Golf Psychology Online

I was recently asked to review a new product called GolfMission by Mike Hall. The pack duly arrived in the post and I have to say I am impressed, this is an attractive and high quality product at a low price that will put fun into focus on the golf course. Unlike some on course games that really detract from what we all love about golf, GolfMission actually enhances enjoyment of a round, whilst proving a valuable training aid to improvement and providing feedback as to areas to work on.

GolfMission will also appeal to corporate golf organisers as the product can be fully branded to provide your guests with a lasting reminder of your day, a reminder that will be further enhanced as their game continues to improve. GolfMission is suitable for players of all levels and definately gets the golfpsychologyonline seal of approval.

For full product details please click on the link above.

My thanks to Richard Monette for sending me his book, The Gift: A Story About Finding a Better Score in Golf and Life and asking that I review it for you here. Were there such a word as “unputdownable” it would surely apply to The Gift. Although a novel The Gift offers insights to the inner game at every turn as we follow businessman Tom Morrison on his quest to discover whether the golfing ghosts of his Grandfather’s clubhouse stories really exist and what part they played in the extraordinary life of Irving Pirsig Jr.

As the story unfolds Richard beautifully weaves the questions and answers that not only supply the narrative between Morrison and Pirsig but apply to us all in golf and in life. Pirsig Jr recounts his journey from non-golfer to championship winner by way of often surreal encounters and events providing much entertainment as well as enlightenment.

A great read, I cannot recommend highly enough.

Richard Monette lives with his wife and two children in Banff, Alberta. To read more on Richard and his work as a business strategist, corporate performance coach and sports psychology consultant visit his website at www.innerwarrior.com.

If you only buy one golf book this year may I recommend that you make it Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing by Josh Karp. Josh takes you on his almost 2 year odyssey to find his inner self and game, by way of Bagger Vance, Shivas Irons, Zen Buddhism and any other spiritualist method that takes his fancy. In his often hilarious quest to discover whether finding inner peace will lower his scores, or will lowering his scores help him find inner peace Josh meets a myriad of golf coaches and fellow golf junkies and has produced a book that could do for the alternative golf teachers of the US what Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence did for the restaurants of that beautiful area.

The fly leaf of the book tells us “Josh Karp first played golf in the 6th grade and went on to become one of the worst players on some very bad high school and college golf teams” this is the type of self effacing headline that will always catch my interest and is a theme he continues with throughout, fighting his inner golf demons in pursuit of his goals. As a sports psychologist and Mind Factor golf coach I have a veritable library on the subject of sports psychology but I could not honestly say that any of these books is suitable for reading in one go, Straight Down the Middle: , is and indeed I did.

Josh is a journalist and author living in Glencoe Illinois with his wife and 4 sons, his first book, ‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever,’ won best biography at the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

From a very young age we are constantly asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Titles have come to define a person in today’s society, how often when people meet for the first time will the question “what do you do for a living?” be asked. By defining oneself by what one does rather than who one is a person makes themselves emotionally vulnerable to changes in their situation be it losing their job or losing their form. When a person allows one element of their life to define them as a person they have made their world far too small a place for them to be able to live in.

It is imperative in the world of sport that a person realises that their sporting self is a part of their core self and not their self in entirety. It is almost a certainty that at some point in a career a sportsman or woman will suffer a slump in form, if they believe themselves to be judged by what they do the path back to form will be so much harder than for those who understand a core self.

As an exercise I ask a player who has come to believe that their performance represents them in totality imagine they are about to race Usane Bolt over 100 metres, ask him if he expects to be able to beat the fastest man in the world over this distance, of course the answer will be no. I ask him to see himself crossing the finish line and imagine how he will feel about himself for coming a distant second in this race. Will his worth as a person have diminished as a result of this defeat, is Usane Bolt a better person for having beaten him, of course not, all that has been proven is that one person is a faster runner than the other. I then have the player imagine he is competing against Bolt in his chosen sporting discipline, if for example he is a professional golfer have him imagine he is playing one of his best ever rounds and beats Bolt by a big margin, I again ask, has his worth as a human being been improved or has Bolt’s been weakened, again no.

Staying with the golfing example, I ask the player if he is as good a golfer as Tiger Woods, unlikely, but I also ask him, especially in light of Tiger’s recent much publicised indiscretions, if he can think of anything that would show Tiger to be a better person than he.

The aim of these exercises is to have the player understand the three key qualities that he needs to develop to strengthen his core self, these three qualities are; Appreciation, Acceptance and Value. To be aware of what is without judgement or endorsement, to find delight in even the most simple of events and to be able to value that that is worthwhile. In learning these qualities the individual should be able to better perceive and value their sport as merely being part of the whole.

Byron Nelson said it helped to still his nerves to put his game into some sort of perspective. He maintained the thought that no matter what happened on the golf course he could return home and his wife would be glad to see him, and even if, for some reason or other she wasn’t, his dog would definitely still love him. A player must be helped to understand that it is absolutely fine to be disappointed with a poor performance but that the feeling must not be all encompassing and certainly has no effect on their value as a person.

It is highly unlikely that a player will have no other interest than their own sport, be it other sports, family, arts entertainment of any sort or maybe as a collector of something, players should be helped to understand that these interests or hobbies play just as vital a role in defining them as their sport, indeed outside interests are a positive help in that they provide a down time from the intense pressure of constant high performance demands. As unlikely as it is that a coach should come across a player with no other interest than their sport, in the event that they do it is imperative that they work with them to develop an interest or two and help them to see the value of it to them and their sport, and also to remind them that sport at the top level does not last a lifetime and that there needs to be life after sport.

The world will not be affected by how straight someone hits a golf ball nor the score they mark down at the end of a round, it will not go into meltdown because someone foul throws the javelin or puts an attempted drop goal wide. These are purely facts of events that may or may not be recorded somewhere but will in no way change the overall scheme of things. This cannot be an unduly difficult concept for anyone to understand and once they do they will be in a position of freedom to lose or win, but knowing either way they have given of their best and in doing so will only have enhanced their core self.

And finally, whilst my articles are written from my stance as a sports coach, this is an area that covers every part of a person’s life, if you believe your job, social standing, relationship or any other single thing defines you as a person you are in danger and should address the situation.

Continuing our series of articles on making your practice harder than the game we now take a look at getting up and down from around the green to save par, or maybe better. In the world of tour golf this is known as scrambling and is a vital part of every golfers game, in any given season the best figures for hitting greens in regulation on both the PGA and European tours will be between 75% and 80% with the average in the high 60’s, this means that for most players on over a quarter of the holes they play they will need to chip, pitch and putt well to keep a score going. The short game is the least physically demanding part of golf and yet how many players do you hear bemoaning the fact that they can’t chip, or putt or just as often both, this is a ridiculous mind set to get into that leads to all sorts of duffs, jabs and thins as the players total lack of confidence in this area prevents him from ever making any decent sort of strike at the ball. But, how often do you see players’ duffing chip shots around the putting green, the answer, apart from complete novices, is almost never. Standing at the putting greens edge with a pile of balls repeating the same shot over and over again is really no way to practice if you wish to improve this aspect of your game, practice needs to have a consequence and be as close to or harder than the real thing. Karl Morris has given me a great training drill to help you in this area, it takes up very little time but pays big dividends fast and is called “Par 18”.

Par 18 involves playing 9 par 2 holes around the practice green, depending on your skill level choose 9 spots around the green from which you will attempt to get up and down in 2, vary the degree of difficulty, maybe 3 easy, 3 medium and 3 tough starting positions. As with the driving drill you only play this game once, unless, you complete the drill in 20 shots or less then you go again but this time using 2 balls, taking your worst score at each of the 9 holes if you manage to get round in 20 or less you go again with 3 balls and so on, the best I’ve heard of anybody getting to is 5 balls, but that was a young Pro who has a fantastic short game. By the way, the Pro who achieved this said that when he was putting his 4th ball for a 2 at the 9th hole to get to go again with 5 balls every part of him was shaking, how good a drill is this if it can produce that sort of pressure when he really is only practicing after all and how useful will it have been when he faces a pressure putt in competition.

I recommend that you play this game no more than 3 or 4 times a week but it is most important that you keep a record of your scores and work out your weekly average, you should see a steady improvement but if you don’t the exercise is still valuable as it obviously means that your technique is flawed and needs to be worked on with your Pro.

Probably the most outstanding statistic in any sport is that of the great Australian batting legend Sir Don Bradman. “The Don” averaged 99.94 runs for his test career, the next closest is the South African Graeme Pollock with 60.97, and the highest for any current player is Sachin Tendulkar with 55.56. What, you may ask, has any of this to do with golf, apart from the fact that Bradman enjoyed his golf immensely playing off a handicap of 1 at The Royal Adelaide Golf Club. Well the answer is the way Bradman practiced, at a young age the cricket mad Bradman invented a game in the yard behind his parents house that involved him throwing a golf ball at the brick part of an old water tank a few yards away and then trying to hit the rebound, not with a cricket bat but with a stump. What Bradman had done was made his practice much harder than the real game, he said that no bowler could create the speed and variation which the golf ball did bouncing of the brickwork at him at all angles and then having to play his shots, not with a full width bat but just a skinny stump, how big the ball must have seemed to Bradman and how wide his bat when it came to playing for real.

So why, I ask do golfers, in the main, practice in a way that is so much easier than the actual game. Is standing on the range aiming the driver down what is in effect an unmissable fairway really going to improve your skill level, well sure you’re maybe grooving your swing but how is this going to help when you are faced with a tee shot to a narrow fairway with out of bounds on the left and water on the right, the answer is not a great deal because you haven’t been practising for a tight shot, you’ve had all the room in the world to aim at.

Take a leaf out of Don Bradman’s book and make your practice more demanding than the game. Next time you get the driver out on the range first get a couple of umbrellas or suitable stakes and place them 25yards apart around the distance you normally drive, these markers are now your fairway. You now have 10 drives with the aim to get a minimum of 7 between the markers, if you fail, take a note of where your misses were as this is invaluable information to take to your Pro when working on the technical side of your game, and that’s it for the day, you only get one chance to play and as soon as you fail go on to practising other areas, this way you are practising with a consequence and putting an element of pressure into the drill. If you succeed, you now draw the markers 5yards closer together and start again trying to score 7 out of 10 between the markers, if successful reduce your target area again, to 15yards. It’s up to you how much you want to keep reducing the width but if successful at 15yards normally you should go back to 25 again and just keep through the drill going until you fail to make 7 out of 10. Just imagine when you get to 15yards for the first time, you have 6 balls in the target area and only one ball left, now you are really making a tight shot under pressure – just like the real thing.

“Putting – a game within a game, might justly be said to be the most important part of golf”

Bobby Jones.

Over one third of your shots will be with a putter.

Sergio Garcia led the 2009 European Tour ‘Greens in Regulation’ statistics with 79.8%, the average was about 68%, the leading US tour pro was John Senden at 70.89% with the average about 65%. For amateurs these numbers will be much lower so you need to be able to use your short game to make par several times a round.

Most tour pros strike the ball pretty much as good as one another so where is the difference between the best and the rest? – THE SHORT GAME.

Build your game from the green backwards.

Is there a right and wrong way to make a putting stroke, I’m not sure there is. Some set ups and strokes may give a better chance than others but whatever gets it in the hole is right.

30 years ago the average handicap for men was around 16 and 29 for women, during this time there has been a continuous march of technology in the game; graphite shafts, titanium heads, cavity back improvement irons, soft feel putters, wedges that grip like Velcro, the list is endless, not forgetting modern balls which fly ever and ever further. So ask yourself, why with all this game improvement equipment, have the average handicaps remained exactly the same.

I believe that nowhere on the course do we get in our own way as much as when chipping and putting. Why is this? Give a kid a putter, a ball and a target to aim at and in no time they’re hitting the target, or close to, more often than not. They have no scar tissue from previous experience, they don’t self analyse to destruction, they just get on with the task in hand – and enjoy it.

Do you enjoy putting? If you don’t you’re already up against the 8 ball, if you don’t walk onto the green thinking “I can make this putt” you probably wont. With very few exceptions every putt is makeable, of course you won’t make them all, nobody does, but at least believe in the possibility.

How many things go through your mind when faced with a simple uphill 3 footer?
- Am I square, is my putter head square, don’t lift my head, have I still got the line, if I miss this I’ll probably lose the hole, I missed this putt last month, I need to make the fairway off the next tee, last week I cut it into the trees – what are you thinking of, it’s a straightforward 3 foot uphill put, GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY.
David Duval says that one of the most challenging putts he ever had was on the last green of the 1999 Bob Hope Classic, not only was it for an eagle and to win the tournament it was also to shoot a 59, the first ever sub 60 score on tour, so quite a lot riding on it. He says that the temptations were to try and be too precise and to focus on the outcome, he resisted both and quietened his mind by thinking purely about preparation and routine and hit the putt like the thousands of others before it, needless to say he middled it from 7 feet.
Putting doesn’t require athleticism or physicality but it does require confidence. We all miss putts but it is fatal to dwell on them, far better to maintain a library in your mind of putts you have made, this is not deluding yourself these are putts you have actually made, and when you stop and think about it you’ve made plenty.
The more importance you place on the outcome of a putt the more pressure you place on yourself, the more tense you become, the more you get in your own way. Learn to putt like it doesn’t matter, this doesn’t mean not giving the putt your full attention it means don’t focus on what the outcome means just on the task itself. Like David Duval get yourself a routine that you use every time, the more used you get to following the same procedure the more automatic it becomes and the more comfortable you’ll feel over every putt.
Of course it is also important to practice this vital aspect of the game, the more putts you hole on the practice green the greater your confidence on the course. But, beware of hitting putts aimlessly, Jack Nicklaus said “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head”. Without doubt the most informative and to many minds radical thinking I have read on putting is in Golf: The Mind Factor . by Darren Clarke and Dr Karl Morris.

So little of the time during a round of golf is actually spent playing the game, somewhere around 90% of the time is what the Mind Factor calls “In-Between” time, the walk between shots, waiting on the tee, waiting for the green to clear and so on. No-one can possibly concentrate solidly for 4-5 hours and expect to perform at their best, it is therefore important to be able to switch off between shots, it must then follow that it is also important to be able to switch back on again when it is time to play.

In the majority of sports a player will be provided with their start/time to play signal by an outside agency such as a referee’s whistle, a starter’s pistol or the lights above the starting grid in a motor race, golf has none of these signals and it is therefore vital that a player creates their own. It is also important that they should create a stop signal, the point at which they can go back to the in-between mode. The pre-shot routine is a pivotal part of the Mind Factor “during” section of the framework quadrant, the sector when you are actually playing.

Equally destructive to trying to concentrate for the whole round is the tendency of many amateurs to not really concentrate at all, something the majority of them would deny if it were put to them. They are frequently to be seen going through some sort of ritualised movement which is no more than a copy cat procedure of what they have seen the pros do on television but they are doing it without any real thought, or knowledge as to its purpose. I would go as far as to say that many amateurs concentrate far more on a shot after they have hit it than before, the poor result being the trigger that has them thinking for the first time about what they have just done – TOO LATE.

A pre-shot routine is used, in part, for reducing the amount of conscious thinking whilst actually playing a shot; it is a practical tool for quietening the mind in a real life situation and allowing a player to perform in a more automatic sub-conscious manner. A great thing about a pre-shot routine is that it’s all for free, there’s no exact rules as to how you go about it and no cost in shot terms for how you execute it, although there may be if a player does not adhere to their routine or has an incomplete one.
A pre-shot routine is a consistent and systematic procedure, a series of thoughts, checkpoints, movements and details that the golfer executes prior to hitting a shot. It helps in eliminating extraneous thoughts and assists in the desired state of “being in the present” Each player’s routine will be individual to them but its tempo should be one that suits their personality and mode of play, if the player is a fast paced individual a long drawn out routine is unlikely to suit them, and likewise a slower more methodical person would not benefit from a fast paced routine. But whatever routine is used it should be practised and ingrained so that once a player starts their routine they have initiated a Stimulus – Response scenario that has triggered their concentration mode.

A trigger is all important to beginning the routine and is the equivalent of the referee’s whistle to the golfer, an obvious trigger that a player can use is the sound the velco on their glove makes as they open it to put it on. Once the player has triggered their concentration they can bring their attention to the shot to be played asking themselves questions about how they are looking to execute it what result they are seeking, in effect, “what does a good shot look like here”. Having decided what a good shot looks like, maybe from their good shot library, the player is now ready to make their practice (dress rehearsal) swing, the full movement of what they now intend to do.

All of this conscious thinking has taken place before crossing the bridge over the commitment, or play, line. The routine has put the player into a state where they have done all of the necessary thinking to play the shot and there is nothing more to do but trust in their preparation and cross the play line with a quiet mind which is in the present and from there trust their swing and just let the shot go.

None of this will guarantee a good shot every time, there are too many elements involved that can influence the shot, from the player themselves to the general conditions, but , whatever the result the player knows that they prepared themselves correctly and did everything they could to produce the desired result. If the shot played is not what was wanted there is a danger that a player will immediately return to thinking about their technique, the course is really not the place to do this and, assuming that the routine has been correctly built, practised and ingrained, the player must learn to trust it so that whatever the result of a shot the next one is prepared for in exactly the same way.

Finally, in the same way that a player has their trigger signal to initiate the routine there also needs to be a stop signal, a conscious movement or action that tells your brain that that particular task is finished and whatever its result it is over. This is the signal that tells the player they are returning to in-between mode; it can be the action of returning the club to the bag, the sound it makes hitting the bottom of the bag or other clubs, maybe something on their equipment that they look at. The signal I use is that on returning my club to the bag I pull it towards me before letting go as if it were the handbrake on my car, we have come to a stop, that part of the journey is over and we’re in park, but, the car is ready to go again as soon as I next release the brake.

A frequently heard commentators comment is that of a player needing” only to stay in the present”, possibly an obvious observation, but, certainly one of the most difficult states to achieve. The brain is such a fast operating super-computer that unconscious thoughts seem to fly unbidden from the right side of the brain to the left with alarming speed and clarity. Among the most useful tools that the sports psychologist or mind coach can give to a player are those that help clear the mind and allow them to stay in the present.

One of the most effective methods is that of “squeezing the sponge”. Squeezing the sponge is the title of a breathing exercise whereby the art of concentrated breathing will calm and relax a player. People generally believe deep breathing to have it’s emphasis on inhaling, squeezing the sponge is in fact the exact opposite, by fully breathing out, exhaling, to the point where the stomach can be felt moving backwards towards the spine eventually a point will be reached where a reflex action takes place and the body is filled with clean fresh oxygen as the player is forced to inhale, in scientific terms, an involuntary action. As a player breathes out they are also expelling any bad feelings, while the new breath provides new energy and centres the mind and body. By concentrating on breathing in this way a player has been forced to stay in the present.

The sensation caused in the abdomen during the full exhale in the breathing exercise is also the area of the body concerned with the concept of centering. Centering is a method used widely in the field of martial arts and is an excellent tool for helping players stay in the present. In his book “Chen-Hsin – The Principles of Effortless Power” Peter Ralston states

“There are aspects of this field of study that are sometimes emphasized or made pivotal to the rest. Centering is one of those. Indeed, it would be possible to devise an ENTIRE art founded totally and solely upon this one point. Many warrior trainings, esoteric practices and metaphysical techniques revolve around this one principle of centering.

In my life I have spent much time concentrating on that spot and have practiced a great deal moving from there. It is my experience that this produces TREMENDOUS results.

The centre region is concentrated in a place within the abdomen. You should feel this place to be large enough to be powerful and yet not so large that you cannot maintain a feeling of its density.

Performing and functional activity while concentrating on that spot will automatically increase the POWER, SKILL and EFFECTIVENESS of that activity.”

It is important that players practise the art of centering to the point where they can automatically find their centre in the pressure situation of tournaments. To help this and reinforce the benefits of these tools have a player on the range hitting a dozen balls and tell them to think of nothing but technique, to in effect be hitting balls with their head, but still with a specific target. Have them then hit a second dozen having first squeezed the sponge and then following the centering technique as they cross the line, discuss the different feelings with them. This exercise has a tremendous added benefit in that when a player is fully and correctly centred they will also be perfectly balanced

Another tried and tested method to help players stay in the present is that of “clear keys”, clear keys are tools that can be used to distract the conscious mind and allow the subconscious to perform unhindered. An exercise to show how this works is to have your player stand about 12-15 feet away from you, he holding one golf ball, you holding two. Initially using only one ball each start tossing the balls to each other simultaneously and continuously but the only thing either of you concentrate on is saying the word ‘now’ when you perceive that the ball approaching you has reached the apex of its flight. You will find that you are both effortlessly throwing and catching the balls in the manner of seasoned circus act. After a short period, introduce the third ball into the exercise, you will find that you continue to “juggle” the balls without difficulty. The word “now” is your clear key and you have quietened the conscious mind.

Clear keys whilst playing usually take the form of some sort of mantra, back-hit, being one of the most common, humming is another often used key but any distraction can produce the desired result.

The above exercises not only help a player stay in the present but also assist in keeping negative thoughts at bay. Negative thoughts will at some time affect just about every player.

“My creative mind is my greatest weapon. It is a kind of inner vision that enables me to see things that others might not, like a certain way to play a shot. The psychology of golf can be complicated as it does entail mental toughness, self confidence, conquering inner demons, instant recall of past successes and being able to purge failures.”

Tiger Woods.

From this statement we can see that even Tiger knows the importance of as he says “being able to purge failures”. Not only do past failings come back to haunt a player but merely looking at the shot in front of them can engender such thoughts such as, I mustn’t hook/pull/slice this shot, I don’t want to short side myself. It is all but impossible to prevent these thoughts rising up from the sub-conscious, it is how they are dealt with that matters.

In the 2003 French Open, Phil Golding came to the 72nd hole knowing that he required a birdie to claim his maiden tour victory at the age of 40 and after a record 16 visits to the tour school. In each of the first 3 rounds he had pulled his tee shot towards the water on the right, it was impossible for him not to recall this, instead of buckling under this pressure Phil accepted that this was an incontrovertible fact but had no bearing on where he would hit the shot today, he went instead to his “shot library”, saw the shot he wanted to play and knew he had played thousands of times before, picked his target, in this case a window on the hotel that stands above the 18th hole and let go, the result was a perfect drive.

A “shot library” is like a DVD in the players brain where he can instantly recall previously having played the type of shot required perfectly, Tiger Woods is said to have a library in his head of 100 shots. Encourage your player to build their own shot library and work with them to achieve this.

Negative thoughts can also be said to be as a result of a player belonging to the “Forecast Club”. So much of the world today is media driven and the media thrives on forecasts from financial markets to the result of every sporting event imaginable. Whilst in many areas, particularly business, it is very necessary that an element of forecasting takes place, there is no benefit at all to a golfer during play. To help a player understand this concept introduce them to the “Let’s See What Happens Club”, explain to them the basic rules of this club:

1. You accept the outcome of any day on the golf course has not been pre-determined or decided.
2. You accept what happened yesterday has no bearing on today, good or bad.
3. You accept the past does not have to influence the future.
4. You put together a plan for what you are going to do today.

By accepting these conditions it becomes impossible for the player to be disappointed and enter the “Loop of Insanity”. You have created a position of NEUTRAL thinking where things, “Just Are” and by accepting this everything naturally becomes POSSIBLE.

Most golfers tend to practice in a way that is much easier than the game itself, the range is fine for working on, or honing your swing and for cementing confidence in your swing but you can also create practice pressure situations with a game Dr Karl Morris calls the “Recall Game.
The Recall Game requires that you play regularly with a partner a 9-hole game that really trains your golfing brain and toughens you up mentally. You need to pick a time when your course is relatively quiet. With a partner you aim to play 9 holes and you both have six ‘recall shots’, so that when your opponent hits a great shot into the flag to four feet, you smile at him and ask him to play the shot again. He then has to take the shot that is furthest from the pin i.e. the worst shot to count as his score.

You can imagine how it feels when you have just holed a great 10 footer for a birdie and you get the call to ‘play it again’.

What does happen though with this game is when you bring off the shot for a second time your level of confidence and self- belief begin to grow and grow. The fact that you are creating a pressure that is even tougher than the real game has a real sharpening effect on your overall performance.

As you can guess though the best part of this practice game is the fun that you can have winding each other up.