Golf Psychology Online

“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.

Golf Psychology

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.

Golf Psychology

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.

Golf Psychology