what the pros do on the PGA tour games is a result of years of preparation and effort and even them will make mistakes and hit bad shots. Does that mean that we “mortals” should give up improving and just go to the game and accept whatever happens as normal because we don’t put in the same effort in time and money? Of course not! This is what makes this game so wonderful, everyone has a chance to have that great round that we will remember forever and be proud of it.
I decided to write this book based upon the difficulties we find as amateurs every day on the golf course and trying to describe what works and what doesn’t work to find a good solution to getting better scores and enjoy the game. The difference about this book and many others is that this is a book written by an Amateur Golfer to another amateur having in mind that we know what difficulties may arise during a round and that we as amateurs endure to find solutions that most of the time has to have a different approach as the ones done by professionals. What I mean is that, mainly, these are suggestions that can be more effective if one has time to spend on the driving range to work in their mechanics but if not, it doesn’t make much difference because the mental approach is basically about the confidence you have to execute the best shots you could, bringing them from the driving range to the course.
Solid mechanics is very important for the development of the game, on the other hand, most of the time, players forget that the mental approach has to be dealt with as well and you don’t need to be at the driving range for that, it’s a matter of understanding how your thinking process work and make the corrections needed to achieve what you want. I’m not saying here that you need to be a psychologist to do that, if you are bonus, but this is not what is needed to actually play a good game. Yes, I know... It’s easier said than done but, if you pay attention to certain things more than others and disregard some vicious self destruction processes, you will see that maybe this is not a so difficult thing to do.
Definitely, it will require practice but the more you apply the concepts and ideas presented in this book the more you will see that they will come easier every time, until the point where people will start noticing something different about your game: you have more focus, you are more calm and having more fun than usual and the result: Better scores. Attention is needed though, constant attention to your own process of thinking and some analytical way of changing any harmful behavior that might be getting on the way of your game.
Obviously, not all the suggestions in this book may apply to you but certainly you will identify yourself with a few of them and as you implement some of the work suggested here, you may find yourself playing a better game and enjoying more the challenge of always doing better when it comes to scoring and appreciating the opportunities of being in contact with the wonders of nature in the company of your friends. That’s what this game is all about; the chance to have fun, enjoy the day and push ourselves to the best we can be but, always keeping in mind one thing:
IT’S JUST A GAME!